Every other year, I listen to all of the music in my collection. Often, I discover new things about music I'm familiar with or learn new things about songs I'm not as familiar with. This is where I'll be documenting that.
Showing posts with label Mel Tormé. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mel Tormé. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Mel Tormé's "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling"
I just wrote about this in "The Four Winds and the Seven Seas," but Mel Tormé's "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling" also features Wagner's wedding march from Lohengrin (popularly known as "Here Comes the Bride") on - I think - celesta. Here, when the "Say, mister parson, stand by" verse is repeated, it starts halfway through the first line, and variations on it continue through the next line: "'Cause I've got a feelin' I'm fallin'." It's not directly stated in the lyrics, but that musical quotation indicates that the singer/speaker is thinking about marriage.
Mel Tormé's "The Four Winds and the Seven Seas"
I just started listening to the last disc in a four-disc set of Mel Tormé titled Jazz and Velvet. I noticed that after the lines "We vowed and said someday we'd wed / In the church in the vale" in "The Four Winds and the Seven Seas," the first four notes of the "Here Comes the Bride" wedding march (from Wagner's Lohengrin) are played on what I think is a celesta.
Additionally, there's an-other hint of wedding accoutrements with the vale/veil homophone. It actually took a bit of thinking before I sussed out the line. It's "vale" as in "valley."
Additionally, there's an-other hint of wedding accoutrements with the vale/veil homophone. It actually took a bit of thinking before I sussed out the line. It's "vale" as in "valley."
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Mel Tormé's "A Foggy Day"
I'm still making my way through my ten-CD Gershwin set. To-day, it's the penultimate disc, subtitled "Gershwin in Jazz." I might have noticed something about Mel Tormé's "A Foggy Day," although I'm not quite sure about it.
At about 0:15, there's a woman's voice saying, "Cockles and mussels." I think this is a reference to the folk song "Molly Malone," the chorus of which also involves "cockles and mussels." Each verse of "Molly Malone" ends with some variation of "Through streets broad and narrow / Cryin', 'Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh,'" and the chorus is comprised of the same words:
At about 0:15, there's a woman's voice saying, "Cockles and mussels." I think this is a reference to the folk song "Molly Malone," the chorus of which also involves "cockles and mussels." Each verse of "Molly Malone" ends with some variation of "Through streets broad and narrow / Cryin', 'Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh,'" and the chorus is comprised of the same words:
'Alive, alive, oh
'Alive, alive, oh'
Cryin’, 'Cockles and mussels
'Alive, alive oh'
Leaving it at that, it seems to make sense, but the first line of "A Foggy Day" is "A foggy day in London town" (my emphasis), where "Molly Malone" is set in Ireland. Since it's a folk song, there are different versions, but the two I know (one by the Countdown Singers and one by Pete Seeger) both start with something like "In Dublin's fair city / Where the girls are so pretty / I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone." Were it not for that discrepancy of setting, I'd be more confident about this reference.
Labels:
A Foggy Day,
George Gershwin,
Gershwin,
Mel Tormé,
Molly Malone
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