It was a little smug, a little jaded, a little insensitive. I caught myself a few seconds after I said it, don't know how much offense was taken. He would have been well within his rights to put me in my place, but he didn't.
"More than the greatest love the world has known,
This is the love I give to you alone"
It was a recent Sunday afternoon at the restaurant, and a 70-ish fellow came up and asked me to play "More".
I said "Let me guess--it's your 50th anniversary, and 'More' was your wedding song back in 1964."
"49th anniversary" he replied, adding that he wanted it for his wife, who was at a table just 40 feet away.
Now trying to recover from my original snotty response, I offered hearty congratulations to the anniversary couple, and did my damnedest to play a nice rendition of the tune.
Fortunately it's a beautifully crafted song, and a solo pianoman has plenty to work with. There's a great and irresistible 5-note counter-melody at one point, moving simultaneously to the main melody's "more than you'll ever know, my arms long to hold you so...", and it's impossible to exclude it from any arrangement, whether piano, band, or 60-piece orchestra.
"More" - from a forgotten movie called Mondo Caine, was one of the defining songs of summer 1963, with two different versions being played everywhere.
The instrumental version was a curiosity, featuring a weird instrument called an "ondioline" -- a very high-pitched forerunner of the synthesizer, sounded something like a cheesy electric organ, but better. America had never heard this instrument prior to this recording.
Concurrently there was a vocal version by Vic Dana, also a hit. "More" quickly became required learning for anyone in a wedding band. It was easy and satisfying to play, and wafted through catering halls all over America. It became the most popular "first song" for newlyweds in the mid-1960s, unaffected by Beatlemania and other huge musical trends of the time.
I know a couple who married in 1974, using "More" as their first song. By that time it was falling out of favor. I was working my first wedding receptions at the time, and the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" and Chicago's "Colour My World" were the tunes to know. I expect that these two tunes will be frequently requested a few years from now as anniversary remembrances.
But at the present time in my little corner of the musical universe, "More" has risen to prominence again. Anniversary prominence that is -- thus my ill-considered first response to Mr. and Mrs. 49th Anniversary.
I took note of them finishing their meal and getting up to depart. I then played the song a second time -- this time adding a vocal, with a few nearby friends joining in.
Hopefully it relieved me of my guilt for having been so smug earlier on. If I was the writer of "More", I'd be awfully proud of its place in American culture, and its deep meaning to so many people throughout the years. Hopefully I'll see that couple next year on their 50th.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Christmas Piano Man
Another "Most Wonderful Time of the Year" has come and gone, and once again I banged out my extensive Christmas repertoire at the restaurant. So much has been already said about the use and misuse of this music, but my own perspective is fairly unique.
Absorbing Christmas tunes came quite natural to me when I was an Irish Catholic kid, as I managed a "dual" secular/religious enjoyment of the whole thing. After decades of attitude adjustment perhaps I've settled into a stable philosophy, loving some tunes and hating others, with the great majority of them falling between the two extremes. So here is a list of my Most Notable Christmas Tunes, that I know all too well on piano, have "relationships" with, and are food (whether candy canes or fruitcake) for thought.
WHITE CHRISTMAS -- One of the easiest tunes to sing. A simple lilting melody, with a total of only 54 words, with pretty-sounding things like "treetops glisten", "sleighbells in the snow", "dreaming", and "may your days be merry and bright". It only takes about a minute to play it, half that time if it's an impatient jazz band. In the words of the author (Irving Berlin) it "passes the whistle test"
Honorable mention must go to the The Drifters' wacky R&B arrangement of White Christmas from 1955, which gets airplay every year, with a marvelous lead vocal from Clyde McPhatter. Of all the Drifters' hit songs, their first one just happened to be a Christmas song.
CHIPMUNK SONG -- the 1950s also produced this silly thing, which is even shorter than White Christmas, clocking in at about 35 seconds. The "sped-up voices'' idea was quite novel in 1957, so people were happy to sit through the remaining two minutes of the record, with the comedy and a second run-through of the song. The song is fading into obscurity, and deservedly so. I managed to avoid the tune completely this year.
JINGLE BELL ROCK and ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE -- Ah, perfection. Owen Bradley, record producer and architect of the "Countrypolitan" sound that attracted NON-country listeners in the late 50s.
He was a "Nashville" guy, not a producer of "Rock" records per se, but ironically it was he who was responsible for these two timeless Christmas "Rock" tunes. It was actually rockabilly, the historians would say, tasty and irresistible. Listen for Hank Garland's great guitar fills on both records.
OK OK the lead vocalists on each record -- Bobby Helms and Brenda Lee -- were perfect too.
Not to play down the songwriters!! Separate from the hit records, the both tunes are joyful and totally sing-able around any piano, as the years have proven to this pianoman. These two tunes will be sung 5000 years from now.
THE CHRISTMAS SONG -- once again -- Ah, perfection. That is, the original 1946 Nat King Cole version, utterly warm and Christmasy, a little touch of soft romantic jazz, just makes you want to sit at the fireplace with your most favorite person.
Other versions have flooded the airwaves in recent years. Overblown production and VERY overblown vocal performances, that don't hold a candle to the original.
This Mel Torme composition is rich in melody and chord changes, works beautifully as solo piano or just about any other instumentation. Once again -- they'll be playing this 5000 years from now.
GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER -- no 5000 years for this meanspirited novelty tune, which after 30 years now has gotten annoying to almost everyone.
MARSHMALLOW WORLD -- It's so hard to picture Dino walking around in the snow and enjoying it. He was such a tanned, Vegas-y kinda guy, but he makes the tune work. Comparing snow to marshmallows is odd too. I just learned it two years ago, and now I have to wait another eleven months to try it again.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS (WAR IS OVER) -- This tune has slowly grown on me over the years, a rather unconventional "Christmas" song which barely mentions Christmas. What John Lennon does mention, however, is a World At Peace. The Bible speaks of "Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men" on the occasion of the Nativity---so this song, much more than most others, seems to be getting to the original heart of the matter.
The tune has an anthemic quality, evoking images of many, many people, the world over, chanting "War Is Over If You Want It". It's not about family, it's not about community, it's about all humanity. It's absurdly idealistic, demonstrates why some people thought Lennon was a saint.
Which he wasn't of course. But he had a dreamy idealistic side which is captured perfectly on this record. And it caught on. Not too easy to make a piano arrangement of this, but I'll keep trying.
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS -- like The Christmas Song, a beautiful song, which is being "modernized/stylized" by far too many "soulful" and "jazzy" singers. OK OK, maybe I'm being an old fuddy-duddy about this -- the Taking Too Much Liberties Debate can go on forever.
LINUS AND LUCY -- Schroeder sits at his little piano playing this jazzy little ditty, and the "Peanuts" cartoon kids all dance around. We've been seeing it since 1968. The title makes little sense because the wrong characters are named, and there is no lyric. I can get away with playing this one in late November, a subtle announcement that the poinsettias will arrive soon.
SLEIGH RIDE -- year after year, the original version keeps getting played -- an orchestral piece that runs a full five minutes, perfectly recorded over fifty years ago by the Boston Pops. Images of Sometime Long Ago when people actually moved around on a One-Horse Open Sleigh.
Lyrics were added to the piece a few years after the original composition, and the Johnny Mathis version seems to get as much airplay as the instrumental. There are many, many lyrics whizzing by like a toboggan, and Johnny made a noble effort. But Johnny did not drop in on my gig this year, so I settled for playing that terrific instrumental.
MERRY CHRISTMAS DARLING -- absolutely my favorite, as a gorgeous piano piece....but even more so when I hear the heavenly Karen Carpenter version. Not about religion, not about winter, not about "good cheer", simply about love and missing someone at Christmas. Karen's brother Richard wrote the tune. Little did he know....
O HOLY NIGHT -- potentially the most moving of the purely religious songs. It's a challenging vocal piece, and only a great singer should try it. With luck, such a singer will show up at the restaurant, and it will be late in the evening when things have quieted down, and everyone will be listening in rapt attention, and it will be transcendent, and you just might go to church on Christmas.
However it's not remarkable as a piano solo, and I'd just as soon not play it that way. There are a few recorded versions making the rounds each year, and the Josh Grobin version is stunning.
THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR -- This tune seems to capture the "happy and magic" feeling that makes you want to immerse yourself in decorating, shopping, partying, and other Wonderful American Christmas stuff. Andy Williams had a wholesome family Christmas Special on TV for many many years, so I think his voice is perfect for this tune.
As it turns out, Christmas at the Irish Coffee Pub has indeed been a most wonderful time for me the past few years, a warm and fuzzy family restaurant, with a piano player who feels right at home there. May your days be merry and bright, all year 'round.
Absorbing Christmas tunes came quite natural to me when I was an Irish Catholic kid, as I managed a "dual" secular/religious enjoyment of the whole thing. After decades of attitude adjustment perhaps I've settled into a stable philosophy, loving some tunes and hating others, with the great majority of them falling between the two extremes. So here is a list of my Most Notable Christmas Tunes, that I know all too well on piano, have "relationships" with, and are food (whether candy canes or fruitcake) for thought.
WHITE CHRISTMAS -- One of the easiest tunes to sing. A simple lilting melody, with a total of only 54 words, with pretty-sounding things like "treetops glisten", "sleighbells in the snow", "dreaming", and "may your days be merry and bright". It only takes about a minute to play it, half that time if it's an impatient jazz band. In the words of the author (Irving Berlin) it "passes the whistle test"
Honorable mention must go to the The Drifters' wacky R&B arrangement of White Christmas from 1955, which gets airplay every year, with a marvelous lead vocal from Clyde McPhatter. Of all the Drifters' hit songs, their first one just happened to be a Christmas song.
CHIPMUNK SONG -- the 1950s also produced this silly thing, which is even shorter than White Christmas, clocking in at about 35 seconds. The "sped-up voices'' idea was quite novel in 1957, so people were happy to sit through the remaining two minutes of the record, with the comedy and a second run-through of the song. The song is fading into obscurity, and deservedly so. I managed to avoid the tune completely this year.
JINGLE BELL ROCK and ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE -- Ah, perfection. Owen Bradley, record producer and architect of the "Countrypolitan" sound that attracted NON-country listeners in the late 50s.
He was a "Nashville" guy, not a producer of "Rock" records per se, but ironically it was he who was responsible for these two timeless Christmas "Rock" tunes. It was actually rockabilly, the historians would say, tasty and irresistible. Listen for Hank Garland's great guitar fills on both records.
OK OK the lead vocalists on each record -- Bobby Helms and Brenda Lee -- were perfect too.
Not to play down the songwriters!! Separate from the hit records, the both tunes are joyful and totally sing-able around any piano, as the years have proven to this pianoman. These two tunes will be sung 5000 years from now.
THE CHRISTMAS SONG -- once again -- Ah, perfection. That is, the original 1946 Nat King Cole version, utterly warm and Christmasy, a little touch of soft romantic jazz, just makes you want to sit at the fireplace with your most favorite person.
Other versions have flooded the airwaves in recent years. Overblown production and VERY overblown vocal performances, that don't hold a candle to the original.
This Mel Torme composition is rich in melody and chord changes, works beautifully as solo piano or just about any other instumentation. Once again -- they'll be playing this 5000 years from now.
GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER -- no 5000 years for this meanspirited novelty tune, which after 30 years now has gotten annoying to almost everyone.
MARSHMALLOW WORLD -- It's so hard to picture Dino walking around in the snow and enjoying it. He was such a tanned, Vegas-y kinda guy, but he makes the tune work. Comparing snow to marshmallows is odd too. I just learned it two years ago, and now I have to wait another eleven months to try it again.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS (WAR IS OVER) -- This tune has slowly grown on me over the years, a rather unconventional "Christmas" song which barely mentions Christmas. What John Lennon does mention, however, is a World At Peace. The Bible speaks of "Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men" on the occasion of the Nativity---so this song, much more than most others, seems to be getting to the original heart of the matter.
The tune has an anthemic quality, evoking images of many, many people, the world over, chanting "War Is Over If You Want It". It's not about family, it's not about community, it's about all humanity. It's absurdly idealistic, demonstrates why some people thought Lennon was a saint.
Which he wasn't of course. But he had a dreamy idealistic side which is captured perfectly on this record. And it caught on. Not too easy to make a piano arrangement of this, but I'll keep trying.
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS -- like The Christmas Song, a beautiful song, which is being "modernized/stylized" by far too many "soulful" and "jazzy" singers. OK OK, maybe I'm being an old fuddy-duddy about this -- the Taking Too Much Liberties Debate can go on forever.
LINUS AND LUCY -- Schroeder sits at his little piano playing this jazzy little ditty, and the "Peanuts" cartoon kids all dance around. We've been seeing it since 1968. The title makes little sense because the wrong characters are named, and there is no lyric. I can get away with playing this one in late November, a subtle announcement that the poinsettias will arrive soon.
SLEIGH RIDE -- year after year, the original version keeps getting played -- an orchestral piece that runs a full five minutes, perfectly recorded over fifty years ago by the Boston Pops. Images of Sometime Long Ago when people actually moved around on a One-Horse Open Sleigh.
Lyrics were added to the piece a few years after the original composition, and the Johnny Mathis version seems to get as much airplay as the instrumental. There are many, many lyrics whizzing by like a toboggan, and Johnny made a noble effort. But Johnny did not drop in on my gig this year, so I settled for playing that terrific instrumental.
MERRY CHRISTMAS DARLING -- absolutely my favorite, as a gorgeous piano piece....but even more so when I hear the heavenly Karen Carpenter version. Not about religion, not about winter, not about "good cheer", simply about love and missing someone at Christmas. Karen's brother Richard wrote the tune. Little did he know....
O HOLY NIGHT -- potentially the most moving of the purely religious songs. It's a challenging vocal piece, and only a great singer should try it. With luck, such a singer will show up at the restaurant, and it will be late in the evening when things have quieted down, and everyone will be listening in rapt attention, and it will be transcendent, and you just might go to church on Christmas.
However it's not remarkable as a piano solo, and I'd just as soon not play it that way. There are a few recorded versions making the rounds each year, and the Josh Grobin version is stunning.
THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR -- This tune seems to capture the "happy and magic" feeling that makes you want to immerse yourself in decorating, shopping, partying, and other Wonderful American Christmas stuff. Andy Williams had a wholesome family Christmas Special on TV for many many years, so I think his voice is perfect for this tune.
As it turns out, Christmas at the Irish Coffee Pub has indeed been a most wonderful time for me the past few years, a warm and fuzzy family restaurant, with a piano player who feels right at home there. May your days be merry and bright, all year 'round.
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