A Song Roundup: Moon River

Posted: November 29, 2020 in 1960s, 1980s, 1990s, 2010s, 2020s, Aretha Franklin, Audrey Hepburn, Bobby Darin, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Brook Benton, Cover Songs, Henry Mancini, Mary Black, Melody Gardot, R.E.M., Rumer, Song Roundup
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Is there a better song than “Moon River”? Perhaps. Yet there’s no denying that it’s one of the greatest songs of all time. Composed by Henry Mancini and featuring lyrics by Johnny Mercer, it features prominently in the 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, where it’s first heard as an instrumental during the classic opening sequence…

…and, later, when Audrey Hepburn sings it while sitting on her apartment’s window ledge. Initially, Paramount executives considered dubbing a trained singer’s voice and, after an early screening, then cutting the scene altogether. The former was taken care of Mancini, who specifically composed something within Hepburn’s range; and Hepburn herself took care of the second threat, insisting it remain. (Good thing it remained: It was honored with an Oscar for the Best Original Song at the next year’s Academy Awards.) 

In October 1961, a re-recorded orchestral version was released as a single alongside the album Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Music From the Motion Picture. The 45 peaked at No. 11 on the charts that December, while the LP went to No. 1. Hepburn’s winsome rendition, however, could only be heard in the movie until after she passed in 1993, when Music from the Films of Audrey Hepburn was released on CD. (Mancini is quoted as saying, “‘Moon River’ was written for her. No one else has ever understood it so completely. There have been more than a thousand versions of ‘Moon River,’ but hers is unquestionably the greatest.”)

Jerry Butler’s rendition was released concurrently with Mancini’s orchestral rendition, and also reached No. 11. 

Over in the U.K., Danny Williams – aka Britain’s Johnny Mathis – scored a No. 1 hit with the tune in 1961. (His was an interesting life. Born in 1942 South Africa, he won a talent contest at age 14, joined the Golden City Dixies and, when that act visited London in 1959, was signed to EMI.) 

Back in the U.S., meanwhile, a whole host of singers began covering the song – most notably Andy Williams, who covered it on his 1962 Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes album. He also sang it at the 34th Academy Awards and, then, adopted it as his theme song…but, oddly, never released it as a single. 

One of those “whole host of singers”: Ben E. King, who infused a “Spanish Harlem”-like vibe into his version, an album track on his 1962 Ben E. King Sings for Soulful Lovers LP.  

Bobby Darin recorded it in early 1963, though it sat in the vaults until 1999, when it was included on the Unreleased Capitol Sides compilation (and again, a few years later, on the five-star Legendary Bobby Darin CD).

Here are a few – of many – memorable renditions from the 1960s:

I’ll jump past many other worthwhile renditions to 1987 for one of my favorite versions, which hails from the Irish singer Mary Black’s 1987 album, By the Time It Gets Dark. At the time, it wasn’t included on the LP or cassette, just the CD. 

CD bonus tracks became all the rage by the early 1990s, of course, as music companies pulled out the stops while striving to get fans to re-purchase albums for the second (or third) time – LP/cassette —> first CD release —> CD reissue. In 1992, I.R.S. did just that with R.E.M.’s early albums, including their classic sophomore set from 1984, Reckoning. It featured five bonus tracks, including their take on “Moon River.”  

Michael Stipe & Co, though initially classified as “college rock,” weren’t the only alternative-minded rockers to cover it. In 1996, the Afghan Whigs released a cool cover of it as a bonus track of their “Going to Town” CD single. 

I’ll skip ahead to the next decade, when former and future Belly frontwoman Tanya Donelly shared her sweet version of “Moon River” on the 2010 Sing Me to Sleep: Indie Lullabies compilation.

The next year, the retro-minded Puppini Sisters – whose close harmonies are a thing of wonder – sang it on their Hollywood album.  

The British singer-songwriter Rumer, who pretty much makes every song she sings hers, included a version of it on her 2014 B-Sides & Rarities set. 

Frank Ocean surprised fans in February 2018 with his rendition of the song…

And, finally, here’s the rendition that sent me on this journey: Melody Gardot’s. Her luminous version can be found on this year’s Sunset in the Blue.

Remember November, 2020 Edition: Album(s) of the Year

Posted: November 28, 2020 in 2020, 2020s, Album of the Year, Bruce Springsteen, Courtney Marie Andrews, Malin Pettersen, Melody Gardot, Natalie Duncan, Stone Foundation, Zach Phillips
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’Twas a strange, saddening and maddening year, 2020. The world writ large flitted like a moth above a flame, its wings increasingly singed and brittle and unable to provide the lift needed to escape a fiery end. Too many people fell ill. Too many perished. Too many lost jobs. In decades to come, historians will undoubtedly study the whys and wherefores of the pandemic, including how it impacted almost every aspect of daily life. One hopes they’ll focus on more than just the death toll, politics and economic fallout, however, and celebrate the stuck-at-home troubadours – many facing hardship themselves – who bucked our spirits.

The biggest change within my realm arrived in mid-March, when – like many others – I began working from home, which it looks like I’ll be doing through next spring. Prior, much of my music listening occurred in the car, stereo blasting while I rode the 15/501 between Chapel Hill and Durham. Now? Aside from once-a-week grocery runs and the occasional doctor visit, it’s here in the den. Early on, I often pulled up the SiriusXM app on my phone and listened to E Street Radio for hours on end – or just played favorite albums. Part of that nostalgic indulgence hailed from the pre-pandemic life, to be honest, as last winter found me musing on the days that used to be even more than usual. From January through June, for example, I penned 17 entries in my Essentials series…but only three in the months since.

Somewhere in the middle of the year, the flip switched.

I share that because music – as all art – is neither created nor experienced in a vacuum, though we sometimes tell ourselves different. The rush and crush of life colors our aspirations, perceptions and opinions, with – when it comes to us fans – tossed-off takes becoming gospel until, years later, we discover we were wrong. (Or not. Sometimes we were right all along.) Add to that this: I’m a 55-year-old, long-married white guy with catholic tastes, a product of my time but not a prisoner of it. (To borrow a lyric from Paul Simon, “I know what I know.”)

Such has been the case with my much-ballyhooed Album of the Year, at any rate. It’s an honorific I’ve bestowed on one album (sometimes two) every year since beginning my journey into music fandom in 1978, when I was 13, for no other reason than…well, why not? It’s a fun, if occasionally frustrating endeavor to rank one’s favorites for the year. The selection process, then and now, is the same. As I explained in a long-ago Facebook post that I’ve since moved to this blog: “The candidates are drawn from what I’ve purchased, so the pool is decidedly limited in comparison to, say, what the writers at Rolling Stone or Allmusic.com are exposed to. Some years I buy a lot and some years not, primarily due to my listening habits – I play albums I love over and over and over until they become one with my subconscious (obsession, not variety, is my spice of life). So the more I like certain albums, the less overall I hear.” I amended that, ever-so-slightly, last year: “The explosion of streaming music has caused the need to spend money moot, but time is the new currency. And few of us have a lot of that to spend.” (That said, I still buy a lot.)

The only real difference between then and now: The lobbying campaigns. Since I revealed the 25 top contenders last week, for instance, I’ve been deluged with emails and phone calls from their courtiers explaining why they should receive the OGC plaque. (Diane nudged me to choose her No. 1 as my No. 1, in other words. Though she shouldn’t have worried.)

And, with that…drumroll, please…here’s my Top 5 Albums of 2020 (links to my original reviews can be had by clicking on the titles):

1) Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You. As I said above, Diane need not have worried. Springsteen’s studio reunion with the E Street Band is an album-long rumination on life, death and the ghosts that haunt the night – as well as the solace that only rock ’n’ roll can bring. As I summarized in my review, “It’s real, it’s raw, it’s rock ’n’ roll. It cleanses the soul.”

2) Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers. Simply put, this is a sterling treatise on heartache, heartbreak, forgiveness and moving on. From my review: “Often, such as with the hypnotic ‘Carnival Dream,’ the songs build bit by bit, with the drums kicking in until they approximate a heart pounding louder with every beat. It’s mesmerizing, akin to a fever dream, and finds Courtney, by song’s end, repeating ‘Will I ever let love in?/I may never let love in’ again and again like a mantra while the music – and intensity – swells high like the ocean tide at night.” I’d only add that Andrew Sarlo’s production is note-perfect.

3) Melody Gardot – Sunset in the Blue. As noted in my review, the album “finds the soft hues of the chanteuse’s heart lilting like a leaf lifted from the ground by a gentle breeze on an autumn afternoon.” And: “[W]ords alone can’t quantify the beauty inherent in Sunset in the Blue. My wife says she hears hints of Billie Holiday within some songs; that may be so, but most of all I hear Melody, her heart and her soul. The music stops time for me in a way few other releases have this year.”

4) Stone Foundation – Is Love Enough? From my review: “These are days of worry and fear, of not knowing whether or if ‘normal’ life will return, but these songs strip away those unsettling concerns, albeit for just under an hour. The Midlands-based band is providing much-needed sustenance to my weary soul, in other words, and in the best way possible. Their music, as I used to say on my old website, ‘takes you there, wherever there is.’” ‘Nuff said.  

5) Natalie Duncan – Free. Neo-soul, R&B and jazzy elements fuse together in hypnotic fashion in this delectable outing from the British singer-songwriter, who first turned my ears way back in 2012. As I noted upon its release, “With these 12 songs as part of one’s personal soundtrack…the downtimes will hurt a little less and the good times will rate with the best. It’s a great album.”

And, in alphabetical order, two honorable mentions:

Malin Pettersen – Wildhorse. I often feel instant kinship with an album or artist – it’s as if they’ve been with me forever and a day. Such is the case here. The atmospheric song cycle seamlessly blends the past, present and future of country music; and, when the album comes to an end, you’ll want to play it again – at least, that’s what I do.

Zach Phillips – The Wine of Youth. This album buoys my spirits every time I listen to it, which is quite often. From my review: “Stylistic shifts notwithstanding, the 13 tracks ebb and flow as one. At heart, it’s a literate singer-songwriter’s album that, to my ears, conjures the long-ago time when dollops of other genres were often mixed into tasty morsels. ‘It sounds like it’s from the 1970s,’ Diane said after hearing it earlier this week – and she meant it in the best way possible. To an extent, on this album at least, Phillips reminds me of another Illinois native who rose like a phoenix during that latter part of that decade and flew high during the early ’80s, Dan Fogelberg.”

First Impressions: Malin Pettersen’s Wildhorse

Posted: November 22, 2020 in 2020, 2020s, First Impressions, Malin Pettersen
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So, after reading a few positive reviews, I lassoed this Wildhorse a few weeks back and immediately fell under its spell. Norwegian singer-songwriter Malin Pettersen’s ethereal vocals fly atop a captivating set of songs, essentially a high lonesome sound that aches, breaks and shakes the heart and soul. The 11 songs – nine penned by her – conjure the country music of yore, yet blends a modern sensibility into the proceedings.

Obvious influences (to me, at least) include Emmylou and Gram, Waylon Jennings and Dwight Yoakam, yet those forebears never overwhelm the music; rather, they buttress it. From what I’ve read (and this article and this article are recommended), theirs are the songs that course through her veins, so it makes sense that she’d express herself via the same musical language. (As the above articles detail, she’s loved country music since she was a kid, when she sometimes joined her father – Ivar Brynhildsen of the group Country Heroes – on stage with his band.)

I hear echoes of Yoakam’s “Guitars, Cadillacs,” for example, in parts of “Hometown.” Whether intentional or not, the slowed-down motif works as an artful homage – much as Yoakam’s tune paid tribute, in similar fashion, to one of his heroes, Buck Owens.

In any event, here’s a stripped-down performance of the song:

Likewise, “Weightless” – another standout track – channels Spyboy-era Emmylou. “People used to tell me still water was the deepest/I used to hope I’d lose my tongue/But now I’m older and I know better/And I know they were wrong/And now I wanna live/With everything that I’ve got/Cause everything I’ve got I have to give/And everything I give I get in return.”

If you listened to one or both of the above clips, you pretty much heard the sound of time stopping. That’s what happens for me, at any rate; I lose myself in the videos – and the album as a whole. (As I sometimes say, “it takes you there, wherever there is.”) In some songs, her vocals remind me of Emmylou Harris; and, as on “Let’s Go Out,” I hear Kasey Chambers.

The closing “Queen of the Meadow” is another gem. Here’s a live in-studio rendition:

Recorded in Nashville in September 2019 and March 2020, and backed by some of Music City’s top session musicians, Wildhorse is one of my favorites of the year. (As I noted yesterday, it’s among my Top 25 for 2020.)

 

Here’s the track list in full:

Finally, for those who haven’t seen it, this compelling clip finds her performing four songs: “Get You Back Again” from her 2019 Alonesome EP, and “Hometown,” “Let’s Go Out” and “Wildhorse Dream” from Wildhorse. It makes me yearn to see her in a live setting.

Prelude to “Remember November, 2020 Edition”

Posted: November 21, 2020 in 2020, 2020s, Album of the Year
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This past week, I undertook my annual review of the year’s top releases in order to determine my much-ballyhooed Album of the Year. It was, in its way, a not-so-grueling slog through the plethora of platters (both digital and physical) that have captured my attention since January 1st. In years past, much of this last-minute “research” would have been performed during my weekday commute to and from work but, thanks to the pandemic, I now generally drive my car once a week – to the grocery store for curbside pickup – so this year my listening was primarily done in the den and living room – sometimes while I worked, sometimes not.

In short, I winnowed a super-long list to a few dozen, winnowed again, and then winnowed some more, and finally concluded the process this morning, when I wrote my top choice and a few runners-up on a piece of paper that I sealed in an envelope and left to fester inside a mayonnaise jar on Funk & Wagnalls’ porch. Next Saturday afternoon, aka November 28th, the jar will be transported by armed guard to a park about 30 minutes from where I live; the socially distanced ceremony will take place not long after the honorees and invited guests have chowed down on delicious brisket sandwiches from the Hillsborough BBQ Company.

Yep, attendees are fed well.

For those curious about past winners, here’s the list – along with a less tongue-in-cheek explanation of the process. Below is the list of this year’s nominees prior to my second-to-last pass (the “few dozen” mentioned above). I’ve written about most, though not all; where possible, I’ve linked to my “First Impressions” pieces about them. (Those marked ** were archival delights/re-releases.) They’re listed in alphabetical order.

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