She wrote songs for Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and Doris Day, co-composed with Harold Arlen (Over the Rainbow’) – and was a pioneering singer-songwriter of the early 1970s. She wrote a song called ‘Control Yourself‘, had a career defined by men – and became an icon of female strength and independence. She had a number… Continue reading FRIDAY SONG: DORY PREVIN, THE LADY WITH THE BRAID (1971)
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It’s possible that you may not have come across one of the funniest and most innovative series to have been on our screens in recent years. It ran between 2015 and 2019 but, because it was on Netflix and was pretty much ignored in the media, it never received the attention it deserved in the… Continue reading FRIDAY SONG: CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND, LET’S GENERALIZE ABOUT MEN (BLOOM, SCHLESINGER, DOLGEN AND BROSH MCKENNA, 2017)
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The great lyricist Sammy Cahn – he wrote the lyrics to many of Frank Sinatra’s best-known hits – published a funny, swaggering boastful memoir called I Should Care. Not a man to hid his light under a bushel, Sammy claimed that as soon as he heard a melody, a title would flash into his head. ‘I don’t… Continue reading FRIDAY SONG: Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez, EXTRA (Chip Taylor, 2002)
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Many of my older Friday Songs – notably, ‘Shine’, ‘The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’, ‘Hong Kong Blues’ – have moved with the times. They have been adapted to our fretfully changing world by each new musical generation. This week’s song is an exception. It is firmly of its time. ‘After the Ball’ defies… Continue reading FRIDAY SONG, Charles K Harris, AFTER THE BALL (1892)
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Something great can happen when a funny songwriter decides to put humour aside and go for the heart. While the jokes are waiting in the wings, the song taking centre stage acquires a power all of its own. Think of Noel Coward and ‘Mad About the Boy’, or Jake Thackray and ‘To Do with You’, or Randy… Continue reading FRIDAY SONG, Dillie Keane, LOOK, MUMMY, NO HANDS (1997)
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The light, seductive voice of Annette Hanshaw has led me to a song whose history confirms, as well as any song of the 20th century, that music knows no borders of genre, tradition or colour. ‘I Get the Blues When It Rains’ is not a work of genius but it’s a great little number, with … Continue reading FRIDAY SONG, Annette Hanshaw, I GET THE BLUES WHEN IT RAINS (Marcy Klauber and Harry Stoddart, 1928)
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Almost seven years ago, I stood outside the gates of Charlotte Square in Edinburgh. touting for business beside a Big Issue seller and a young bloke handing out flyers for a new McDonalds. I was touting for trade, too. The festival was in full swing and I had a one-man show to promote. Charlotte Square… Continue reading FRIDAY SONG: The Easy Club, THE AULD TOON SHUFFLE (Rod Paterson, 1984)
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There’s no Friday Song today – it will be back next week – but several people have asked me about songs I’ve written about in the past. Since I haven’t yet assembled them all in one place on the website. I thought I’d list the songs I’ve written about so far, the often rather strange… Continue reading MY FRIDAY SONGS – THE STORY SO FAR
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Let’s admit, first of all, that this week’s Friday Song has a slightly silly, borderline weird title. I like to think that, when it was written in 1919, Carey Morgan came up with a killer tune and the lyricists Swanstrom and McCarron struggled to find a lyric for the title line. Or maybe it was… Continue reading FRIDAY SONG, Jim Kweskin, BLUES MY NAUGHTY SWEETIE GIVES TO ME ( Arthur Swanstrom, Chas McCarron and Carey Morgan, 1919)
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Some songs are so great that they survive and thrive down the years in a form that is pretty much unchanged. Who could think of messing around too much with the melody, shape and general vibe of, say, Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust (lyrics by Mitchell Parish) or Arlen and Harburg’s Over the Rainbow? There’s another kind… Continue reading FRIDAY SONG, George Harrison, BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA (Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, 1931)
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