the best songs ever

[Eric the Green]

Lanny Ross, 1934;

also Nat King Cole 1957
https://youtu.be/2mepAWINil8
"Nobody does it better"

[Eric the Green]

Nat King Cole also sang this 1934 song





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Very_Thought_of_You

[Eric the Green]

Boulevard of Broken Dreams (1933) probably belongs on this list. Green Day recently had a similar song with that title, and here is Tony Bennett's version from 1950.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_...ubin_song)

The Green Day song from 2004 is one of the most popular and acclaimed songs of the 2000s.
https://youtu.be/0c35s3LbhRE

[gabrielle]

From 1944.  "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive," Johnny Mercer with the Pied Pipers and Paul Weston's orchestra, providing the background music in the opening sequence to L.A. Confidential.





Or if you'd rather not listen to it with Danny DeVito's voiceover:

[gabrielle]

"Puttin' On the Ritz," by Irving Berlin, published late in 1929.  

From Wikipedia:

Quote:The song is in AABA form, with a verse.[2] According to John Mueller, the central device in the A section is the "use of delayed rhythmic resolution: a staggering, off-balance passage, emphasized by the unorthodox stresses in the lyric, suddenly resolves satisfyingly on a held note, followed by the forceful assertion of the title phrase." The marchlike B section, which is only barely syncopated, acts as a contrast to the previous rhythmic complexities.[2] According to Alec Wilder, in his study of American popular song, for him, the rhythmic pattern in "Puttin' On the Ritz" is "the most complex and provocative I have ever come upon."[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puttin%27_On_the_Ritz





The 1974 version:

[gabrielle]

More Irving Berlin:

"Blue Skies," 1926.

[gabrielle]

Two great songs from the 1927 musical Showboat, by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II.  

"Can't Help Loving That Man of Mine"




"Ol' Man River"

Quote:Show Boat boldly portrayed racial issues and was the first racially integrated musical, in that both black and white performers appeared and sang on stage together.[43] Ziegfeld’sFollies featured solo African American performers such as Bert Williams, but would not have included a black woman in the chorus. Show Boat was structured with two choruses – a black chorus and a white chorus. One commentator noted that "Hammerstein uses the African-American chorus as essentially a Greek chorus, providing clear commentary on the proceedings, whereas the white choruses sing of the not-quite-real."[44] In Show Boat Jerome Kern used the AABA-chorus form exclusively in songs sung by African American characters (Ole Man River, Can't Help Lovin' dat Man), a form that later would be regarded as typical of 'white' popular music.[45]

Show Boat was the first Broadway musical to seriously depict an interracial marriage, as in Ferber's original novel, and to feature a character of mixed race who was "passing" for white.

--from wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_Boat

[gabrielle]

Possibly the greatest American song ever.

"Rhapsody in Blue" premiered in February of 1924, when its composer George Gershwin was twenty-five years old.  It was commissioned by Paul Whiteman for "An Experiment in Modern Music."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_in_Blue





I think this might be my favorite version:

[David Horn]

(04-02-2017, 12:34 AM)gabrielle Wrote: Possibly the greatest American song ever.

"Rhapsody in Blue" premiered in February of 1924, when its composer George Gershwin was twenty-five years old.  It was commissioned by Paul Whiteman for "An Experiment in Modern Music."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_in_Blue

I couldn't agree more.  How sad that this genius had to die so young.

[Eric the Green]

Thanks for continuing the thread; very good choices. Those just above are mostly ones I was going to add, before we were so rudely interrupted by the election and trainwreck.

I know there's more songs, but I'm going to add this organ work by the great 20th century composer Jehan Alain from 1934, performed by his sister Marie Claire Alain in 1972. "Intermezzo" aka "Spinning Wheel"





That Show Boat song was real nice. I didn't know that Tom Lehrer had quoted that song in his satire on "Pollution", which I think I posted upthread in 1965. "Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, but they don't last long, if they try!"

https://youtu.be/AGFbS_jdSl0

[gabrielle]

Has anyone shared this one yet?

From Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (1938), the dramatic "Dance of the Knights."

[gabrielle]

Happy Jazz Appreciation Month, and here's some happy jazz for you.  "There's no sensation like syncopation!"

Both of these songs are from the George and Ira Gershwin musical Lady Be Good of 1924, starring Fred Astaire and his sister Adele, who was actually the bigger star at the time.  Gershwin himself is on piano here.





Fred thinks he's the brains of the family.

[gabrielle]

I used to think this song was sexy when I was a teen.  

"Night and Day," 1932, composer: Cole Porter (1891-1964).  Fred Astaire again, sorry but he really did rule the 1930s, along with Bing Crosby.

I believe U2 covered this song, as well.  There was some sort of AIDS benefit CD featuring Cole Porter covers that came out in the late 80s or early 90s.  I bought it at the time--not sure what happened to it.

[Ragnarök_62]

Soma, baby, Soma,  Rags hits the pipe heavy and the trip is great.






So yeah.... it time to Boomerang back to Rag's youth, man.

*GOVERNMENT WARNING"Marijuana use can cause complex thoughts leading to better ideas of how to live your life. Caution, free thinking has been routinely reported with continued use. If policy on drugs is in future to be pragmatic not moralistic, driven by ethics not dogma, then the current prohibitionist stance will have to be swept away as both unworkable and immoral, to be replaced with an evidence-based unified system (specifically including tobacco and alcohol) aimed at minimisation of harms to society......

[Eric the Green]

No, it's "tempting" (your posted song was originally a Motown hit by the Temptations); but it's not time to do that Rags; the time is Night and Day!

It's time to go to Russia and Dance!





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Poppy

[pbrower2a]

Now we come to Giacomo Puccini, who brought opera to its greatest depth of expression. Enjoy!





I was waiting for this opportunity.

[Eric the Green]

Begin the Beguine (1935) by Cole Porter

Ella Fitzgerald with Buddy Bregman & His Orchestra (1957)




Artie Shaw Orchestra (1938)

[gabrielle]

1931

[gabrielle]

[pbrower2a]

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)






Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) was the definitive late-bloomer as a composer. He may have been a bit archaic... but you don't need that as an excuse for this ecstatic work. Should there be another Fantasia project, then here is a work that I might suggest as the the source of the "music for its own sake", which in the original Disney Fantasia was J S Bach's Toccata and Fugue in d-minor, and in Fantasia 2010 was the "Glorious Fifth" of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) wrote a wide variety of works, including chamber works, the Glagiolitic Mass, piano works, and opera. The opera has one problem: it's written in a language spoken by a very small population. Czech is a low priority for people learning languages. Among the Slavic languages, Russian (obviously!), Polish, Ukrainian, and Serbo-Croatian  attract more attention. His operas are interesting.