On this week's "Art of American Popular Song" we seek new songs to add to the venerable Great American Songbook. We also look to put to rest the belief by some that the craft of great song and lyric writing died somewhere around 1955. After all, that's what the American composer, writer, and commentator on popular song, Alec Wilder, said in his book "American Popular Song: The Great Innovators." But is it really so?
The “truth-meter” may surprise you. On the other hand, you might be dismayed at the suggestion that Bob Dylan has a rightful place in the Great American Songbook. Or maybe some will take issue with certain Disney songs being suggested as songbook material. It's nothing if not lively, this honest and broad assessment of where the American song stands in the Twenty-first Century.
Join KPAC for the final episode of "The Art of American Popular Song," Sunday afternoon at 2. The music ranges from Jerome Kern to Rodgers and Hammerstein to Stephen Sondheim. There are also several songwriters never associated with Broadway or the movies, the two traditional wells for the American Songbook. See what musical theater historian Aaron Gandy suggests as we restock the shelves. We'll also consider suggestions from local crooner Ken Slavin and KRIS/KZTV-Corpus Christi News Director Paul Alexander.
Creativity is alive and well.
Episode 8 Playlist
Episode 8-1 End of An Age [24:16]
Jerome Kern: The Way You Look Tonight
Faith Hill, Tony Bennett
Irving Berlin: The Song is Ended (But the Melody Lingers On)
Harold Arlen: Last Night When We Were Young
Sylvia McNair, Andre Previn
Alec Wilder: While We're Young
Roger Miller: King of the Road
Roger Miller
Harold Arlen: I Had a Love Once
Peggy Lee
EMI
Hugh Martin: I Have Something to Say to You
Michael Feinstein
Richard Rodgers: Oh, What a Beautiful Morning
Bryn Terfel
DG
Episode 8-2 Lerner and Loewe [21:17]
Lerner & Loewe: My Fair Lady: I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face
Pierre Huybregts, Carol Wallace Payne
Elite 120
Lerner & Loewe: My Fair Lady: I Could Have Danced All Night
Oscar Peterson Trio
Verve
Lerner & Loewe: My Fair Lady: The Rain in Spain [2:39]
Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews
Sony89997
Weill/Ira Gershwin: Tchaikovsky and the Other Russians [:46]
Danny Kaye
Sony 62869
Lerner & Loewe: Camelot (selections)
Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops
Telarc 80375
Lerner & Loewe: Camelot: I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight [1:58]
Cast recording
Sony 60542
Lerner & Loewe: Camelot: If Ever I Would Leave You
Cast recording
Sony 60542
Episode 8-3 Dylan and Lees [7:33]
Bob Dylan: Blowin' In the Wind
Bob Dylan
Bill Evans/Gene Lees: Waltz for Debby
Gene Lees
Episode 8-4 Disney [15:49]
Richard and Robert Sherman: Chim Chim Cher-ee
Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews
Richard and Robert Sherman: The Aristocats
Maurice Chevalier
Alan Menken & Howard Ashman: Part of Your World
Jodi Benson
Episode 8-5 Webb, Pankow and Wainwright [16:27]
Alec Wilder: Such a Tender Night
Manhattan Chamber Orchestra
Newport Classics
Milton DeLugg and Willie Stein: Orange Colored Sky
Ken Slavin
CD Baby
Bobby Troup: Route 66
Ken Slavin
CD Baby
Jimmy Webb: Wichita Lineman
Glenn Campbell
Pankow: Just You'n'Me
Chicago
Rufus Wainwright: Damned Ladies
Audra McDonald
Nonesuch 79862
Episode 8-6 Stephen Sondheim [36:06]
Bernstein/Sondheim: West Side Story: Something's Coming
Jim Bryant
Sony 48211
Jule Styne/Sondheim: Everything's Coming Up Roses
Ethel Merman
Sony 60848
Stephen Sondheim: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Comedy Tonight
Zero Mostel
Sony
Sondheim: Company: Sorry-Grateful
Charles Kimbrough
Sony65283
Sondheim: Company: Being Alive
Larry Kert
Sony 65283
Sondheim: Follies: The Road You Didn't Take
Cast recording
Sony
Sondheim: A Little Night Music: Send In the Clowns
Glynis Johns
Sony 65284