The Music of Your Life

“To Each His Own” A Traditional Pop Standards Timeline

April 25, 2008

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Sometimes a song just seems to take on a life of its own. It catches on and the listening public can’t get enough of it. Artist after artist records the song and the song can remain on the charts [...]

Peggy Lee, A Pop Standards Retrospective

April 24, 2008

Peggy Lee, singer, songwriter, actress, composer, Grammy winner and entertainer. That’s how she is remembered and also how her website http://www.peggylee.com/ headlines in her memory. What a headline and what a truth…
Beginning in 1941 Peggy ventured down from her home in North Dakota to join Benny Goodman’s band in Chicago. She was [...]

Kollege of Musical Knowledge

April 22, 2008

Ok folks, today’s post is taking us back to the early days of the Traditional pop standards era, 1946. The era starts roughly around the mid 1940s and lasts till sometime in the early 1960s.
Today’s featured artist is unique in that he was not a musician but a business student that started his “musical” career [...]

Teresa Brewer – A Tear Fell

April 18, 2008

Teresa Brewer was born Theresa Breuer on May 7, 1931 in Toledo, Ohio and has been singing from the tender age of two when by her mother brought her to audition for a radio program, “Uncle August’s Kiddie Show” on Toledo’s WSPD. She toured with the “Major Bowes Amateur Hour” for seven years when she [...]

Somewhere Over The Rainbow – Frank Sinatra & Judy Garland

April 16, 2008

I started this going forward as a rant about how Frank Sinatra sang “Over the Rainbow” THE WAY A MAN SHOULD SING IT. Then, I remembered how many other versions of this song there are.
So to compare each version would be impossible. Well, not literally impossible but, it would have taken more time than I [...]

Patti Page – The Tennessee Waltz

April 15, 2008

Patti page is one of the grand divas of traditional pop standards. Not much more can be said of her that hasn’t already been said. That being said, let’s talk about her biggest hit ever “The Tennessee Waltz.”
The song was written by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King in 1947, even though it was recorded [...]

Lena Horne – It Ain’t Necessarily So

April 14, 2008

Born Helena Mary Calhoun Horne June 30, 1917 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, Lena Horne was raised mainly by her grandparents. Her father Edwin was in the gambling trade and left the family when she was three. Her mother Edna Scottron was the daughter of inventor Samuel Scottron, who invented among other [...]

Barbara McNair – The Friendliest Thing

April 14, 2008

Barbara McNair was born in Chicago, IL on March 4, 1934, and studied music at the American Conservatory of Music also in Chicago. Barbara won her first big break on Arthur Godfrey’s “Talent Scouts” which began to open doors for her everywhere.
Entertainment wise she’s done it all. On Broadway she performed in “The Body Beautiful”, [...]

Helen O’Connell – Green Eyes

April 11, 2008

Helen O’Connell began her presence in this world on May 23, 1920. In 1939 she joined the Jimmy Dorsey Band and began her career that would continue only 3 years, until she retired in 1943 to raise a family. When her marriage failed she reentered the game and embarked on a solo career in [...]

Joni James – Autumn Leaves

April 10, 2008

Joni James was born September 22, 1930. After being discovered in a television commercial, in 1952 by MGM executives, James began to record on their label. Her first hit was “Why Don’t You Believe Me?” that record alone sold over a million copies.

Maurice Chevalier – Pot-Pourri Franco Anglais (French and English Medley)

April 10, 2008

Yesterday I typed a little about Maurice Chevalier, so this is basically a follow up with a second song. Actually a Medley which he cited and called “Pot-Pourri Franco-Anglais” which means “The French and English Medley.”

Maurice Chevalier – Louise

April 9, 2008

Maurice Chevalier was born in Paris France September 12, 1888. He began show business in 1901 at the age of 13 after being discovered by a well known member of the theater who suggested that he try out for a local musical. He did and he was cast in the part. Al Jolson once [...]

Dinah Shore – Always True To You In My Fashion