1.1_Margit - part 4

This instrumental was composed by German band leader Bert Kaempfert in 1965 and was first called "Moon Over Naples".  The vocal version with new lyrics and a new name was a big hit in 1966 for Al Martino (as "Spanish Eyes") and was also sung by many others including Elvis Presley, Andy Williams and Homer Simpson!  

Blue Spanish eyes
Teardrops are falling from your Spanish eyes
Please, please don't cry
This is adios and not goodbye

Source: Wikipedia

Blue Spanish Eyes

The mid-and-late Fifties were an exciting time for popular music.   The Big Band Era was over but you could enjoy the crooners and balladeers like Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Patti Page.... but you also had a growing selection of rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues music.  I was a teenager then and I liked them all, in spite of winning a radio contest with a piece on “Why I Hate Rock and Roll” (in twenty-five words or less).  The prize was an LP and my sister begged me to get Pat Boone’s Greatest Hits.  I didn’t mind...I already owned a powder-blue Pat Boone sweater.  And I still have the album.
 
But the real glory of ‘50’s pop music was found in the vocal groups...at first mostly four, sometimes five guys singing close harmony.  I didn’t know it at the time, but several of the groups began in Toronto – The Four Lads, The Crew Cuts, The Diamonds.  

My favourite group was The Platters but a catchy song by The Ames Brothers is the one that I am remembering now.  Melodie D’Amour was a hit for them in 1957. Their recording has a Latin beat, but I am thinking of the song’s original French Caribbean roots in my version. 
 
Melodie d'amour,
Take this song to my lover;
Shoo shoo little bird,
Go and find my love.

Melodie D'Amour

Buddy Holly has always been my favourite rock 'n roll singer and I still own all of his records on now-scratchy 45's, LP's and CD's.  It is a nice touch that my daughter was born on his birthday,  Holly was a major creative force in early rock 'n roll and his music still sounds fresh and innovative.  He influenced many later singers including the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and the Beatles.  The Beatles even named their group in tribute to Holly and his own band, The Crickets.  Paul McCarthy produced a film on Holly's life and music and he owns the publishing rights to Holly's songs.   A movie about Buddy's life, The Buddy Holly Story, starring Gary Busey, was released in 1978.  Busey was nominated for an Academy Award and the musical score won an Oscar.  

Holly largely wrote, produced and recorded his own material.  Although he is most famous for his hard-driving rock hits like That'll Be the Day, Oh Boy and Peggy Sue, Holly recorded in several styles including country-and-western, rockabilly and romantic pop ballads.    The latter includes Raining in My Heart, which is on this site.  Heartbeat was the last single he released before his tragic death in 1959 at 22 in an airplane crash.  A popular British TV series, Heartbeat, uses the song as its theme music.

Heartbeat...why do you miss when my baby kisses me?
Heartbeat...why does a love kiss stay in my memory?

Source:  Wikipedia


Heartbeat

Words of Love is for those who liked Buddy Holly's Heartbeat a few songs back…people who still remember the finger-snapping energy of early rock ‘n roll.  Holly recorded Words of Love in 1957 and aside from writing the song, he harmonized with himself on the vocals and played each of the guitar tracks.  This rendition includes seven acoustic and electric guitars, two of which I play on separate tracks.

Words Of Love

A Kiss to Build a Dream On is an old standard but I first heard it in the movie Sleepless in Seattle, a film that offers more than a touch of nostalgia and romance.  The song was written in 1935 by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II – all of them contributors to the Great American Songbook.

The best known version is by Louis Armstrong whose 1951 recording is heard in the film.  Others have had a go at the song but nobody can top Armstrong.  There is a hint of his recording in the muted trumpet of my version.

Give me a kiss to build a dream on,
And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss.
Sweetheart, I ask no more than this -
A kiss to build a dream on.

A Kiss To Build A Dream On

In the late 1950’s, a Caribbean breeze wafted over the pop music scene.  Harry Belafonte’s records became popular and his album, Calypso (1956) became the first LP to sell more than a million copies.  The interest in calypso music was part of the folk music craze that extended into the 1960’s.  The Kingston Trio took their name from one of the most popular songs on Belafonte’s album, Jamaica Farewell.  Several films of the time took up the Caribbean theme including Island in the Sun (which featured Belafonte) as well as Calypso Joe, Calypso Heat Wave and my favourite, Bop Girl Goes Calypso.  Even film noir actor Robert Mitchum released a calypso album.

Source:  Wikipedia

Jamaica Farewell

I wrote this song in 2004 while working as a canoe guide in Northwestern Ontario.

Anya Craig's Album

The Glory Canoe

The Paris of today is far different from the romantic image long associated with the city by the Seine. To recapture that aura, you will need to watch Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (2011) or an older film that offers Parisian romance or intrigue. One such film is Under Paris Skies ("Sous le Ciel de Paris") from 1951 which features a song of the same name. In the movie, the fates of multiple otherwise unconnected characters intertwine under the sky of Paris in the course of one day.

The song was sung by Jean Bretonnière in the movie, but the more famous version is by Édith Piaf who recorded it in 1954. Other recordings were by Yves Montand, Mireille Mathieu and Juliette Greco. The song has long been a staple of French sidewalk cafes and cabarets, often accompanied by accordion.

For other French songs on my site, try "La Vie en Rose" and "The Poor People of Paris", all of them hits for Édith Piaf.

Under Paris Skies (Sous le Ciel de Paris)

Just... Fabulous Rock 'n' Roll

Memphis, Tennessee

Cathy's Clown

Roll Over Beethoven

Great Balls of Fire / Whole Lotta Shakin'

Dimples

You needn't be that old to remember Roy Orbison.  He was singing and recording up until 1988 when he died of a heart attack.  But his heyday was the early Sixties when he recorded many of his big hits such as Only the Lonely, Oh, Pretty Woman, Crying and Blue Bayou.
 
He was different from most other early rockers who projected a defiant masculinity.  Many of Orbison's songs instead conveyed a quiet vulnerability.  His voice ranged from deep baritone to high tenor and both were heard in most of his songs.  During performances, he was known for standing still and alone and for wearing black clothes to match is jet black hair and dark sunglasses, which lent an air of mystery to his persona.  This wasn't a contrived image.  Orbison was shy and suffered from severe stage fright; wearing sunglasses helped him hide from the attention.
 
He was admired by most other rockers such as Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.  But at a concert that included the up-and-coming Beatles (who were to follow him), Lennon and McCartney had to physically prevent Orbison from returning to the stage for a fifteenth encore.  The audience was chanting "We want Roy!"
 
Blue Bayou showcased Orbison's songwriting skills as well as his impassioned voice.  The singer expresses his loneliness and deep desire to return to the Louisiana bayous and his love.
 
I feel so bad I've got a worried mind
I'm so lonesome all the time
Since I left my baby behind on Blue Bayou

Savin' nickels, savin' dimes
Workin' till the sun don't shine
Lookin' forward to happier times on Blue Bayou

I'm goin' back some day, come what may, to Blue Bayou
Where you sleep all day and the catfish play on Blue Bayou
All those fishin' boats with their sails afloat, if I could only see
That familiar sunrise through sleepy eyes how happy I'd be

Source:  Wikipedia

Blue Bayou

Алексей Архиповский - Золушка (балалайка)
Alexey Arkhipovsky - Cinderella (balalaika)

Alexey Arkhipovsky - Cinderella (balalaika, Russia)

Stand By Your Man was written by Tammy Wynette and songwriter Billy Sherrill and Wynette recorded the song in 1968.  It proved to be the most successful record of her career and is one of the most well-known songs in the history of country music.  Tammy was not very fond of the song at first because it was unlike anything she had done before and because there is a high note that was hard for her to sing.  But it became her signature song.

It is said that Stand By Your Man took 15 minutes to write, but that the singer spent her whole life defending it.  It was criticized by the women`s liberation movement at the time as being anti-feminist.  It's hard to disagree based on the lyrics.  The song remained contentious into the early 1990's, when soon-to-be First Lady Hillary Clinton told CBS`s 60 Minutes (in an interview concerning her husband's sexual indiscretions) that she "wasn't some little woman 'standing by my man' like Tammy Wynette."  Wynette always defended the song, suggesting that women should overlook some of their husbands' shortcomings if they love them ("after all, he`s just a man").  I've benefited from that all my married life.  But love and forgiveness should go both ways and the song should really be called Stand By Your Man or Woman.

In her own life, Wynette found it hard to stand by her men.  She was married five times and all the marriages ended in divorce.  One of her other big hits was D-I-V-O-R-C-E.

I suggest you lift a glass to all patient and loving women (and men) - yourself included - who know when to say "Enough!" - and enjoy my instrumental rendition of Stand By Your Man. 

This song is dedicated to my wife, Susan.

Source: Wikipedia

Stand By Your Man (or Woman)

Playing acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar, balalaika or mandolin with accompaniment and commentary (click on the song title).  For a catalog of recordings, organized by musical style (with links), visit:  www.andylipchak.com.  Please also see my musical travelogues on YouTube.

ich kann aus gesundheitlichen Gründen das Programm nicht mehr nutzen und möchte deshalb kündigen

Blue Spanish Eyes

Andy Lipchak

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