Verses

After Hours; John Pizzarelli, guitar and vocal

I love it when a great old song has a verse. The composers of the songs in the Great American Songbook quite often liked to set the stage for the sentiment expressed in the main portion of the song by putting a little musical welcome mat at the door. A lot of these great tunes came from Broadway shows, and the verses served as a transition from dialogue to full-voiced air. In these verses, the lyricist afforded themselves the opportunity to wax a little more playfully, as in “The Girl Next Door” by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin.

The moment I saw her smile

I knew she was just my style

My only regret is we’ve never met

For I dream of her all the while

But she doesn’t know I exist

No matter how much I persist

So it’s clear to see there’s no hope for me

Though I live at fifty-one, thirty-five Kensington Avenue

And she lives at fifty-one, thirty-three …

How can I ignore the girl next door …

“It Had To Be You”, “S’Wonderful”, “Stardust”, “Night and Day”, “Always”, “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter”, “Fly Me To The Moon” and “Honeysuckle Rose” each have an excellent verse with which to introduce the forthcoming song. Have you heard this verse?

The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay

The glory that was Rome is of another day

I’ve been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan

I’m going home to my city by the bay …

I left my heart in San Francisco …

One of my favorite Gershwin songs is “But Not For Me”. It was featured in the show “Girl Crazy” which opened on Broadway in 1930, making stars of Ginger Rogers and Ethel Merman. The pit orchestra included Glen Miller, Gene Krupa, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden. Can you imagine? Wow. The score also included “My Sweet Embraceable You” and “I’ve Got Rhythm”.

The Gershwins introduce this melancholy song with this defensive, fist-in-the-air verse:

Old man Sunshine, listen, you,

Never tell me dreams come true

Just try it, and I’ll start a riot.

Beatrice Fairfax, don’t you dare

Ever tell me he will care

I’m certain it’s the final curtain.

I never want to hear from any

Cheerful Polyannas

Who tell you fate supplies a mate

It’s all bananas.

From here, the singer laments that...

They’re writing songs of love, but not for me.

A lucky star’s above, but not for me…

When every happy plot ends with a marriage knot

And there’s no knot for me.

Very sad little grieve; one of the greatest torch songs ever. Here, though, is the part I don’t understand: the tune is typically played in an up-beat fashion. The great jazz pianist Teddy Wilson played it that way. The great trumpet and vocal artist Chet Baker performed it that way. John Pizzarelli slows it down quite a bit, but stills keeps a beat going.

In “When Harry Met Sally”, Harry Connick, Jr., does a very slow take on this song to great effect toward the end of the flick. In a moment of inspired genius, Carol Burnett sang the song on the Muppet Show in 1980. The overall story on that episode has Gonzo leading a dance marathon during the whole show. While the muppets are dancing to a very ambitious swing number on the stage, Ms. Burnett sings a slow version of “But Not For Me” super-imposed over the swing number while she’s back stage in her cleaning lady get-up.

I picked up this CD because I didn’t recognize very many of the songs. Mr. Pizzarelli’s musical tastes tend to match mine and if he knew these songs while I didn’t … well, I had to mend that.

Credits: To Teddy Wilson, one of the swingin’est pianists of ‘em all.