Charles Trenet: Y a d’la joie

Charles Trenet: Y a d’la joie

As many of you know, I’m a big Francophile.  So, it may not surprise you that three of the five songs I’ve chosen to feature here are from, or pay homage to, France.  And what better time is there to celebrate than the week of her birthday (July 14), otherwise known...
Stephen Sondheim:  Too Many Mornings

Stephen Sondheim: Too Many Mornings

When I was planning the FSH gala with Amanda Bottoms and Dimitri Katotakis, they both mentioned that they’d recently sung “Too Many Mornings” from Sondheim’s Follies. For some reason, I initially resisted. Too hackneyed? off-topic? I don’t know. About two weeks later...
Hoagy Carmichael & Johnny Mercer:  Skylark

Hoagy Carmichael & Johnny Mercer: Skylark

I know of two perfect songs: Fauré’s “En sourdine,” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Skylark.” Paul Verlaine was the poet for the first of them, and Johnny Mercer the lyricist for the second. Please don’t ask me to explain what makes them perfect, or even why I think they...
Stephen Sondheim:  Talent

Stephen Sondheim: Talent

Art, like medical research, thrives on creative, talented people. But it also thrives on open-hearted patrons, some of whom can be as visionary (in their own way) as their beneficiaries. For this week’s FSH Dystrophy fundraiser, I grabbed a recent song by Stephen...
Kander and Ebb:  Sing Happy

Kander and Ebb: Sing Happy

To close the benefit program this week I grabbed a song Amanda Bottoms offered: “Sing Happy,” from the 1965 Flora the Red Menace. The musical is famous for a few things: it marked the first collaboration of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, who would soon go...