Today’s musical interlude features Mr. Cool and Smooth Nat King Cole bioin a recording from later in his career.
The song is Fly Me to the Moon. The song was written in 1954 by Bart Howard and was originally titled “In Other Words.” Howard said he wrote songs with his idol, Cole Porter, in mind, but had been performing and writing for nearly twenty years without a singular success.
First recorded by Kaye Ballard, the song became popular and was recorded and released by numerous artists. Lovely, smoky Peggy Lee had one of the most successful releases and it was Peggy who convinced Howard to make the name change to Fly Me to the Moon a formality.
On June 21, 1948, Columbia Records introduced the first LP, or “long playing” record.
At the time the LP was introduced, nearly all phonograph records for home use were made of an abrasive (and therefore noisy) shellac compound, employed a much larger groove, and played at approximately 78 rpm, limiting the playing time of a 12-inch record to less than five minutes per side.
33 1/3 RPM Long-playing Record
The new product was a 12 or 10-inch fine-grooved disc made of vinyl and played with a smaller-tipped “microgroove” stylus at a speed of 33⅓ rpm. Each side of a 12-inch LP could play for more than 20 minutes. Only the microgroove standard was truly new, as both vinyl and the 33⅓ rpm speed had been used for special purposes for many years, as well as in one unsuccessful earlier attempt to introduce a long-playing record for home use. Although the LP was especially suited to classical music because of its extended continuous playing time, it also allowed a collection of ten or more typical “pop” music recordings to be put on a single disc.
Previously, such collections, as well as longer classical music broken up into several parts, had been sold as sets of 78 rpm records in a specially imprinted “record album” consisting of individual record sleeves bound together in book form. The use of the word “album” persisted for the one-disc LP equivalent.
Music, well-played and well-sung, is always better in live performance. But, when you can’t be there for the live gig, a great recording of a live performance can be a real treat. And when you are lucky enough to collect some of the primal forces of good music, you are in for something memorable.
On May 23, 2008, the protean music man David Foster created a once-in-a-lifetime concert that showcased many of his hits and a few of the stars whose careers Foster launched. The finale was one of those peak moments, the kind I like to re-visit over-and-over.
The song, The Prayer, was composed and written by David Foster and the beautiful, and oh so talented, Carol Bayer Sager. Foster was at the piano, and in command of a magnificent orchestra.
Award-winning songwriter Carol Bayer Sager
Collaborating in a perfect duet were Andrea Bocelli and a young Katharine McPhee. Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard some of the sniffing and griping from a few fat old operatic tenors about Bocelli being more of a popular music singer than a classical singer. Have another cannoli, guys, and let Andrea have room to do his thing. I like it! I love his passion, his joy and his voice.
The pairing with McPhee was wonderful. She is young and beautiful and has terrific set of pipes. She didn’t let herself be intimidated by Bocelli’s reputation, or his voice. She was no trembling rookie on this night. She let it loose and was right there with him, every step of the way, in English and Italian. Well, she was with him until the last 10 seconds on the final note but, c’mon. It is just delightful!
Also, it never hurts to have long-legged, long-haired beauty in the number. You’ll see what I mean.
And you can purchase a CD/DVD combination package of this remarkable concert from the good folks at PBS. Go right here:
the jazzmonger 
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