More music from the Great American Songbook: yearning and fulfillment
So many beautiful songs from 1940s and 50s were about love lost…but there were also songs about love gained, or love within reach.
Here, with lyrics by Gus Kahn, music by Nacio Herb Brown, from the 1941 musical, Ziegfeld Girl…
You stepped out of a dream
You are too wonderful to be what you seem!
Could there be eyes like yours
Could there be lips like yours
Could there be smiles like yours
Honest and truly?
You stepped out of a cloud
I want to take you away, away from the crowd
And have you all to myself
Alone and apart, out of a dream
Safe in my heart
Not exactly loved attained, but there, to be sought and gained.
The song is sung to a woman by a man. She is his vision and his reality.
You stepped out of a dream. You stepped out of a cloud. Great lines.
Poetry made popular.
Yes, romantic to the extreme. But understood. Not unattainable.
70 years ago, popular music helped make the culture, and the culture supported songs like this.
For example, here was Tony Bennett’s 1951 breakthrough hit, composed by Arthur Hammerstein and Dudley Wilkinson…
Because of you there’s a song in my heart
Because of you my romance had its start
Because of you the sun will shine
The moon and stars will say you’re mine
Forever, and never to part
I only live for your love and your kiss
It’s paradise to be near you like this
Because of you, my life is now worthwhile
And I can smile because of you
That song launched Tony’s remarkable career, and he was never entirely out of the spotlight for the next 70 years.
If you want love as a done deal for sure, Tony recorded this sizzling up-tempo Irving Berlin standard…solo, and also with Christina Aguilera, who can really SING when she wants to:
Steppin’ out with my baby
Can’t go wrong ‘cause I’m in right
It’s for sure, not for maybe
That I’m all dressed up tonight
Steppin’ out with my honey
Can’t be bad to feel so good
Never felt quite so sunny
And I keep on knockin’ wood
There’ll be smooth sailin’ ‘cause I’m trimmin’ my sails
With a bright shine on my shoes and on my nails
Steppin’ out with my baby
Can’t go wrong ‘cause I’m in right
Ask me when will the day be
The big day may be tonight…
This song tells you a guy has love in his pocket and he’s on top of the world, celebrating with a night out on the town, with HER. The one.
It worked. He got the girl.
Romantic victory. It was in the culture.
-- Jon Rappoport
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Topic: More music from the Great American Songbook: yearning and fulfillment (Read 642 times)