Versatile (Van Morrison Album)
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Versatile (Van Morrison Album)
''Versatile'' is the 38th studio album by Van Morrison, released on 1 December 2017 by Caroline. His second release of the year, it entered the Top 40 in six countries, including the UK. The album consists of some originals, both new and older, mixed with jazz standards. Recording The first track, "Broken Record", is an original composition whose opening riff traces back to "Heathrow Shuffle", an instrumental Morrison played from around 1974 in concerts, and is included on the ''Live at Montreux 1980/1974'' DVD. Another original, "Affirmation", was based on a previously-released "Sax Instrumental No. 1" from a 1999 CD single for " Back on Top". Critical reception ''The Guardian'' describes the album as a "lively trip through the swing songbook", "a curious little joy of a record", and "very much a mood album, gently swinging". Track listing #"Broken Record" (Morrison) #"A Foggy Day" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) #" Let's Get Lost" (Jimmy McHugh, Frank Loesser) #"Bye Bye Blackbi ...
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Van Morrison
Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments such as guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for several Irish showbands, covering the popular hits of that time. Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison rose to prominence in the mid 1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B and rock band Them. With Them, he recorded the garage band classic " Gloria". Under the pop-oriented guidance of Bert Berns, Morrison's solo career began in 1967 with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl". After Berns's death, Warner Bros. Records bought out Morrison's contract and allowed him three sessions to record ''Astral Weeks'' (1968). While initially a poor seller, the album has become regarded as a classic. ''Moondance'' (1970) e ...
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Bye Bye Blackbird
"Bye Bye Blackbird" is a song published in 1926 by Jerome H. Remick and written by composer Ray Henderson and lyricist Mort Dixon. It is considered a popular standard and was first recorded by Sam Lanin's Dance Orchestra in March 1926. Song information Popular recordings in 1926 were by Nick Lucas, Gene Austin, Benny Krueger, and by Leo Reisman. It was the number 16 song of 1926 according to ''Pop Culture Madness''. In popular culture The song was featured in the 1955 movie musical '' Pete Kelly's Blues'', sung by Peggy Lee in the role of alcoholic jazz singer Rose Hopkins. In "Goodbye Nkrumah" (1966) Beat poet Diane Di Prima asks:And yet, where would we be without the American culture Bye bye blackbird, as Miles plays it, in the ’50s In 1982, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) posthumously awarded John Coltrane a "Best Jazz Solo Performance" Grammy for the work on his album ''Bye Bye Blackbird''. Recordings of the song often include only the chorus; ...
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Jule Styne
Jule Styne (; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became successful films: ''Gypsy,'' '' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,'' and '' Funny Girl.'' Early life Styne was born to a Jewish family in London, England. His parents, Anna Kertman and Isadore Stein, were emigrants from Ukraine, the Russian Empire, and ran a small grocery. Even before his family left Britain, he did impressions on the stage of well-known singers, including Harry Lauder, who saw him perform and advised him to take up the piano. At the age of eight, he moved with his family to Chicago, where he began taking piano lessons. He proved to be a prodigy and performed with the Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies before he was ten years old. Career Before Styne attended Chicago Musical College, he had already attracted the attention o ...
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The Party's Over (1956 Song)
"The Party's Over" is a popular song composed by Jule Styne with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. It was introduced in the 1956 musical comedy '' Bells Are Ringing'' by Judy Holliday. In the 1960 film version, Judy Holliday again performed the song. According to the web-site SecondHandSongs, there have been almost 100 covers of The Party's Over. including versions by Nat King Cole, Smoking Popes, Bobby Darin and Doris Day. Other notable versions *Lonnie Donegan reached the British charts in 1961, peaking at the No. 9 position during a 12-week stay. *Shirley Bassey recorded the song for her first Columbia album " The Fabulous Shirley Bassey" (1959). *Gene Ammons recorded it for Prestige Records Late Hour Special (1961). *Robie Lester released a version as a single on the Interlude label in 1966. *Lesley Gore included a version of the song on her 1963 debut album, ''I'll Cry If I Want To''. *Leslie Odom Jr. ended his debut album ''Leslie Odom Jr. (album)'' (2016) with ...
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Hy Zaret
Hy Zaret (born Hyman Harry Zaritsky, August 21, 1907 – July 2, 2007) was an American Tin Pan Alley lyricist and composer who wrote the lyrics of the 1955 hit "Unchained Melody," one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century. Personal life Zaret was born on August 21, 1907 in New York City to Max Zaritsky and Dora Shiffman, who had emigrated from Russia in the 1890s. He attended West Virginia University and Brooklyn Law School, where he received an LLB. He shortened his name legally from Zaritsky to Zaret in 1934. Zaret served in the Army's Special Services division during World War II.Biography of Hy Zaret
www.argosymusiccorp.com. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
Zaret had two sons, and was married to the former Shirley Goidel. He died at his home in

Alex North
Alex North (born Isadore Soifer, December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer best known for his many film scores, including ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (one of the first jazz-based film scores), ''Viva Zapata!'', ''Spartacus'', ''Cleopatra'', and ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' He was the first composer to receive an Honorary Academy Award, but never won a competitive Oscar despite fifteen nominations. He wrote the music for Unchained Melody as the theme for the prison film '' Unchained'' (1955), It has become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, with over 1,500 recordings made by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages. Early life North was born Isadore Soifer in Chester, Pennsylvania, to Jewish parents Jesse and Baila (Bessie) who had left the Russian Empire for the US around 1906. Jesse was from Bila Tserkva and Besie originated from Odessa (both cities are now in Ukraine). In the US, Jesse was a blacksmith, an ...
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Unchained Melody
"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North wrote the music as a theme for the prison film '' Unchained'' (1955), hence the song title. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack.Robert Rodriguez The 1950s' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Rock & Roll Rebels ''Brassey's'', p.90. It has since become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers in 1965. According to the song's publishing administrator, over 1,500 recordings of "Unchained Melody" have been made by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages. In 1955, three versions of the song (by Les Baxter, Al Hibbler, and Roy Hamilton) charted in the ''Billboard'' top 10 in the United States, and four versions (by Al Hibbler, Les Baxter, Jimmy Young, and Liberace) appeared in the top 20 in the United Kingdom simultaneously, a record for any song. The song continued to chart in the 21st century, and it was the only s ...
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Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, Porter defied his grandfather's wishes for him to practice law and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn to musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs. After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 1930s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical, ''Kiss Me, Kate ...
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I Get A Kick Out Of You
"I Get a Kick Out of You" is a song by Cole Porter, which was first sung in the 1934 Broadway musical ''Anything Goes'', and then in the 1936 film version. Originally sung by Ethel Merman, it has been covered by dozens of prominent performers, including Frank Sinatra, Dolly Parton, and Ella Fitzgerald. A cover by Mel Tormé won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement with Accompanying Vocal(s) for arranger Rob McConnell, while a duet version by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga was nominated for three awards at the 2022 ceremony, including Record of the Year. Alterations to the song The lyrics were first altered shortly after being written. The last verse originally went as follows: After the 1932 Lindbergh kidnapping, Porter changed the second and third lines to: In the 1936 movie version, alternative lyrics in the second verse were provided to replace a reference to the drug cocaine, which was not allowed by Hollywood's Production Code of 1934. The original ver ...
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Walter Donaldson
Walter Donaldson (February 15, 1893 – July 15, 1947) was an American prolific popular songwriter and publishing company founder, composing many hit songs of the 1910s to 1940s, that have become standards and form part of the Great American Songbook. History Walter Donaldson was born in Brooklyn, New York State, United States, the son of a piano teacher. While still in school he wrote original music for school productions, and had his first professional songs published in 1915. In 1918, he had his first major hit with "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady". During World War I, Donaldson entertained troops at Camp Upton, New York. His time there inspired him to write " How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?" After serving in the United States Army in World War I, Donaldson was hired as a songwriter by Irving Berlin Music Company. He stayed with Berlin until 1928, producing many hit songs, then in 1928 established his own publishing company. His company was ...
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Gus Kahn
Gustav Gerson Kahn (November 6, 1886October 8, 1941) was an American lyricist who contributed a number of songs to the Great American Songbook, including "Pretty Baby", "Ain't We Got Fun?", "Carolina in the Morning", "Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye!)", " My Buddy" " I'll See You in My Dreams", " It Had to Be You", " Yes Sir, That's My Baby", " Love Me or Leave Me", "Makin' Whoopee", " My Baby Just Cares for Me", "I'm Through with Love", "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "You Stepped Out of a Dream". Life and career Kahn was born in 1886 in Bruschied, in the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia, the son of Theresa (Mayer) and Isaac Kahn, a cattle farmer. The Jewish family emigrated to the United States and moved to Chicago in 1890. After graduating from high school, he worked as a clerk in a mail order business before launching one of the most successful and prolific careers from Tin Pan Alley. Kahn married Grace LeBoy in 1916 and they had two children, Donald and Irene. In hi ...
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Makin' Whoopee
"Makin' Whoopee" is a jazz/blues song, first popularized by Eddie Cantor in the 1928 musical ''Whoopee!''. Gus Kahn wrote the lyrics and Walter Donaldson composed the music for the song as well as for the entire musical. The title refers to celebrating a marriage. Eventually "making whoopee" became a euphemism for intimate sexual relations. The song has been called a "dire warning", largely to men, about the "trap" of marriage. A review of a James Naughton cabaret performance. "Mr. Naughton pounces on the dire warning to men lurking beneath the song's playful surface: that once the honeymoon is over, marriage can become a trap from which there is no escape." "Makin' Whoopee" begins with the celebration of a wedding, honeymoon and marital bliss, but moves on to babies and responsibilities, and ultimately on to affairs and possible divorce, ending with a judge's advice. Other versions *1928 George Olsen and His Music. Released by Victor on November 12, 1928 as catalog number 21816- ...
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