Any Major Love in Black & White
Last year’s Any Major Love mix featured a general spread of songs about being in love. For this year’s Valentine”s Day I’ve created a mix of songs about being in reciprocated love spanning the era between 1933 and 1962 (equivalent to a time span from 1987 to today, if I may make you feel very old).
Many of these are standards performed by the big names of that era, though not all are obvious choices. So we have Sinatra singing a song which 14 years later would be a hit for Dean Martin, and Bing Crosby sings with his wife at the time, both of whom are billed below the bandleader.
So grab your one true love, and get jiggy in the ways of a 1990s romantic comedy. It would work particularly well if you are a Harold and have a Maude.
Next week’s mix will provide an antidote to all the amorous happiness.
As always, this mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes covers made by a sweatshop-full of cupids. PW in comments.
1. Sammy Davis Jr. – Face To Face (1961)
2. Anita O’Day & Billy May – I Could Write A Book (1960)
3. Peggy Lee – Cheek To Cheek (1958)
4. Ella Fitzgerald – I Only Have Eyes For You (1962)
5. June Christy – The First Thing You Know, You’re In Love (1954)
6. Tony Bennett – Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square) (1956)
7. Frank Sinatra – Everybody Loves Somebody (1948)
8. Margaret Whiting – Come Rain Or Come Shine (1946)
9. Billie Holiday – Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love) (1941)
10. Lena Horne – As Long As I Live (1944)
11. The King Cole Trio – I’m In The Mood For Love (1945)
12. Victor Young with Bing & Dixie Lee Cosby – The Way You Look Tonight (1936)
13. Mildred Bailey – These Foolish Things (1944)
14. Doris Day – Again (1949)
15. Gene Kelly – I’ve Got A Crush On You (1951)
16. Julie London – You”re Getting To Be A Habit With Me (1958)
17. Chris Connor – Embraceable You (1957)
18. Dinah Washington – What A Diff’rence A Day Makes (1959)
19. Ray Charles – It Had To Be You (1959)
20. Eddie Fisher – So In Love (1955)
21. Mel Tormé – Oh What A Night For Love (1961)
22. Billy Eckstine – No One But You (1954)
23. Dean Martin – I’ll Always Love You (1950)
24. Sarah Vaughan – These Things I Offer You (1951)
25. Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra ft. Anna Boyer – I Concentrate On You (1940)
26. Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye – Let There Be Love (1940)
27. Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra – I’ve Got The World On A String (1933)
28. Joe Turner’s Orchestral with Pete Johnson – Baby, Won’t You Marry Me (1948)
PW = amdwhah
Thank you, Dude. You’ve hit me right where I live, in the heart. I’m old enough to be familiar with all of these tunes, although not necessarily all of these particular versions. And after a lifetime of rock and roll my wife and I now prefer to sit together in the evening (as our parents perhaps once did) and enjoy a romance with the old pros of the genre. And this may also make a nice gift for a few old lovers that we’ve come to know along the way.
A nicely nostalgic & evocative mix, for which many thanks, some tunes going further back than even I can remember. Quiet on the comments front perhaps because we’re all making our own sweet music for Valentine’s? Cheers!
Super-belated thanks for this fantastic mix! I really enjoy the music of the first half of the 20th century and this is a great compilation of songs from the end of that period. I don’t know a LOT of the “standards” but this mix has some of my faves, like “These Foolish Things,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Let’s Do It,” and “The Way You Look Tonight.” And anything by Louis Armstrong or Billie Holiday is fantastic.
I’m delighted you enjoyed the mix. The shortage of comments led me to believe the mix was not very popular
Dude, I just stopped by for another look. Popular be damned, these songs are the bedrock of what is called popular music today. I can’t much see my grandkids listening to this mix, their tiny minds not matured beyond the explosion of the second beat in all their sound alike electronic music. But the standards of Tin Pan Alley will endure as long as the Brill Building and beyond the electronic boards now used in place of real musicians. And if you produce a mix such as this now and then what could it hurt? A few of us foxtrotters would be appreciative.