Thank you for the music: Favourite Popular Songs
The Only Living Boy In New York
(Paul Simon/1970) Simon & Garfunkel
If Paul Simon ever hinted that things were far from right with Art Garfunkel before they broke up after making this album, this song is it. Before the folk duo became famous, they were known as Tom and Jerry. At the time they were recording the Bridge Over Troubled Water album, Art was trying to kick off his acting career and scored a role in the movie, Carnal Knowledge. Art had to fly back and forth between New York and Mexico to fulfil his commitments to the film, often missing recording sessions, which frustrated Simon and led him to feel left high and dry by his singing partner. Knowning this, lines like "Tom get your plane right on time", "I know that your eager to fly now" and "Half of the time you're gone and I don't know where" take on new meaning. I love the tune, the arrangements, the instrumentation, the vocals - everything about the song. In regards to the album, the title song is actually a rip-off of a Christian song called "Jesus Is A Bridge Over Troubled Water", a great rip-off I might add, but a rip-off nonetheless. "The Boxer" is a very listenable mini symphony about Simon's early days as a struggling songwriter. "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright", also about their breakup, sees Simon saying farewell to his singing partner, recalling "the times they harmonised 'til dawn". The references architecture and to America's most famous architect relates to the fact that Art Garfunkel is a fully qualified architect.
All Out Of Love
(Graham Russell, Clive Davis/1980) Air Supply
Considered to be one of the greatest love songs of our time, placing 92nd in VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Love Songs, "All Out Of Love" was a major hit for Air Supply. The band formed in 1975 after Chrissie Hammond, Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell met while performing together in the Australian production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. "All Out Of Love", co-written by lead singer Graham Russell, was one of a number of songs recorded by Air Supply in the early 1980s that became No. 1 hits worldwide. The song has been covered by numerous artists since, one of the most notable being the boyband Westlife from Ireland, who recorded the song as a duet with Australian singer Delta Goodrem for Westlife's 2006 album, The Love Album (2006), and performed it together live on an episode of the The X Factor.
Crunchy Granola Suite
(Neil Diamond/1971) Neil Diamond
Choosing a favourite song from Neil Diamond's self penned portfolio of songs is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. "Crunchy Granola Suite" was one of his biggest hits from when he was at his creative peak and the song I think of when I think of this singer/songwriter. It is a simple, fun song about, well, let Neil tell us: "When I wrote 'Crunchy Granola Suite' I was newly transplanted to California and was impressed by the health food consciousness there. I actually thought 'Crunchy Granola Suite' might change people's eating habits!" Anyway, when he performed it live, he added an introduction that sounded remarkably like the theme of Glenn Miller's "In The Mood". It was this version of the song that helped make Neil's live album of 1974, Hot August Night, the biggest selling album in Australia, an honour it held for years, even though he sings off key and rather forced for some of it. This wasn't to be the first or last time that Neil "borrowed" an idea or theme from another piece of music. "Song Sung Blue" sounds remarkably like a Beethoven Piano Sonata. "Crunchy Granola Suite" first appeared on the Neil Diamond album, Stones, in 1971.
Indian Sunset
(Elton John - Bernie Taupin/1971) Elton John
The album upon which this song appears - Madman Across The Water - is quite innovative as Elton's albums go, in that it has a theme. It's an account, sometimes photographic, sometimes emotional, often metaphorical and nearly always darkly introspective, of Elton John in America - the madman across the water. The album is a more cynical observation of America following Elton John and Bernie Taupin's first tour of America and is in stark contrast to the more idealistic Tumbleweed Connection. Evocatively sung by Elton, "Indian Sunset" is an almost anthemic track about the plight of native Americans in their historic war against the white settlers. The opening features Elton John a capella for close to a minute. As the song progresses, the dynamics change, building to a crescendo, falling away for the verses and building again to the tragic close. Taupin combines the situations of different tribes throughout these wars, culminating in Geronimo "laying down his weapons as they filled him full of lead." Paul Buckmaster's arrangement has the orchestra successfully pounding out a great tribal setting. Taupin was not entirely accurate historically (the term "squaw" was purportedly never used by real native Americans), relying on pure atmosphere, but he gets the message across loud and clear.
Something
(George Harrison/1969) The Beatles
On 25th February 1969, his twenty-sixth birthday, George Harrison recorded three demos at EMI Studios in London, singing and playing guitar and piano. He did two takes each of "Old Brown Shoe," soon to be cut by the Beatles for a B side, and "All Things Must Pass," the title song of his 1970 solo album. He also took a single pass at a winsome ballad that he had written on piano the previous year during a break in the White Album sessions: "Something." Harrison and the other Beatles would labour on the song for the next six months, repeatedly coming back to it during the making of Abbey Road, editing, arranging and rerecording it to perfection. John Lennon would later confess that "Something" was the best song on Abbey Road. Coupled with Lennon's "Come Together," "Something" went to Number Three on Billboard's Top 100 and spawned a major industry in cover versions, second only in number to those of Paul McCartney's "Yesterday." Frank Sinatra recorded "Something" in the 1970s, describing it as "the greatest love song of the past fifty years". It marked Harrison's commercial and artistic coming-of-age as a pop songwriter, earning him the respect he had long been denied. "It took my breath away," Martin later said, "mainly because I never thought that George could do it. He wrote some pretty rotten songs in the beginning, but he gradually developed. I first recognised that he really had a great talent when he did 'Here Comes the Sun.' But when he brought in 'Something,' it was something else. . . . It was a tremendous work - and so simple." On the final day of recording, Harrison shared the conductor's podium with Martin during the string overdubs and recut his elegant guitar solo, a sparkling combination of dirty blues-like slide and soaring romanticism. "He actually did it live with the orchestra," engineer Geoff Emerick says of that guitar break. "It was almost the same solo [as before] - note for note. The only reason I feel he wanted to redo it was emotion."
Losing You
(Jean Renard - Pierre Havet - Carl Sigman/1950) Brenda Lee
Don't ask me why but I loved all those tear jerkers by the likes of Brenda Lee ("Losing You", "Fool Number One", "I'm sorry", "As Usual"), Connie Francis ("Among My Souvenirs") and Skeeter Davis ("End Of The world") during the early 1960s. This one, from Brenda Lee's album Let Me Sing, was released just before Christmas 1962 and it made the top 10 around the world as a single in May 1963. It's short and sweet, not to mention quite sad, and typifies the style of song made so popular by white female singers of that era. Listening to her husky, powerful voice and her incredible vocal control on this song, it is hard to believe that she was only 15 when she recorded it. 'Losing You' was the first song composed in his youth by French producer/composer/singer Jean Renard (b. 1933) under the name of 'Rosaline'. It was later recorded as Connais-tu, meaning Losing You, by Tino Rossi 1961, Jean Renard 1961, Collette Dereal 1963 and Un Ange Mario Candido 1962. The English lyrics were written by Carl Sigman. Doris Day had a version of the song on her 1962 album, Love Him. Lynne Fletcher recorded about a dozen tracks in Sydney for HMV, 1965-67, including "Losing You" which reached No. 26 on the Sydney singles charts.