Vic Pardo
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2013
- Messages
- 1,520
- Real Name
- Brian Camp
Whenever I’m confronted with different versions of a song I like, I tend to prefer one version over the others, which I usually recognize as the “right” version. Now, the “right version” can mean one of three different things to me:
1) The first version I ever heard and the one that was imprinted on my brain:
E.g., Frank Sinatra’s version of Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” is the first version I ever heard and I consider it hands down the best version of that song ever performed. It’s the “right” version despite the fact that it was introduced in a very different style in the film, BORN TO DANCE (1936), by Virginia Bruce, a very nice version indeed, but not definitive.
2) The first version that was ever recorded and the one closest to the songwriter’s vision:
Dick Powell sings “I Only Have Eyes for You” in a Busby Berkeley-choreographed number in the Warner Bros. musical, DAMES (1935). Even though I heard the doo-wop version of this song first, as performed by the Flamingos in 1959, it wasn’t until I saw DAMES in the 1970s that I realized, “THAT’s how this song should be sung.”
3) The version recorded by the songwriter even when a more famous version was recorded by someone else:
I prefer Bob Dylan’s version of “All Along the Watchtower” to Jimi Hendrix’s, even though I heard Hendrix’s first. Dylan wrote the song and his version just seems “right” to me. By the same token, Dylan’s version of his song, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” is far superior to the popular version that played all over the radio in the 1960s. (I forget who did that one and I can’t find it easily on Google.) Dylan’s versions are the “right” ones.
In contrast, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” is another song I like that has many different versions, yet I have to confess that I’m not sure which one is the “right” one. When I do it in karaoke, I do the Platters version since that’s the one that every karaoke place has. Yet the version that turned me on to this song in the first place, even though I’d heard the Platters version first, was by Dinah Washington, but I haven’t heard that in a long time, so I don’t know if it qualifies as the “right” version. I've also listened to Elisabeth Welch's version.
All this came up recently when I rediscovered the Johnny Mathis song, “When Sunny Gets Blue.” Now, as it turns out, when I looked it up on YouTube to hear it again after multiple decades, I learned there were many other versions of this song, including covers by four of the greatest jazz singers of the 20th century: Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughn, Anita O’Day and Mel Torme. I listened to all four and realized that not one of them came close to getting that song “right” the way Mathis does. Maybe coincidentally, his version was the first recorded and it was the first version I heard. It’s also the one that sticks closest to the way the songwriter wrote it (I’m guessing).
“When Sunny Gets Blue” raises another issue. It doesn’t have as clearly defined a melody as most pop songs so it lends itself to jazz styling and improvisation, hence its popularity among jazz singers. Yet, I’m someone who has an aversion to song styling and improvisation. I want the song to stick to the melody as much as possible. For whatever reason, I simply don’t like it when the singer goes “out of bounds,” so to speak. I imagine there are other people on this board who have that quirk, so I’m interested in hearing from people on both sides, those who have the same tendency as well as those who are able to listen to many different versions of a song and enjoy them all, or who can simply appreciate when someone brings something new to old material, something I’m not always able to appreciate.
This post (and its question) constitute something of an experiment. I posted it here, rather than on other possible forums, because I felt there might be more readers here who would be familiar with the songs, singers and writers I cited above.
Thank you.
1) The first version I ever heard and the one that was imprinted on my brain:
E.g., Frank Sinatra’s version of Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” is the first version I ever heard and I consider it hands down the best version of that song ever performed. It’s the “right” version despite the fact that it was introduced in a very different style in the film, BORN TO DANCE (1936), by Virginia Bruce, a very nice version indeed, but not definitive.
2) The first version that was ever recorded and the one closest to the songwriter’s vision:
Dick Powell sings “I Only Have Eyes for You” in a Busby Berkeley-choreographed number in the Warner Bros. musical, DAMES (1935). Even though I heard the doo-wop version of this song first, as performed by the Flamingos in 1959, it wasn’t until I saw DAMES in the 1970s that I realized, “THAT’s how this song should be sung.”
3) The version recorded by the songwriter even when a more famous version was recorded by someone else:
I prefer Bob Dylan’s version of “All Along the Watchtower” to Jimi Hendrix’s, even though I heard Hendrix’s first. Dylan wrote the song and his version just seems “right” to me. By the same token, Dylan’s version of his song, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” is far superior to the popular version that played all over the radio in the 1960s. (I forget who did that one and I can’t find it easily on Google.) Dylan’s versions are the “right” ones.
In contrast, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” is another song I like that has many different versions, yet I have to confess that I’m not sure which one is the “right” one. When I do it in karaoke, I do the Platters version since that’s the one that every karaoke place has. Yet the version that turned me on to this song in the first place, even though I’d heard the Platters version first, was by Dinah Washington, but I haven’t heard that in a long time, so I don’t know if it qualifies as the “right” version. I've also listened to Elisabeth Welch's version.
All this came up recently when I rediscovered the Johnny Mathis song, “When Sunny Gets Blue.” Now, as it turns out, when I looked it up on YouTube to hear it again after multiple decades, I learned there were many other versions of this song, including covers by four of the greatest jazz singers of the 20th century: Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughn, Anita O’Day and Mel Torme. I listened to all four and realized that not one of them came close to getting that song “right” the way Mathis does. Maybe coincidentally, his version was the first recorded and it was the first version I heard. It’s also the one that sticks closest to the way the songwriter wrote it (I’m guessing).
“When Sunny Gets Blue” raises another issue. It doesn’t have as clearly defined a melody as most pop songs so it lends itself to jazz styling and improvisation, hence its popularity among jazz singers. Yet, I’m someone who has an aversion to song styling and improvisation. I want the song to stick to the melody as much as possible. For whatever reason, I simply don’t like it when the singer goes “out of bounds,” so to speak. I imagine there are other people on this board who have that quirk, so I’m interested in hearing from people on both sides, those who have the same tendency as well as those who are able to listen to many different versions of a song and enjoy them all, or who can simply appreciate when someone brings something new to old material, something I’m not always able to appreciate.
This post (and its question) constitute something of an experiment. I posted it here, rather than on other possible forums, because I felt there might be more readers here who would be familiar with the songs, singers and writers I cited above.
Thank you.
