Lullaby of Broadway

Another song that was a big success for Doris Day. She was the star of a 1951 film of the same name featuring the Harry James orchestra. However, this was not the first time that Lullaby of Broadway had been used in a film. It was originally written for  Gold Diggers of 1935 and won the Acadamy award for best original song the following year.  Piano – Roberton Publications 53187 – price code X – duration c.2’25”

Makin' Whoopee

The title is a well-known euphemism for sexual intimacy, and there are many unofficial variants. The song itself is a strong warning to men that once the honeymoon is over marriage can become a trap from which there is no escape. The lyrics are clever and amusing, particularly the last verse!        This is a two-part arrangement.  Piano - Roberton Publications 53195 - price code X - duration c.2'30"

My Way

Inevitably associated with Frank Sinatra, My Way became his signature song in the later stages of his career. He even sang it as a duet with Luciano Pavorotti. The original French pop song was heard by Paul Anka in Paris in 1967. He bought the publishing rights and, back in New York, modified the melody and wrote an English lyric that he thought would appeal to Sinatra. The rest is history.  Piano - Roberton Publications 53179 - price code X - duration c.2'50"

Night and Day

Cole Porter was one of the greatest of all American songwriters, and one of the few to have written both the lyrics and the music of his songs. He was noted for sophisticated lyrics,(I get a kick out of you) clever rhymes (Brush up your Shakespeare) and complex forms (Begin the Beguine). Perhaps his most popular contribution to the repertoire was Night and Day, and it has been recorded  by many of the great singers, Ella Fitzgerald, Shirly Bassey, Dionne Warwick, etc. Frank Sinatra recorded it five times. The construction of Night and Day is unusual. Most pop songs of the Thirties adopted a 32-bar formula divided into four 8-bar sections with an AABA structure. Porter’s song has a 48-bar chorus divided into six sections of 8 bars in a ABABCB format.  Piano – Roberton Publications 53188 –price code X - duration c.2'50"

Passing By

An old pop song dating from the Thirties. Often confused as being written by Henry Purcell, but actually from the somewhat obscure writer Edward Purcell. The song, which can be summed up in one of its lines “I did but see her passing by, and yet I love her ’til I die” was extraordinarily popular in its time. Piano – Cat no 1571 – price code C – duration c.1’45”

Pick Yourself Up

Dorothy Field wrote the words for Jerome Kern’s catchy tune. The song was written for  the film Swing Time, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The lyrics advise us how to deal with adversity – “I pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again”. This advice is over 70 years old but still worth taking! Piano – Roberton Publications 53189 – price code X – duration c.2’10”

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head

Burt Bacharach has written a great many hits -  Twenty four hours from Tulsa, Anyone who had a heart, What the world needs now is love, Trains and boats and planes, Alfie, I’ll never fall in love again, Always something there to remind me and dozens more.  He wrote Raindrops….. for the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (a story of  bank robbers played by Robert Redford and Paul Newman). The song has now been popular for 40 years. Piano – Roberton Publications 53190 – price code X – duration c.1’55”

September Song

September Song was written to oblige the actor Walter Huston. He was about to take a leading role in a Broadway Musical and felt he ought to have at least one solo spot. Huston’s voice was poor and his vocal range limited, but the song survived the treatment and is now a much-loved standard. It has been performed and recorded innumerable times. The composer, Kurt Weill, also wrote The Threepenny Opera with the German playwright Bertolt Brecht. It included another now-famous song – Mack the Knife.                                Piano - Roberton Publications 53201 - price code X - duration c.2'45"