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”

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”

The Sound of Silence

The Sound of Silence was the song that launched the careers of the folk music duo Simon and Garfunkel. Paul Simon wrote it in 1963 in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He conceived the song as a way of articulating the emotional trauma felt by many Americans. Piano - Roberton Publications 53170 - price code Y - duration c.3'20"

They Call the Wind Maria

If it’s any help, much of this song is in unison! It was written for the Broadway Musical Paint your wagon,(1951) a show  set in gold rush era California. This song is descriptive of  the hardships that gold prospectors endure. “Away out here they got a name for wind and rain and fire. The rain is Tess, the fire is Joe and they call the wind Maria”. Piano – Roberton Publications 53191 – price code X – duration c.1’50”

The Trolley Song

“Clang, clang, clang went the trolley. Ding, ding, ding went the bell”  sang Judy Garland in the 1944 film Meet me in St. Louis.The song invites you to join her “to the end of the line”. Piano – Roberton Publications 53192 – price code X – duration c.1’50”

The Way We Were

From the film of the same name (starring Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand), the song won the Academy award for the best original song and the best original score by Marvin Hamlisch. Well worth considering, especially if you are into nostalgia! Piano – Roberton Publications 53193 – price code X – duration c.2’2e0”

What a Wonderful World

Initially not a hit in the USA, What a wonderful world reached No.1 in the UK charts and was the biggest-selling single in 1968. The song was written specifically for Louis Armstrong and it details the singer's delight in the simple pleasures of everyday life. Piano - Roberton Publications 53182 - price code X - duration c.2'55"

The Wind Beneath my Wings

The Wind Beneath my wings was named Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards of 1990. Originally recorded in 1983 by American country music singer Gary Morris, it only reached the number-one spot when Bette Midler started performing it. Piano – Roberton Publications 53194 – price code X – duration c.2’55”

Young and Sentimental - A Sinatra medley

The songs in this medley are You make me feel so young and Sentimental Journey. Between 1939 and 1993 Frank Sinatra recorded over 1200 songs, many of them becoming massive hits. Many consider him the greatest singer of popular songs in the 20th century. The very successful LP Songs for swinging lovers (1956) included You make me feel so young. Sentimental Journey was one of the titles on another big-seller called Come Swing with me (1961). Commercial recording in stereo had arrived comparatively recently (in 1956) and was exploited to the full on this LP. Piano - Roberton Publications 53177 - price code Y - duration c.2'55"