Mystery and music fight for space in my life, and music is gaining. I was fortunate enough to be sent an early copy (by Nicholas Latimer at Knopf, one of the best book publicists and enthusiasts in the business) of The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer.
And the icing on my cake was the DVD, Johnny Mercer: The Dream’s on Me, co-produced by Clint Eastwood, written and directed by Bruce Ricker, and featuring interviews with Tony Bennett, Julie Andrews, Blake Edwards, John Williams, and others. It first showed last Friday on the cable network TCM (Turner Classic Movies), on what would have been singer Mercer’s 100th birthday. (He died in 1976.)
His lyrics established the highest standards in the American songbook. Collaborating with Hoagy Carmichael, Harry Warren, Harold Arlen, and Jerome Kern, among many others, Mercer set unforgettable words to some of the most memorable melodies in popular music, including “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby,” “Fools Rush In,” “I Remember You,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Laura,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Midnight Sun,” “Satin Doll,” “Moon River,” and “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road).”
Some people may think that Eastwood produced this marvelous program for TCM in order to give his daughter Alison a chance to sing on camera. But she’s actually very good, seems to understand the lyrics perfectly, and delivers a moving, nuanced performance.
I’ve been singing Mercer songs to myself ever since seeing that special, and looking up lyrics on the invaluable Lyricsmania site. The details of the Eastwood biography (and other Mercer music) can be found on TCM’s Web site.
READ MORE: “The Quality of Mercer,” by Vince Keenan.
Monday, November 23, 2009
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4 comments:
Cool! Thanks for the tip-off on this as it has completely missed my radar. I'm absolutely going to have to see the DVD.
...and I'm sure that TCM will repeat it.
As part of TCM's Mercer tribute, the station is showing Roadhouse with Ida Lupino, Cornell Wilde and Richard Widmark, all great players in noir films. Lupino plays a singer working in a (what else) road house mangaged by Wilde and owned by Widmark. Lupino sings One for my Baby, maybe the best saloon rendition after the Classic Sinatra that I've heard. She is terrific in this movie, so much toughness in such a tiny body. The czar of noir Eddie Muller does the commentary on the DVD.
Mercer was an amazing talent - more top hit songs than any other songwriter and a mainstay of the Great American Songbook. His lyrics could be light and funny or heartbreaking.
He was also a fine performer, and there are still a lot of CDs of some of his classic performances. I particularly recommend his "Two of a Kind" album - duets with Bobby Darin, though they're not all Mercer lyrics. If you can find them, either his "My Huckleberry Friend" album or the amazing "An Evening with Johnny Mercer," a live hour where he talks about his songs and sings scads of them, are indispensable.
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