valentine
Rogers' and Hart's "My Funny Valentine" has got to be the only love song specific to this day (14/2). I haven't done a Val Day gig yet where I wasn't asked to play it. Rightly so: it remains a beautifully written, even profound classic 70 years after its creation.
Thinking about Funny Valentine and Tin Pan Alley and all the great tunes that were written back then led me to pondering this question: what is - chronologically - the last tune that could claim its rightful place beside a tune like Funny Valentine? What is the last era in which great evergreens were still being written?
If one looks at the Beatles ouvre, it is easy to see that McCartney's "Yesterday", Harrison's "Something" and quite possibly Lennon's "In My Life" would fit the bill. Quite a few other McCartney tunes would probably have to be considered..."Here, There & Everywhere", "Long & Winding Road", "Eleanor Rigby". While "Let It Be" and "Hey Jude" have an anthem-like quality to them, I personally don't think they make the grade. Lennon's over-hyped "Imagine" is terrible: treacly lyrics, with meaningless phrases like "Imagine no possessions" (from a billionaire, living in a suburban mansion at the time), to the bland melody, yikes. But I digress.
Post Beatles...what? Elton John? Probably not. Decent songwriting (although Taupin's lyrics can't hold a candle to someone like Ira Gershwin), yet none of the E.J. megahits from the 70's can really be classified as an enduring classic. None of his melodies comes lilting off the tongue with the ease of a "S'Wonderful" or a "Blue Moon". And the 80's? Michael Jackson? Madonna? Songwriting-wise it's all dreck. Great dance tunes? Yes, certainly. Solid arrangements. No doubt! But do you really stroll down the street humming tunes from"Thriller"? Billy Joel wrote some fine tunes and probably one that will stand the test of time, overplayed as it is: "Just the Way You Are".
And that's about it. No sense even looking into the grungy 90's or the rap-infested present decade. Don't get me wrong: nothing wrong with grunge or rap if that's your bag, baby! I am simply saying that there is nothing there that will last.
My ultimate favourite version of "My Funny Valentine" (and there are scores of superb ones) is Chet Baker's. Not really a great singer, perhaps not really a singer at all. Yet the pain, the trembling vulnerability of his vocal interpretation and his trumpet playing will send shivers down your spine. It's a song that belongs to him just as surely as "Lady is a Tramp" belongs to tge Chairman of the Board!
Whatever you do, don't spoil the tune for yourself by listening to Rod Stewart's version from one of his "Rod Stewart