Favorite verses

[Free For All]

After reading Nate Dorward's post in another thread I thought this might be an interesting topic. If we've covered it already, let me know (I couldn't find an existing thread).

What are some of your favorite verses to jazz standards (and perhaps some favorite recordings of same)?

There are so many, but a couple great ones that come to my mind immediately are Stardust and Jitterbug Waltz. I think so many of these verses could stand by themselves as complete tunes. I remember in Great Day in Harlem when Benny Golson recalled waking up in the night with a tune in his head, sleepily scrawling some notes on a page and waking up in the morning only to realize it was the verse to Stardust.

I also mentioned (in the other thread) a recording I remember (but don't own) by Gary Dial and Dick Oatts (on DMP, from the 80s) where they focused on verses of standards, sometimes with ever going into the chorus on the tune.

The verse seems like a lost art, it seems like you don't hear things like that anymore. What was the original intent of the verse? I always thought it was a very effective method for starting tunes in movies and Broadway shows. It's fascinating to hear a verse for the first time and wonder where it was going, and then having that feeling of "Wow, this belongs to THIS tune!".

For some reason Rosemary Clooney sticks out in my mind as someone who enjoyed singing verses to tunes.

[JSngry]

There are so many, but a couple great ones that come to my mind immediately are Stardust and Jitterbug Waltz. I think so many of these verses could stand by themselves as complete tunes.

Sinatra, on Sinatra & Strings, recorded just the verse to Stardust I miss the "chorus" (the actual "rest of the song"), but maybe that's just becuase Frank sang the verse so damn well that I didn't want it to end just yet.

What was the original intent of the verse? I always thought it was a very effective method for starting tunes in movies and Broadway shows. It's fascinating to hear a verse for the first time and wonder where it was going, and then having that feeling of "Wow, this belongs to THIS tune!".

To the best of my knowledge, the verse was indeed a transitional device, a way to move to shoe from "text" to "music" mode. The verse seems to encapsulate Our Story So Far and then set up an expansion of Where It's All Going from the specificities of the plot to a broader reality.

What I don't know is if, in the earlier days of musicals, the main "attraction" was the songs (and or song/dancing, the "production numbers"), or the stories themselves, and if the songs were just ways to make the story seem more..."spectacular". If it's the former, I can see the verse serving to let those who weren't really all that keen on following the plot that hey, wake up, it's your turn now. Or if it was the latter, I can see it serving to ease people into the song by showing the relevancy of what they are about to hear now, before they actually hear it.

Actually, aren't arias in opera & solioquies in drama often set up in somewhat the same ways? I mean, action just doesn't all of a sudden stop and then one guy pops up and takes control, ya' know? That shit gets transitioned into. And seeing as how songs in musicals are often, but not always, "feature numbers" for a character, it would be somewhat the same deal, no? But if not, still, the concept of transition is key, I'd think.

Now, as for verses, I think they usually tend to be more fun lyrically than musically. Usually. To that end, I can very much enjoy the verse to "I Can't Get Started" when delivered without too much Braodwayisticality.

And speaking of Rosemary Clooney & verses puts it in my mind that "More Than You Know" has a very nice verse, musically and lyrically. That' s one that I think should be played even if the tune is being done strictly instrumentally, so organic is it to the overall vibe of the song in every regard.

[JSngry]

Oh yeah, Cole Porter's verses are genreally magnificent. "Night & Day", hell that's one that can easily be played as an instrumental introduction with no "adjustment" made to tempo or groove.

"You're The Top", that's another one with great lyrics that really sets up the chorus quite nicely.

This is quite the Pantera's Box you've opened up here, Paul. I'm gonna have to rack my brain and search my collection in order to come up with some more answers.

[JSngry]

"Oh What A Beautiful Morning". Ray Charles did the verse, and.....NICE!

[Jim R]

After reading Nate Dorward's post in another thread I thought this might be an interesting topic. If we've covered it already, let me know (I couldn't find an existing thread).

2006 thread

I think you'll recognize the cat that started it.

Did you ever find a verse for Mandel's "Emily"?

[Teasing the Korean]

Lots of Rodgers and Hart verses. Offhand,

Glad to Be Unhappy (recorded by Sinatra)

Ten Cents a Dance (Ella)

Bewitched (many singers)

[Free For All]

After reading Nate Dorward's post in another thread I thought this might be an interesting topic. If we've covered it already, let me know (I couldn't find an existing thread).

2006 thread

I think you'll recognize the cat that started it.

Did you ever find a verse for Mandel's "Emily"?

That's it. I'm officially senile. Get the friggin' net.

Oh well, maybe some new light will be shed. And no, no discovery of a verse for Emily.

Funny, I did a search for "verse"- it should have come up. My apologies for the redundancy. Shall I kill this thread?

Almost exactly three years ago, no less. Perhaps I have Post-Holiday Ad"verse" Trauma (PHAT).

Edited February 16, 2009 by Free For All

[GA Russell]

My thought doesn't really fit in with what is being said here, but I was always struck by Georgie Fame's inclusion in the lyrics of The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde the line "Acting upon reliable information". I'd bet that's the only song that has that lyric!

[DukeCity]

I just re-read the earlier thread.

Why on earth did I use the lyrics to "Takin' Care of Business" as my example?!?!? WTF?

[Jim R]

After reading Nate Dorward's post in another thread I thought this might be an interesting topic. If we've covered it already, let me know (I couldn't find an existing thread).

2006 thread

I think you'll recognize the cat that started it.

Did you ever find a verse for Mandel's "Emily"?

That's it. I'm officially senile.

Don't worry about it... there's only about nine guys here that aren't.

Shall I kill this thread?

Nah, that earlier one was just the verse for this one.

[Larry Kart]

Two that come to mind are

All The Things You Are

But Not For Me

The former for musical reasons, the latter for the Ira Gershwin lyrics as well (capitalization, punctuation and line breaks are his):

Old Man Sunshine -- listen, you!

Never tell me Dreams Come True!

Just try it --

And I'll start a riot.

Beatrice Fairfax -- don't you dare

Ever tell me he will care;

I'm certain

It's the Final Curtain.

I never want to hear

From any cheer-

Ful Pollyannas,

Who tell you Fate

Supplies a Mate --

It's all bananas!

[Noj]

By coincidence, when I first looked at this thread, I was listening to the tune "Verse" by Bobby Hutcherson. Any relevence?

[medjuck]

I think Ella sings all the verses on the Songbooks. Often my favorite part.

[medjuck]

And is the first part of Lush Life the verse? I read somewhere that the whole song was meant as the verse to Something to Live For.

[Mark Stryker]

A favorite ...

(verse)

It was winter in Manhattan, falling snowflakes filled the air

The streets were covered with a film of ice.

But a little simple magic that I learned about somewhere,

Changed the weather all around, just within a thrice.

(chorus)

I bought you violets for your furs and it was spring for a while, remember?

...

Edited February 17, 2009 by Mark Stryker

[Mark Stryker]

and another classic:

(verse)

My story is much to sad to be told

But practically everything leaves me totally cold

The only exception I know is the case

When I'm out on a quiet spree, fighting vainly the old ennui

Then I suddenly turn and see

Your fabulous face

(chorus)

I get no kick from champagne ...

[Free For All]

How glad the many millions of Annabelles and Lillians

Would be to capture me

But you had such persistence, you wore down my resistance

I fell and it was swell

I'm your big and brave and handsome romeo

How I won you I shall never never know

It's not that you're attractive

But, oh, my heart grew active

When you came into view

I've got a crush on you, sweetie pie......etc.

Edited February 17, 2009 by Free For All

[Mark Stryker]

Not many jazz versions of "The Girl Next Door" that I can think of, but it's a lovely waltz with a very melodic and interesting verse that always surprises me; it's as if the song seems to start in the middle.

The moment I saw her smile,

I knew she was just my style.

My only regret is we've never met

for I dream of her all the while,

But she doesn't know I exist,

no matter how I persist.

So it's clear to see there's no hope for me,

Though I live at fifty-one

thirty-five Kensngton Avenue,

And she lives at fifty-one thirty three.

Edited February 17, 2009 by Mark Stryker

[Mark Stryker]

Good God, I've got to stop. But his one by Ira Gershwin is interesting for setting up the context of the chorus in just two extremely efficient sentences.

There are many many crazy things

That will keep me loving you.

And with your permission

May I list a few.

(chorus)

The way you wear your hat ...

[Free For All]

I usually evaluate these verses primarily for their harmonic and melodic content, but it's also very enlightening to study the lyrics more closely.

[JSngry]

Spring Can Really Hang you Up The Most is good too, not particularly long or anything, but effective. Chris Connor did it on her Atlantic album w/Maynard, arrangement by Willie Maiden, celeste by Jacki Byard, cool shit from start to finish and back again.

Once I was a sentimental thing,

Threw my heart away each spring;

Now a spring romance hasn't got a chance

Promised my first dance to winter;

All Ive got to shows a splinter for my little fling!

There's little pauses in there that are quite effective too. Timing!

[johnlitweiler]

'Loveless Love,' on the Louis Armstrong Plays WC Handy album, has an especially lovely verse as a 12-bar blues (the familiar chorus is 116 bars). Armstrong plays it twice. Did Handy compose this -- seems unlikely, since nobody else apparently recorded that verse -- or did Armstrong, or Dick Cary or someone else? Anybody know where that verse came from? I once asked George Avakian by e-mail and didn't get a reply.