Pretend

“Pretend” is a popular song, written in 1952 by Lew Douglas, Cliff Parman, and Frank Levere.  The best-known recording, by Nat King Cole was released by Capitol Records. It first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on January 31, 1953 and lasted 20 weeks on the chart, peaking at #3. Cole would later re-record the song for his 1961 album The Nat King Cole Story. Continue reading

Autumn Leaves

“Autumn Leaves” is a much-recorded popular song. Originally it was a 1945 French song “Les feuilles mortes” (literally “The Dead Leaves”) with music by Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert. Yves Montand (with Irène Joachim) introduced “Les feuilles mortes” in 1946 in the film Les Portes de la Nuit. The American songwriter Johnny Mercer wrote English lyrics in 1947 and Jo Stafford was among the first to perform this version. Autumn Leaves became a pop standard and a jazz standard in both languages and both as an instrumental and with a singer. Continue reading

Around the world (in 80 days)

“Around the World” was the theme tune from the 1956 movie Around the World in 80 Days  It never actually featured with the lyrics in the Around the World in Eighty Days film, but it is the vocal version which has by far become the better known. It was written by Harold Adamson and Victor Young, for whom it was a #13 hit on the Billboard charts (posthumously) in 1957.

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