THE HOAGY CARMICHAEL SONG BOOK
Hoagy Carmichael was one of the most successful, inventive and sophisticated American songwriters of the 20th century. Born Hoagland Howard Carmichael in Bloomington, Indiana, he was a multitalented composer, pianist, singer, actor - and trained lawyer. He was also a pioneer who actively embraced early mass-media technology, and was among the first true singer-songwriters to leverage electronic microphones, radio broadcasts, and early sound cinema to establish a distinct, casual performing persona.
Carmichael composed several hundred songs, with 50 of them achieving massive hit status. He is responsible for four of the most-recorded popular music standards of all time: Stardust (1927), Georgia on My Mind (1930), Heart and Soul (1938) and The Nearness of You (1938). He was one of the inaugural ten inductees into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1969.
Interestingly, in Ian Fleming's original novels, the literary character James Bond is explicitly described as looking remarkably like a dark, brooding Hoagy Carmichael!
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Intro: A Little White Ship - Todd Gordon: Love dot com
Riverboat Shuffle - Hoagy Carmichael: The Stardust Road
Lazy Bones - Jeri Southern: Southern Breeze
Rockin’ Chair - The Hi-Lo’s: I Presume
When Love Goes Wrong - Jane Russell & Marilyn Monroe: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Soundtrack)
I Get Along Without You Very Well - Kurt Elling: Flirting with Twilight
Sing It Way Down Low - Barbara Lea, Bob Dorough & Dick Sudhalter: Hoagy's Children: Songs of Hoagy Carmichael (Vol 2)
Ole Buttermilk Sky - Nellie Lutcher: Our New Nellie
The Nearness of You - Frank Sinatra: Nice ’n’ Easy (60th anniversary edition - bonus track)
Memphis in June - Johnny Mercer: Johnny Mercer & The Pied Pipers
Sing Me A Swing Song (And Let Me Dance) - Ella Fitzgerald & Chick Webb: Pure Ella
Judy - Tony Bennett: When Lights Are Low
(Up a) Lazy River - Bing Crosby & Louis Armstrong: Bing & Satchmo (bonus track)
Georgia On My Mind - Ray Charles: single
Two Sleepy People - Sammy Davis Jr & Carmen McRae: Boy Meets Girl
In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening - Todd Gordon & John Colianni: Moon River to the Days of Wine and Roses
Heart and Soul - Sue Rainey: When Your Lover Has Gone
The Rhumba Jumps - Mel Tormé: Olé Tormé
Stardust - Nat King Cole: Love Is the Thing
Hoagy Carmichael
(November 22, 1899 - December 27, 1981)
“And now the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart
High up in the sky the little stars climb always reminding me that we’re apart.
You wander dow the lane and far away leaving me a song that will not die
Love is now the stardust of yesterday, the music of the years gone by…”
Image: Zeynep Sude Emek/Pexels