Series 33, Prog 20

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