For some reason, Fly Me To The Moon has been running around inside my head for the past few days (dreams of escaping from a suddenly rather too stressful Beijing, perhaps??). Wikipedia tells me that the song was written in 1954 by one Bart Howard, and was initially called In Other Words (interesting - I wonder how many other songs have been renamed because their opening line proved to be more arrestingly memorable than their chorus hook or whatever other phrase the songwriter had originally chosen as their title?). Of course, Mr Sinatra did a pretty good version of this, and the great Nat King Cole too. And just yesterday, the inimitable JES (apparently becoming my Web-pimp in addition to his myriad other roles) introduced me to the lovely Polish songstress Karolina Pasierbska, who also does a nice job on it (her scatting is enhanced by an opera-trained technique - have a look at her website for more information on her).
However, the definitive performance remains this by the one and only Julie London (great vocals and a fantastic arrangement).
However, the definitive performance remains this by the one and only Julie London (great vocals and a fantastic arrangement).
[JES did a fabulous post a few months back on Julie's Cry Me A River, part of his occasional What's In A Song? series. He followed up a few days later with a supplementary post on other recordings of the song. Check those out.]
3 comments:
Whoa, a great song indeed! I heard this version lots of times but don't think I ever saw her before. Hot stuff!
That Polish girl is seriously cute too.
Yes, until that post of JES's I don't think I'd known a thing about Julie London, apart from this song (and - maybe - Cry Me A River; I think I'd known that version without realising it was her). She did have a certain ooomph! about her, didn't she?
"Web-pimp": ha ha, not quite the sort of notation I've always wanted to add to my business card -- but I suppose there's plenty of unclaimed whitespace thereon, might as well plug that in... (In my defense, I didn't set out to make the introduction -- but once Karolina was there, well...)
Excellent choice here in Ms. London -- not least, because of all the stills over the music. She was lovely.
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