Mark Pentleton

Based on the French song La Mer by Charles Trenet, this song was recorded in 1959 by crooner Bobby Darin. I’d like to dedicate the song to my wife Catriona who celebrates her birthday today. It’s always been one of her favourite songs, and I hope she likes this version! Happy birthday, Catriona!

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Given that today is Fathers’ Day, I asked my dad what song he’d like me to play, so this one is for him! Happy Father’s Day, Dad! I’m sure there’s a photo somewhere of my mum and dad at the Trevi fountain. If not, there’s definitely one of the whole family there in 1980… Dad?
The [...]

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All this week my friend and former colleague Joan Herald has been starring as Mother Abbess in Mearns Castle’s production of The Sound of Music. I would love to have seen the production but my trip to Denmark this week has made that impossible. I’m sure that Joan did an amazing job, and indeed that [...]

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I’ve spent the last five days in Denmark working at the annual Apple Teacher Institute in Svendborg in the south of the island of Fyn. I thought therefore that I should really play something with a Danish theme, although this song isn’t really the most authentic option! It comes from the 1952 musical film about [...]

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This song from the Bernstein/Sondheim musical West Side Story, was first published in 1956. It marks the moment when the character Tony discovers the name of the girl with whom he has just fallen in love. Just to make sure he doesn’t forget it, he repeats the name 29 times in the song!

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I’ve played this song hundreds, if not thousands of times, but it wasn’t until this morning when I was doing my ‘research’ to write today’s blurb that I found out that the song was actually originally written as the theme tune for the 1956 film Around the World in Eighty Days! The vocal version wasn’t [...]

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Today we’re off to Rome. Or rather, we’re off to Rome and leaving already! I decided to play the song Arrivederci, Roma today. The song was first introduced in the 1959 film The Seven Hills of Rome and has been recorded by many artists including Perry Como and Nat King Cole.

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Nel blu dipinto di blu, often referred to as Volare won the Sanremo Music Festival in 1958 and was then chosen to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest. It came third, but nonetheless was voted the second most popular Eurovision song ever, beaten to the top spot by Abba’s Waterloo. Today’s interesting but possibly [...]

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Today’s song was chosen by my son Matthew. It was really his second choice – I’ve suggested that I’ll try to work on a piano version of the Pokémon theme tune for his birthday later in the year! As a pizza lover, Matthew felt this song was the best one to choose for today! Dean [...]

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I had been thinking long and hard about what would be the best song to play for the UK General Election, but I was saved by Jenny O who asked me to play the Nat King Cole song Unforgettable. This song was No. 1 in the UK charts on the day Jenny was born – [...]

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This song was written by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch and was originally called Mutterlein. However, in 1952, David Whitfield and Frankie Lane recorded an English version, written by Carl Sigman. I have to be honest – I had no idea about the history of this song, and I’ve been playing it for years. It [...]

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… and it almost is the wee small hours of the morning by the time I’ve got round to publishing this today! This song dates from 1955 and was first recorded by Frank Sinatra, but has since been covered by various artists including Jamie Cullum, Nanci Griffith and Barbara Streisand. I think the version I [...]

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A beautiful song today – the Cole Porter classic Ev’ry time we say goodbye which was popularised when Ella Fitzgerald recorded it in 1956. I hope you enjoy something nice and calm for the end of a busy week!

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I’ve never been to San Francisco, so I’m not quite sure if I left my heart there! I’ve been following Don McAllister’s blog and tweets about his experiences at MacWorld in San Francisco this year and it got me thinking that I’d not yet included the Tony Bennett classic in my daily lineup, so I hope you [...]

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A very romantic song today, and make sure you click on the links which will help to illustrate my story! True Love was first sung by Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly in the 1956 musical film High Society. The last time I heard this song performed was at the Benny Anderssons Orkester concert last summer in [...]

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Bit late today – sorry! Today’s song is the classic When I fall in love. I’ve always associated this song with Nat King Cole, but it turns out that his was not the original. Doris Day recorded it in 1952 and Nat King Cole’s recording dates from 1956. I hope you enjoy it, even if [...]

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This beautiful song written by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim is my favourite song from West Side Story, and indeed one of my favourite songs of all time! In addition to featuring on the cast recordings of many productions of the show, Somewhere has been recorded by artists ranging from Johnny Mathis to Josh [...]

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This one’s for my mum! I wonder if she’ll post a comment now…
Mona Lisa was first recorded by Nat King Cole in 1950 and since then has been covered by Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson and … Shakin’ Stevens!

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