Mark Pentleton » e-min

265/365 Songs: Autumn leaves

admin — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 06:24:17 +0000

As I’m at the Scottish Learning Festival today and tomorrow I was planning ahead a bit yesterday and recorded Autumn Leaves in advance of today. Looking out the window this morning I think September in the Rain may have made more sense… Autumn Leaves, or rather the French original Les Feuilles Mortes dates from 1945. The song was actually written by Joseph Kosma with lyrics by French poet Jacques Prévert. Johnny Mercer wrote an English version in 1947.

195/365 Songs: Feelings (Dime)

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:04:01 +0000

When I said that I was playing this song today my wife reminded me of the line in The Fabulous Baker Boys when Michelle Pfeiffer asks “does anybody really need to hear Feelings again in their lifetime?” However it was one of the songs which was regularly requested in the various restaurants and hotels I played in over the years, so I figured it deserved a place in 365songs! My favourite version? It has to be Beaker singing it in the Muppet Show – “mee mee… mee mee mee mee mee mee…”

180/365 Songs: La Corrida – Francis Cabrel (featuring Pierre-Benoît Hériaud)

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 06:08:17 +0000

It’s time for something a bit special on my 365songs project today: my friend and colleague Pierre Benoît Hériaud was over at the weekend and we decided to record a song we performed live a few years back at the Partners in Excellence Film Festival. It’s Francis Cabrel’s La Corrida, a very powerful song told from the point of view of a bull entering the bullring. The bull asks itself, “est-ce que ce monde est sérieux?” – “is this world for real”, and “je ne pensais pas qu’on puisse autant s’amuser autour d’une tombe” – “I didn’t think it was possible to have so much fun around a tomb”. On the recording Pierre-Benoît is singing and playing guitar and I’m on piano and accordion.

Like many other Scottish teachers, Pierre-Benoît will be stopping for his summer holidays today, so I’d like to wish him and all my other Scottish teaching friends a good summer break – bonnes vacances à tous!

162/365 Songs: Luna Caprese – Peppino di Capri

admin — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:10:21 +0000

It wasn’t until I listened to the evening news on the radio in the car last night that I realised the significance of yesterday’s date. For many years my Italian grandmother would reminisce about the sad events which happened on 10th June 1940 when Churchill infamously gave the order, “Collar the lot!”, referring to Germans and Italians living in the UK. My gran’s family owned Pieroni’s cafe in Irvine and it was business as usual until the day on which Mussolini declared war on Britain and France. Some regular customers became enemies overnight and looted the café. Of course, real friends supported my gran’s family, many coming to visit to demonstrate their solidarity. Nonetheless, it was a difficult time for Italians throughout Scotland and the rest of the UK: even though they had no allegiance to Mussolini, Italian men between the ages of 14 and 75 were interned, many of whom died when a ship deporting them to Canada was torpedoed.

It seemed only appropriate to play something Italian in memory of my gran and her brother and sisters who lived through these sad events. Rather than play something poignant, however, I’ve decided to choose a song which my gran always loved. The song Luna Caprese wasn’t released until twenty years later, but it has always been a favourite in our family. I hope I’ve done it justice.

77/365 Songs: Sway – Dean Martin/Michael Bublé

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:45:56 +0000

This song was originally composed in 1953 as ¿Quién será? (Who will it be?) by the Mexican composer and bandleader Pablo Beltrán Ruiz. An English-language version was released in 1954 by Dean Martin and since then it’s been covered by hundreds of artists, perhaps most famously by Michael Bublé in 2003. I hope you enjoy this week’s second Latin song!

63/365 Songs: I say a little prayer – Dionne Warwick

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:38:47 +0000

Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David in 1967 originally for Dionne Warwick, this is one of those songs which has the musical equivalent of a few imperfect subjunctives! There is a bar of 10/4 in the verse, and the chorus is in 11/4 (2 bars of 4/4 and a bar of 3/4). It was first recorded by Dionne Warwick and since then has been performed by many artists including Aretha Franklin, and most recently the cast of Glee! Hope you enjoy today’s song.

365 Songs: Fragile – Sting

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 07:15:46 +0000

Today’s song is Fragile by Sting from the 1987 album …Nothing like the sun. It was also recorded in Spanish and Portuguese and was dedicated to Ben Linder, an American civil engineer who was killed by the Contras while he was working on a hydroelectric project in Nicaragua in 1987.