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Vocal Versions of Instrumental Hits

B

BlueHen

The posts below ("Fly Me To The Moon," "Cast Your Fate To The Wind") got me to think of some of the songs over the years that started out as instrumentals and gained popularity again in a vocal version.

Some that come to mind...
Stranger On The Shore
Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet/A Time For Us
Theme From A Summer Place
Love Is Blue
A Taste Of Honey - a Beatles song, but was their version well-known before Herb Alpert/Tijuana Brass?

The award for the biggest hit vocal that was previously an instrumental might have to go to Bobby Darin's "Mack The Knife," which had multiple instrumental versions several years earlier under the titles "Moritat" and "Theme From The Three Penny Opera." Come to think of it, wasn't "Beyond The Sea" also an instrumental first known as "La Mer?"
 
> The award for the biggest hit vocal that was previously an
> instrumental might have to go to Bobby Darin's "Mack The
> Knife," which had multiple instrumental versions several
> years earlier under the titles "Moritat" and "Theme From The
> Three Penny Opera." Come to think of it, wasn't "Beyond The
> Sea" also an instrumental first known as "La Mer?"

The piece we most often think of as "Mack The Knife" started
life as a vocal in a Bertold Brecht production, Threepenny
Opera. At one time Ernie Kovacs used a recording of it sung
by Brecht himself as part of a really spectacular bit involving
a camera prowling Sunday Morning New York streets on what
amounted to an early skateboard. Brecht didn't intentionally
record it; it was captured accidentally during a rehersal.
The entirety was one of the most chilling things I've ever
seen on TV. It's available at The Museum of Broadcasting in
NYC.

"Beyond the Sea" is the bastard offspring of "La Mer" which
is a popularized re-do of Claude deBussy's (spelling?)classical
work with essentialy the same name.

Two others to which words were force fit were done by Errol
Garner (jazz piano) who composed them. They were the "A"
and "B" sides of a 45 back in the mid-50's. You know
"Misty" and probably associate it with The John of Mathis
(ok, Johnny Mathis). The other, "Dreamy" was recorded by
Sarah Vaughn (I just got a copy off i-Tunes) but never
achieved popularity. "Dreamy" was used as a closing theme
by long-time southern New England DJ Pat Donahue (long since
deceased) and I adopted it years later, having been introduced
to radio by Pat in 1959. I still carry a CD of the Errol
Garner version around with me when I do volunteer work at
non-comms just in case I spill over from engineering into an
air shift.
<P ID="signature">______________
Yes, and even the fleas on their children's pets, the cockroaches under their sinks and the fleas on their camels.</P>
 
Floyd Cramer's "Last Date" was a huge pop and country hut piano instrumental. Later several country/pop crossover singers covered this with vocals, Skeeter Davis & Conway Twitty, as I remember they might have been different lyrics.
 
> I still carry a CD of the Errol
> Garner version around with me when I do volunteer work at
> non-comms just in case I spill over from engineering into an
>
> air shift.

Hello!

A bit off-topic with some scattered recollections here, but was I ever surprised many years ago when I ordered up EG's "Misty," from a Southern California syndicator/supplier, only to get a version with heavy string instrumentation!! I no longer have that, but are you familiar with it?

The thing I enjoy about the "classic Misty" is that if you listen closely with headphones, you can hear Erroll humming along to his own playing in the last verse!

Also, if I recall correctly, weren't there *two* hit versions of "Wheels"... The String-A-Longs, and Billy Vaughn? To the untrained ear, it's hard to tell the difference between the two.

It also seems to me that Prez Prado made more than one recording of a few of his tunes as well.

Back on topic, I can't say I'm always crazy about adding words to instrumentals. I like the term "force fit" that you used. "Summer Place" by The Lettermen is all right, but there are other melodies that should be left alone in their instrumental glory! I can't imagine anyone trying to tamper with "Music Box Dancer"! (This is not to say I don't enjoy "vocalese," such as the Manhattan Transfer would do, but that's a bit different anyway.)

As a final aside, a wise old man once counseled me to never refer to instrumentals as "songs"...since nobody is singing them! He advised me to call them "pieces," "selections," "arrangements," "tunes," and so forth...but not "songs." That's always stuck with me.

Thoughts?

Thanks for letting me ramble!
Kind regards,
Ken Clark
 
> A bit off-topic with some scattered recollections here, but
> was I ever surprised many years ago when I ordered up EG's
> "Misty," from a Southern California syndicator/supplier,
> only to get a version with heavy string instrumentation!! I
> no longer have that, but are you familiar with it?

The only version I've heard with EG is the "Other Voices"
package which originally appeared as Columbia #CL1014. After
wearing out two copies in the pre-cartridge days I bought a
cassette version that was simply a copy off the master. Never
did buy a CD. I do believe "Misty" was done by Garner for
other "albums" and may have been "gussied up" along the way,
though I never did hear it. The original recording did
include The Mitch Miller Orchestra and some feel it was less
than "pure Errol Garner". Yes, on several tracks you can
hear him humming and sort of grunting, sometimes loudly.
I think the most evident was on the track "Solitaire".
 
> Back on topic, I can't say I'm always crazy about adding
> words to instrumentals. I like the term "force fit" that you
> used. "Summer Place" by The Lettermen is all right, but
> there are other melodies that should be left alone in their
> instrumental glory! I can't imagine anyone trying to tamper
> with "Music Box Dancer"! (This is not to say I don't enjoy
> "vocalese," such as the Manhattan Transfer would do, but
> that's a bit different anyway.)

Another one I can't get used to is whoever does that vocal version of David Foster's "Love Theme From St. Elmo's Fire"

But I do love those Manhattan Transfer treatments.
 
> > Th





...Are you that sure about Darin's " Beyond..." ? I read this quite long piece about the song's origin , and its French writer , and the American lyic-adder/translator in Vanity Fair a while ago , and I don't seem to recall classical origins being mentioned .
I think " A Taste Of Honey " was the theme to the play , later movie , of that name , and the Beatles' version was in their ( Original British release . ) '62/63 first album .
I've never seen the play , or , perhaps more to the point , the movie . I'm not sure , then , if its' in it . I believe the TJB's version was , considerably , post-'62 !!!!!!!
To get some ROCK'N'Roll in here , Daddio...One of my favorite r'n'r instros in the Rockin' Rebels' " Wild Weekend " . In the late 70s I heard a vocal version ! I think the title was " It's A Wild Weekend " . ( Very definitely the RRs song , with lyrics added . ) Anybody else remember this'n ???????????

e award for the biggest hit vocal that was previously an
>
> > instrumental might have to go to Bobby Darin's "Mack The
> > Knife," which had multiple instrumental versions several
> > years earlier under the titles "Moritat" and "Theme From
> The
> > Three Penny Opera." Come to think of it, wasn't "Beyond
> The
> > Sea" also an instrumental first known as "La Mer?"
>
> The piece we most often think of as "Mack The Knife" started
>
> life as a vocal in a Bertold Brecht production, Threepenny
> Opera. At one time Ernie Kovacs used a recording of it sung
>
> by Brecht himself as part of a really spectacular bit
> involving
> a camera prowling Sunday Morning New York streets on what
> amounted to an early skateboard. Brecht didn't
> intentionally
> record it; it was captured ally during a rehersal.
>
> The entirety was one of the most chilling things I've ever
> seen on TV. It's available at The Museum of Broadcasting in
>
> NYC.
>
> "Beyond the Sea" is the offspring of "La Mer" which
> is a popularized re-do of Claude deBussy's
> (spelling?)classical
> work with essentialy the same name.
>
> Two others to which words were force fit were done by Errol
> Garner (jazz piano) who composed them. They were the "A"
> and "B" sides of a 45 back in the mid-50's. You know
> "Misty" and probably associate it with The John of Mathis
> (ok, Johnny Mathis). The other, "Dreamy" was recorded by
> Sarah Vaughn (I just got a copy off i-Tunes) but never
> achieved popularity. "Dreamy" was used as a closing theme
> by long-time southern New England DJ Pat Donahue (long since
>
> deceased) and I adopted it years later, having been
> introduced
> to radio by Pat in 1959. I still carry a CD of the Errol
> Garner version around with me when I do volunteer work at
> non-comms just in case I spill over from engineering into an
>
> air shift.
>
 
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