Sunday, October 14, 2012

The Days Grow Short As We Reach November

No month that I know of has more beautiful songs written about it than the month of September.  Here is a selection of wonderful September Songs.


September Song by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson may be the loveliest of all of those songs. It was was written in 1938 for the Broadway show 'Knickerbocker Holiday" starring Walter Huston. 

This is the original version of September Song. The singer, Walter Huston, was an  Academy Award Winning actor (Treasure of Sierra Madre), and father of Walter and grandfather of Angelica Huston.  A song stylist of rather limited range rather than a virtuoso, Walter's version is full of longing and melancholy. 



This version is by Walter Huston's granddaughter, Angelica.


Lotte Lenya was Kurt Weill's wife and a singer of  great renown. This is her majestic version.  

 This version, featuring Billy Eckstine walking 
through the fake woods, is my personal favorite.
September Song - Billy Eckstine

Tony Bennett offers the rarely sung introduction
Sarah Vaughan and Wynton Marsalis 
with the Boston Pops give it a regal shine.

Ella Fitzgerald imbues it with her special brand of velvet.


Songs as great as this are unbound by musical genre
Willie Nelson approaches it from the country tradition


While Lou Reed brings it into the rock domain


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