SONG OF THE DAY
“Why Try To Change Me Now” by Fiona Apple (The Best Is Yet To Come: The Songs of Cy Coleman, New West Records, 2009). Written by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Joseph Allan McCarthy.
MY TAKE
This incredible compilation not only includes this sick track by my girl Fiona, but also includes tracks by ma’ girls Patty Griffin, Madeleine Peyroux, and Missy Higgins. Wordwordword.
Let’s get back to this song though. ACKKKK, Fiona Apple makes everything so tragic and melancholy, like she’s going to slow motion jump off a bridge at the end of this song. These lyrics are sad, sure, but it’s her arrangement of the song that gives it real tragedy; that tempo that tinges with a “last dying breath” vibe. I love hearing her voice backed up with jazz instrumentalization too, but it’s a catch-22, because it only makes me want more. In fact, it makes me want her to cover Billie Holiday’s entire repertoire, or if not everything, then at least her finale album Lady In Satin. ACKKK, what if she really did an album of Billie Holiday covers??? I would die. Fiona, if you’re out there, do this. You’d be good at it, and I would love it.
THE NEW WEST RECORDS PRESS RELEASE
July 6, 2009 — Los Angeles, CA – Cy Coleman, the youngest member of the elite group of Great American Songbook composers (Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George & Ira Gershwin), will be honored this fall with an album of new recordings of his classic songs. The Best Is Yet To Come: The Songs of Cy Coleman, available September 15, 2009 from New West Records, is a provocative, cutting-edge album featuring inspiring interpretations by a select group of gifted contemporary female artists. Fiona Apple contributes two songs (her first new music in five years), alongside such artists as Missy Higgins, Madeleine Peyroux, Jill Sobule, Nikka Costa, Sara Watkins and Patty Griffin, who sings a sultry version of the album’s Grammy Award winning title song. Coleman’s music will be showcased this fall in two special concerts in New York and Los Angeles….
Coleman was the last major contributor to the Great American Songbook. He’s responsible for timeless songs such as “Witchcraft,†“The Best Is Yet To Come,†“Big Spender†and “The Rules Of The Road†made timeless by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Barbara Streisand, Dusty Springfield, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee. Ella Fitzgerald won a Grammy for her performance of “The Best Is Yet To Come.â€
THE TRACK LIST
- The Best Is Yet To Come – Performed by Patty Griffin
- I’ve Got Your Number – Performed by Jill Sobule
- Why Try To Change Me Now – Performed by Fiona Apple
- I Live My Love – Performed by Madeleine Peyroux
- Then Was Then And Now Is Now – Performed by Ambrosia Parsley
- I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life – Performed by Julianna Raye
- You Fascinate Me So – Performed by Sam Phillips
- Hey Look Me Over – Performed by Perla Batalla
- Too Many Tomorrows – Performed by Sara Watkins
- I Walk A Little Faster – Performed by Fiona Apple
- Where Am I Going? – Performed by Sarabeth Tucek
- The Rules Of The Road – Performed by Nikka Costa
- (I’m) In Love Again – Performed by Missy Higgins
ABOUT CY COLEMAN (compiled from wikipedia)
– Cy Coleman (6/14/1929 – 11/18/2004, age 75) was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.
– He was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. He was a child prodigy who gave piano recitals at Steinway Hall, Town Hall, and Carnegie Hall between the ages of six and nine.
– Before beginning his fabled Broadway career, he led the Cy Coleman Trio, which made many recordings and was a much-in-demand club attraction.
– Despite the early classical and jazz success, he decided to build a career in popular music.
– His first collaborator was Joseph Allen McCarthy, but his most successful early partnership, albeit a turbulent one, was with Carolyn Leigh.
– One of his instrumentals, “Playboy’s Theme,” became the signature music of the regular TV shows and specials presented by Playboy, and remains synonymous with the magazine and its creator, Hugh Hefner.
– Coleman’s career as a Broadway composer began when he and Leigh collaborated on Wildcat (1960), which marked the Broadway debut of comedienne Lucille Ball.
– Next for the two was Little Me, with a book by Neil Simon based on the novel by Patrick Dennis (Auntie Mame).
– In 1964, Coleman met Dorothy Fields at a party, and when he asked if she would like to collaborate with him, she is reported to have answered, “Thank God somebody asked”. Fields was revitalised by working with the much younger Coleman, and by the contemporary nature of their first project, which was Sweet Charity, again with a book by Simon, starring Gwen Verdon. The show was a major success and Coleman found working with Fields much easier than with Leigh. The partnership was to work on two more shows – an aborted project about Eleanor Roosevelt, and Seesaw which reached Broadway in 1973 after a troubled out-of-town tour. Despite mixed reviews, the show enjoyed a healthy run. The partnership was cut short by Fields’ death in 1974.
– Coleman remained prolific in the late 1970s. He collaborated on I Love My Wife (1977) with Michael Stewart, On The Twentieth Century (1978) with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and Home Again, Home Again with Barbara Fried, although the latter never reached Broadway.
– In 1980, Coleman served as producer and composer for the circus-themed Barnum, which co-starred Jim Dale and Glenn Close. Later in the decade, he collaborated on Welcome to the Club (1988) with A.E. Hotchner, and City of Angels (1989) with David Zippel. In the latter, inspired by the hard-boiled detective film noir of the 1930s and ’40s, he returned to his jazz roots, and the show was a huge critical and commercial success.
– The 1990s brought more new Coleman musicals to Broadway: The Will Rogers Follies (1991), again with Comden and Green, The Life (1997), a gritty look at pimps, prostitutes, and assorted other lowlife in the big city, with Ira Gasman, and a revised production of Little Me.
– Coleman has been the only composer to win consecutive Tony awards for Best Score at the same time that the corresponding musicals won for Best Musical: City of Angels and Will Rogers’ Follies.
– Coleman was on the ASCAP Board of Directors for many years and also served as their Vice Chairman Writer.
– To the very end, he was part of the Broadway scene – just prior to passing away, he had attended the premiere of Michael Frayn’s new play Democracy. One final musical with a Coleman score played in Los Angeles in 2004 under the title Like Jazz, presumably as a Broadway tryout.
- – Awards and nominations
- 1997 Tony Award Best Book of a Musical The Life (nominee)
- 1997 Tony Award Best Musical The Life (nominee)
- 1997 Tony Award Best Original Score The Life (nominee)
- 1991 Tony Award Best Musical The Will Rogers Follies (winner)
- 1991 Tony Award Best Original Score The Will Rogers Follies (winner)
- 1990 Tony Award Best Musical City of Angels (winner)
- 1990 Tony Award Best Original Score City of Angels (winner)
- 1980 Tony Award Best Musical Barnum (nominee)
- 1980 Tony Award Best Original Score Barnum (nominee)
- 1978 Tony Award Best Musical On the Twentieth Century (nominee)
- 1978 Tony Award Best Original Score On the Twentieth Century (winner)
- 1977 Tony Award Best Musical I Love My Wife (nominee)
- 1977 Tony Award Best Original Score I Love My Wife (nominee)
- 1974 Tony Award Best Musical Seesaw (nominee)
- 1974 Tony Award Best Original Score Seesaw (nominee)
- 1966 Tony Award Best Composer and Lyricist Sweet Charity (nominee)
- 1966 Tony Award Best Musical Sweet Charity (nominee)
- 1963 Tony Award Best Composer and Lyricist Little Me (nominee)
- 1963 Tony Award Best Musical Little Me (nominee)
– He also won three Emmy Awards  and two Grammy Awards.
- – Among his many honors and awards, he was elected to the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame (1981), and was the recipient of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame Johnny Mercer Award (1995) and the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award for lifetime achievement in American musical theatre. He was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame and received a Honorary Doctorate from Hofstra University in 2000.
VIDEO OF THE DAY
You need to hear this NOW: