Tracking down songs from tv shows is so much easier now than it used to be. Chances are fair there will even be an ad for the artist's CD at the end of the show. Failing that, there's the show's website, and if the info isn't there, there are probably fans taking up the slack a short google search away.
When I first heard "Skylark," these resources weren't available to me. I cursed episodic tv credits for not including songs used. Sure, it was easy enough to guess the song's title, but it's a jazz standard so there are myriad recordings of it by myriad performers.
My library only had a card catalog in those days, making the search for a particular song difficult. There was no way to easily preview different versions of the song.
I bought Sweet Bitter Love, an album by Aretha Franklin, but the CD didn't have the version of Skylark I was hunting for. I knew her voice well enough that I should've realized that beforehand, nevertheless, Aretha's rendition grew on me over the years.
It came up on shuffle yesterday and re-sparked my old quest. China Beach* is among my all-time favorite tv shows. I thought surely by now, there'd be an episodic guide including Skylark's performer. No luck though.
iTunes didn't help much either with its 150 different Skylark tracks. A couple performers seemed likely, but being over a decade since I last saw that episode, it was hard to be sure. Salvation came from a miraculously available archived review from The New York Times which confirmed for me that Ella Fitzgerald was the performer.
Now I just have to track down that version of Someone to Watch Over Me I like so well. And Baby, It's Cold Outside. And...
*My VHS copies from tv sitting in storage aren't going to hold up forever. Release China Beach on DVD (and don't forget to include some sweet extras and commentaries)!
One year ago at TTaT: The Screws of the Man (part 1)
Technorati tags: Skylark, Ella Fitzgerald, China Beach
i love that song! both ella and aretha do great renditions.
ReplyDeleteAnother China Beach fan? Sweet!
ReplyDeleteSizz: I always knew you had excellent taste. From the first time I heard it, the song was just very pleasing to my ear.
ReplyDeleteKevin: You have great taste too! :) To me it definitely holds a lot of weight that I'm still a fan of that show after all these years. China Beach was just some excellent television.
Zooey Deschanel (the spelling of whose name I'm not going to look up right now) does a beautiful "Baby, It's Cold Outside" on the Elf soundtrack. Is that the one you're thinking of?
ReplyDeleteCheryl: I think you've got the sp. right for ZD. That's not the version I'm thinking of, but I'm not sure I have a specific one in mind. I.e., whether it's a rendition I actually heard or just one from my head.
ReplyDeleteZD's duet partner on the sdtrk's voice is too deep in comparison to hers for my taste.