“Each kiss an inspiration”
The more you listen to it, the more you must conclude that it is the perfect recording of a song, with Nat King Cole’s matchless voice, the floating melody and lyrics entwining love and memories and…music.
Here’s a decent little editing effort over that record (by mrchef, of The Rock & Roll Chef) with Hubble telescope images and some shots of Hoagy.
Perfect. Well, the song is. I think anyway.
And here’s The King himself. with a TV performance of the song. Hard to beat.
They don’t sing ‘em or write ‘em like that anymore.
Here’s Hoagy playing it instrumentally. Without moving either. Wow.
And finally, to make up for the lack of motion in the previous, a Carmichael song can even make the unpolished pipes of the torchy and nicely motile Lauren Bacall sound good in the great film, To Have and Have Not, the project where Bogie fell for her hard. You can see it in this scene. I don’t think he’s acting too hard there. And of course you know that’s Hoagy on piano.
Hoagy Carmichael, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Nat King Cole, Stardust, movies, music | bshears March 28, 2008
