Three Songs for New Year’s Eve
The night before the ‘glitter on the floor’
Strict house rules on this one. Taylor is singing about New Year’s Day, albeit with smarty-pants time-shifts. And, frankly, ‘You and me from the night before … when you’re lost, and I’m scared, and you’re turning away’ is not the vibe we’re looking for. That isn’t going to get the party started.
Manic jollity is out, too. We all know that for all the arm-linking and stranger kissing December 31st can be a bleak business. Equally, we don’t want to hear about the messy reality of arguing in the rain while occupied taxis splash past — leave that kind of thing to Taylor.
Got to be fun, in short. With a least the possibility of that jackpot romantic happy ending.
1. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
Most assume that Frank Loesser’s song is tailor made for the occasion. But as Frank’s daughter Susan Loesser explains in A Most Remarkable Fella: Frank Loesser and the Guys and Dolls in His Life:
“the singer, madly in love, is making a (possibly rash) commitment far into the future….It always annoyed my father when the song was sung during the holidays”.[2]
I’m reluctant to annoy him now, especially after the earwigging those three spirits gave me over Christmas. So, trigger warning, Mr Loesser, this version does contain the words H**** N** Y****.
And yes, Ms Deschanel is perhaps better known as a comic actress but she is a serious musician, as demonstrated in this delightful duet with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Watch how she slows the tempo at the start.
2. It Had to Be You (Sinatra version in When Harry Met Sally)
Harry, Sally and I did not get off to a good start. I sat stony-faced through my first encounter with their 25 five year off-on-off-on teen romance.
I still have several suggestions for improvements. Losing the tedious sidekicks would be a good start. And as for those the cute real-life oldsters paraded like bears in bow-ties…. Harry’s clunky Auld Lang Syne speech can go, too.
That said, the shameless emotional manipulation of the slowest chase in cinematic history is a master stroke. Even if it does borrow heavily from a better film (see below).
It Had to Be You was written in 1924 by band leader, Isham Jones, with words by Gus Kahn. This underrated partnership came up with two other rueful songbook standards: I’ll See You in My Dreams and “The One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else.
Sinatra’s macho delivery has touch too much swagger for a gossamer light lilting melody, for my taste, anyway. Harry Connick Junior better captures the spirit of the original.
But hey-ho, Frank does his thing and it works in context. The slow beat synchs with Harry’s huffing and puffing, as he jogs towards ‘starting the rest of his his life’.
3. Jealous Lover (Theme for The Apartment)
In 1949 a single was released of the theme of a forgotten British film called The Romantic Age under the title Jealous Lover. Critics noted the influence of Rachmaninov but interest was limited.
A decade later Jealous Lover was revived and renamed for new film by Billy Wilder. This told the story of a budding friendship between a New York ‘elevator girl’ (Shirley MacLaine) and an office junior (Jack Lemmon). The keenly ambitious Lemmon reluctantly pimps his residence to indulge his philandering bosses.
The seediness of this arrangement is felt keenly Lemmon, who pines for MacLaine. She, for her part, is one of the kept women in a tawdry going-nowhere set up with the sublimely creepy Fred MacMurray.
A pretty bleak setup for a romcom — and it goes to some very dark places before a spectacular finale. This starts at a grim office party for all the office stiffs, ‘welcoming in the New Year, New Year’s Eve’.
Again, Auld Lang Syne is as strategic backdrop. MacMurray’s braying rendition is the catalyst for MacLaine’s escape. This segues into Jealous Lover/The Apartment Theme as she races across the New York towards the apartment, a pack of cards and ‘Shut up and deal!’
Hard to top that, ending-wise.
