This week on the show, we’ll be exploring the theme of color in the Great American Songbook. Whether you are red with passion, green with envy, or feelin’ kind of blue, colors have a way of highlighting a phrase or providing different shades of meaning. Naturally, the Great American Songbook is bursting with color, providing warmth, tone, and vibrancy to a musical phrase. This hour, we will travel across the entire spectrum of color in traditional American Popular Song, from “Red Sails In The Sunset” all the way to “Deep Purple,” and everything in between.
Color Songs Featured on this Episode:
- Nat King Cole, "Red Sails In The Sunset" (Grosz/Kennedy)
- Carmen McRae, "When the Red, Red, Robin (Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along)" (Woods)
- Frank Sinatra, "Looking at the World Through Rose-Colored Glasses" (Steiger/Maile)
- Doris Day, "Orange-Colored Sky" (DeLugg/Stein)
- Mel Tormé, "The Moon Was Yellow" (Ahlert/Leslie)
- Nat King Cole, "Yellow-Dog Blues" (Handy)
- Bing Crosby, "Mountain Greenery" (Rodgers/Hart)
- Anita O'Day, "If The Moon Turns Green" (Coates/Hanighen)
- Nancy Wilson, "On Green Dolphin Street" (Kaper/Washington)
- Tony Bennett, "Blue Velvet" (Wayne/Morris)
- Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, "Under A Blanket of Blue" (Livington/Symes/Neiburg)
- Frank Sinatra, "Mood Indigo" (Ellington/Bigard/Mills)
- Artie Shaw and his Orchesta, feat. Helen Forrest, "Deep Purple" (DeRose/Parrish)