In addition to all the other celebrations, we have a centenary today - the pianist, arranger, composer and conductor Paul Weston.
Probably more famous today for his long professional and personal relationship with the lovely Jo Stafford, Mr Weston worked with many of the top artists and musicians of the 20th century - Tommy Dorsey, Rudy Vallee, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, Betty Hutton, Johnny Mercer, Doris Day, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny, Sarah Vaughan, Margaret Whiting, Judy Garland, Danny Kaye, Frankie Laine, Ella Fitzgerald and even Liberace among them. Phew!
Here are a couple of tracks he popularised:
And two he wrote:
Facts about Paul Weston:
- In the 1930s he was seriously injured in a train accident and began arranging music rather than playing it during his convalescence.
- He was a founder of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, whose purpose was to create an award for recording artists. It became known as the Grammy.
- In addition to pop music he also wrote classical pieces, including the Crescent City Suite
- Paul and Jo married in 1952, and remained together until his death in 1996.
A lady known as Paris, Romantic and Charming
Has left her old companions and faded from view
Lonely men with lonely eyes are seeking her in vain
Her streets are where they were, but there's no sign of her
She has left the Seine
The last time I saw Paris, her heart was warm and gay,
I heard the laughter of her heart in every street café
The last time I saw Paris, her trees were dressed for spring,
And lovers walked beneath those trees and birds found songs to sing.
I dodged the same old taxicabs that I had dodged for years.
The chorus of their squeaky horns was music to my ears.
The last time I saw Paris, her heart was warm and gay,
No matter how they change her, I'll remember her that way.
I'll think of happy hours, and people who shared them
Old women, selling flowers, in markets at dawn
Children who applauded, Punch and Judy in the park
And those who danced at night and kept our Paris bright
'til the town went dark.
Unadulterated genius!
Read my previous blogs about the saintly duo here and here
The Paul Weston and Jo Stafford Collection at the University of Arizona.
