I recently became interested in the song 'My funny Valentine', partly because Matt Giraud sang it on American Idol (unfairly, I thought, he got knocked out that week) and also because there was a film on TV about Chet Baker, the jazz musician who was one of the leading performers of the song.
Baker was known, I suppose, for three things: his music (trumpet and singing), the fact that he was fabulously good looking in his younger days, and his dissolute lifestyle (he took enormous quantities of drugs, mainly heroin). The film, 'Let's get lost', portrayed him at the age of about 58 (shortly before he died, falling out of a hotel window). He was very lined after all the years of hard living, but still good looking in a wasted sort of way. His musicianship, amazingly, was still strong.
Anyway, this led me to listen to his recording of MFV: singing it, although he also played it on the trumpet many times. It's a haunting performance. He has an incredibly gentle voice. It's like a woman's voice, not because it's high in pitch, but because of the softness, the caressing quality he has. That seems right for the song, which was originally meant to be sung by a woman.
Strangely enough, the next version of the song up on Youtube was the one by Nico, which is weird in the opposite direction, Nico was a very beautiful woman, but her voice was very deep, easily mistakable for a man's. She also had a troubled life, although I don't think she took the amount of drugs that Chet did.
Here are the three versions:
Matt Giraud
Chet Baker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvXywhJpOKs
Nico
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1xplddbEnY
5 comments:
Have you heard Elvis Costello's version? It takes me back to very happy times.
I've just listened to it: very nice. It's short and, as in my most over-used phrase, "Less is more".
Love the eyes, by the way.
D.
By far the best is the Frank Sinatra version preferably imitated by my Dad who used to sing this song around the house. Ah memories.
I'll certainly listen to Frank's version, Sair.
It's obviously a song that has a hold on people one way or another
love
Davidxx
Have now listened to Frankie's version.
Of course, it's great: he sings any song beautifully.
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