"Love follows knowledge."
"Beauty above all beauty!"
– St. Catherine of Siena

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Music Tuesday: "Bye Bye Blackbird" by Sammy Davis Jr.

I love this old American Songbook classic, and in my search to find the perfect rendition, I could not find a better version than Sammy Davis, Jr.'s.  I was listening to a collection from Sammy and when this song came on, it blew me away.  The song actually goes back to 1926, and every major American crooner has recorded it, even as recently as Paul McCartney, who of course is not an American.  What Davis does differently is arrange a standup bass around his vocals and sings it in a lower range.  He trusts his voice with the reduced instrumentation and it doesn't fail.  He's perfect.  I now associate this song with Sammy Davis, Jr.  
 



I just wished he would go on longer. 

3 comments:

  1. Wonderful song. And as you say, sung by many over the years. I didn't know it dates back to 1926.

    God bless.

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  2. I agree that his version is awesome. This is one of the songs my father and mother used to sing when family gathered in our living room after a party. :) nice memory, He played guitar, in fact it was his guitar that I picked up at about age 8 and started teaching myself, that ultimately launched me into music.

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