Chronicling trends in entertainment, pop culture, politics, the arts, and the uncategorized et cetera.

Shallow Nation

September 11th, 2009 at 7:04 am

Harry Connick Jr. Your Songs Track-List

Here is the Harry Connick Jr. Your Songs track-list along with behind the scenes video and the (They Long to Be) Close to You by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, lead single of the forthcoming studio album of jazz standards and classics, set for release on September 22, 2009.

The album is a first-time collaboration between Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and musician and legendary music mogul Clive Davis, both pictured above at an August 2009 listening event for the album which was released on vinyl on August 25.

Songs were selected by Davis who executive-produced the album, and Connick’s long-time collaborator Tracey Freeman serving as producer. The orchestrations and arrangements by Connick and include a range of selections from “Some Enchanted Evening” from the Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers musical South Pacific to And I Love Her, the Beatles classic.

Featured performers include Branford Marsalis, saxophone and his brother, Wynton Marsalis on trumpet. Additional guest appearances from trumpeters Leroy Jones and Wayne Bergeron, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. [Source: Harry Connick Jr. collaborated with Clive Davis on forthcoming album of standards]

Harry Connick Jr. described the collaboration with Clive Davis in a recent interview. He said Davis initially told him:

‘I know you do your own composing, conducting, piano playing, but this time let’s just have you do the singing. Your singing alone should be the focus. ”

We’d meet every Wednesday. I’d come to his office, play the music on my computer, which would be pumped through his stereo system, and sing to him across his desk. For four hours. We’d have lunch. Then I’d go home, and the following Wednesday come back and sing to him again across his desk for another four hours.

“It was as if we spoke two different languages. I was technical. He was instinctual. Like I’d set a tempo, and he’d say, ‘Yes, that’s the right tempo.’

But how does he know? The man’s had no musical training. It’s very abstract what he knows. But he knows what people respond to.”

Source: Listen, Party Time!

Here is the Harry Connick Jr. Your Songs Track-Listing. Videos are below.

1. “All the Way (featuring Branford Marsalis)”…(James Van Heusen, Sammy Cahn )
2. “Just the Way You Are”….(Billy Joel)
3. “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You (feat. Wynton Marsalis)”….(George David Weiss, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore)
4. “And I Love Her”….(Paul McCartney, John Lennon)
5. “(They Long to Be) Close to You (feat. Leroy Jones)”….(Burt Bacharach, Hal David)
6. “Bésame Mucho….(Consuelo Velázquez )
7. “The Way You Look Tonight”….(Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields)
8. “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”….(Ewan MacColl)
9. “Your Song”….(Elton John, Bernie Taupin)
10. “Some Enchanted Evening”….(Oscar Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers)
11. “And I Love You So”….(Don McLean)
12. “Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)”….Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley)
13. “Smile”….(Charlie Chaplin, John Turner, Geoffrey Parsons)
14. “Mona Lisa”….(Jay Livingston, Ray Evans)

Video Link: Harry Connick Jr. Interview Video