Dusty Springfield -- The Look of Love

 

Welcome to another weekly article of Reminiscings of Youth. A few years ago, I posted up the theme from the first "Casino Royale" (1967), the hot mess of a 007 spoof starring David Niven and Peter Sellers which nonetheless inspired Mike Myers' "Austin Powers" franchise. As I said in that article, I have seen the movie once and then bits and pieces on YouTube. However, what I've appreciated most about the flick is the music and that Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass theme penned by the amazing Burt Bacharach that is so infused with the Swinging 60s of Great Britain. If I were ever to get to London someday on a vacation and somehow got a Savile Row suit, I would love to walk up and down the streets with that song in my ears.

However, there was one scene in "Casino Royale" that also caught my attention because of the music and, well, Ursula Andress. I remember she was hopping all about with a bunch of shocking pink feathers and I guess the above footage only shows the seconds or so before that one scene. At the same time, there was the music which was jazzy and oh-so-sexy with a breathy voice that squeezed out "The Look of Love" as if a woman in Bubble Era Japan were trying to get out of her bodicon dress. I think the scene and the song play off of each other very well because of the languid pacing out of both of them, and considering the lunacy that precedes and follows in "Casino Royale", Sellers and Andress having a little intimate fun makes for a pretty calming oasis.

Dusty Springfield was someone that I had heard of before when I was a kid in the 1970s because of those K-Tel LP compilation commercials on television but the song that featured her (can't remember the title) had her sound a whole lot different than those vocals on "The Look of Love". The bossa nova jazz was woven together by Burt Bacharach with Hal David taking care of the lyrics, and it was even nominated for a Best Song Oscar in 1968.

Jazz pianist and vocalist Diana Krall is one of many artists who have covered "The Look of Love", and it's included as the title track for her September 2011 album. The original version was released in April 1967, so what were three songs from Japan that got their release at around the same time?

Naomi Sagara -- Sekai wa Futari no Tame ni （世界は二人のために）

Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets -- Blue Chateau（ブルー・シャトウ）

Yukio Hashi -- Koi no Mexican Rock （恋のメキシカン・ロック）

Diana Krall -- Let's Face the Music and Dance

 

from Wikipedia

OK...this is going to be a slightly off-kilter Reminiscings of Youth chapter this week since I'll be talking about something in the year 1999 when I was well into my 30s. Still, I can say that this is a ROY article if I just substitute "youth" with "youngishness" (yeah, I realize that this isn't a real word...it's been given a really angry red underline).

But first, let's go with some background for me and this song. Irving Berlin, one of the masters within the Great American Songbook of jazz songs and show tunes, created "Let's Face the Music and Dance" for the 1936 musical "Follow the Fleet" with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It's a song that I had heard from time to time since I was a kid although at the time, I hadn't known the title or its background, although usually it was through the famous scene above of Astaire and Rogers dancing to it that I kept hearing it. 

When I look back upon it, I realize that I had been struck by the fact that it was an unusual jazz number with the key changes making it sound romantic, elegant and ominous at the same time. With the lyrics of "There may be trouble ahead, But while there's moonlight, And music and love and romance, Let's face the music and dance" in that first verse along with the succeeding verses, Berlin may have been hinting at the war to come but still asking listeners to not forget about hope and each other's company in a happier spirit.

While reading up on the song via Wikipedia, I discovered that Nat King Cole had done his cover of "Let's Face the Music and Dance" in 1964 with arrangement by Billy May. Compared to the original's feeling of being sadly resigned to a potentially dark future while savoring the moments before then, Cole's take is a joyful ring-a-ding-ding swing through Las Vegas, including a playful organ that seems to have been hauled out from Yankee Stadium. His version was apparently an inspirational one, getting other future singers to do their covers of the Berlin classic.

And that brings me to the present...well, actually 23 years ago. I was walking through the long mall underneath the Shinkansen tracks in Sukibayashi which is located midway between Ginza and Hibiya in Tokyo. There was a very long branch of HMV taking up a good chunk of the mall and when I came across the jazz section, I heard this familiar tune on the speakers which happened to be a new version of "Let's Face the Music and Dance".

Back around the end of the century, I did have my jazz-fixated age so I was more than happy to enter HMV Jazz and find out who was behind this classy, mellow and really romantic version of the song; nothing ominous. It was much longer than any other take and it also had a very pleasant bossa nova kick in there. Fortunately for me, it just so happened that jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall had released her latest album, "When I Look in Your Eyes" from June 1999.

Before that fateful encounter at HMV, I had never heard of Krall, so it was wonderful to hear that she's a fellow Canadian of my generation, being born in Nanaimo, British Columbia. One of the things that was another winner for her along with the amazing arrangement was indeed her voice. It smoked pleasantly like the rising wisps of a Cuban cigar and there was even a swagger in there and on her face which was strangely reminiscent of Elvis...so how ironic that she would end up marrying another Elvis.

It won't be a surprise for you to read that I bought "When I Look in Your Eyes" lickety-split, and it's good to know that it did end up with some pedigree since it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Album of the Year, and won the awards for Best Jazz Vocal and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in early 2000. Since then, I've bought a few more Krall albums (including her Christmas one) and I even got to go to her concert in Bunkamura in Shibuya a few years later. It was just after that she'd gotten married to Mr. Costello and I thought it ran a tad short but becoming a fan, I think that any length of concert would seem short.

I'm sure that Ms. Krall has been to Japan quite a few times since my time in seeing her, and the above displays her 2019 tour in the country. As a coda for this story, her "Let's Face the Music and Dance" remains my favourite version of the song.

So, which three songs were in the Top 10 of Oricon in June 1999?

1. Kinki Kids -- Flower （フラワー）

4. Ryuichi Sakamoto -- energy flow

10. Ayumi Hamasaki -- LOVE〜Destiny〜/LOVE〜since 1999〜 (with Tsunku)