American Idol 2013

[Shela]

That interview with Casey is the most animated that I have seen Stefano.
No pun intended.

LOL Oh boy!!! he is certainly going for that look

[Tom22]

Before I resume my "MacArthur Park" obsession (which seems like a very hit or miss thing in terms of whether people put it on the very highest or one of the lowest pedestatals)

The Richard Rodgers Hart collaborations, the little noteriety that Hart recieved.. and the very idea that those classics generally acredited to Cole were actually largely done by Hart , with Rogers is quite a story about the music business and perception.

Hopefully Hart got paid for them ? and appreciation from his peers if not the public.

I'll also agree with some of your thoughts about Amber's song choices. And I'll say that her performances (including MacArthur park in particular) left some room for improvement for sure.. the studio versions were more consistent vocally but in my opinion the band.. it full orchestra form wasn't giving her the support she needed .. the Idol band is very tight when it is 2 or 3 soloists and Ray Chew on the pianno but when they bring in pro's to probably sit down and play in one take they're not always flowing in support to the vocalist .. which perhaps they've never heard, on an arrangment they've probably not practiced.

Also... Funny - My Funny Valentine has never been one of my favorite standards... I'll spare the interpretations of why it means less to me.

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yeah MAE , i can understand your objection with the initial trumpet playing. The solo's did improve substantially in the "allegro" portion. (part of why i was prodding people to continue I guess.. I knew that the first few minutes in particular sounded a little bit like a high school marching band)

I think it was the Arrangement particular that caught my ear. I should have delved deeper on you-tube but I had listened to a a few dozen.

Obviously I've thought a lot about differences in perception in relation to MacArthur park .. its been really interesting

One thought I had from reading comments elsewhere.. how a song can be built upon and take a life beyond what the original writer had meant for it. It triggered something that a great many singers wanted to interperet for whatever their reasons.

Ferguson's arrangement ison the level of Leonaord Berstein .. west side story. The original Mac Arthur park composition was not of that level by a long shot.

You have to ask "What did Ferguson hear in it to make him apply his significant talents to it?"

And.. if Mac Arthur park isn't a "standard" that will stand the test of time... well look at this list of ... clearly it really struck a chord with a crazy number of artists:

Jerry Vale
The 5th Dimension
Diana Ross & the Supremes
Glen Campbell
Vic Damone
Sammy Davis, Jr (twice)
Percy Faith
Michael Feinstein
Maynard Ferguson - M.F.Horn (1971)
Ferrante & Teicher
The Four Tops
Aretha Franklin - Live on The Bob Hope Show (1975)
Plastic Penny
Gitte Hænning
Waylon Jennings (Grammy Award, the 1970 version)
Long John Baldry
Stan Kenton - Live at Redlands University (1970)
Liza Minnelli
Grimethorpe Colliery Band
Hugo Montenegro (Hugo's version used only the instrumental section and was also used as a TV News theme for WJW/WJKW in the mid 1970's)
Only Men Aloud!
Elaine Paige
Psychotica
The Queers
Doc Severinsen
Frank Sinatra - Trilogy: Past Present Future (2010) [Box Set, CD]
The Negro Problem
The Three Degrees
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
Andy Williams
Cauby Peixoto
Zumpano
Regine Velasquez
Sally Yeh
101 Strings - "Million Seller Hits Composed by Jim Webb and Burt Bacharach" [LP S-5162]
Yuki Koyanagi -Single: MacArthur Park / All At Once / 2012.07.25
Variations on the song have included:
Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Ed Ames each recorded versions using only the middle section. Liz Callaway recorded the middle section as part of a medley with "Didn't We," another song also by Jimmy Webb.
Carmen McRae with Norman Simmons trio recorded an impressive version of the middle section for her album Song Time (1969).
Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed recorded an instrumental version for their guitar duet album Me & Jerry, winner of the 1971 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance.
The Four Tops recorded a version that omits the long instrumental breaks, which reached #38 on the Billboard singles chart.
Beggars Opera recorded a progressive version with harpsichord and mellotron in their third album, Pathfinder, in 1972.
The song has been played by dozens of drum and bugle corps, including championship performances by two junior corps, the Kilties in 1968 and 1969 and the Madison Scouts in 1975, and two all-age corps, the Hawthorne Caballeros in 1974 and the Brigadiers in 2001.
In 1977 Finnish singer-songwriter Hector recorded the song in band called H.E.C. with Finnish lyrics. Hector titled the song in Finnish "Vanhan kirkon puisto" ("Old Church's Park"), referring to the old church of Helsinki, Hector's hometown.
In 1980 Pink Lady performed the tune on their variety show Pink Lady and Jeff.
Yuri performed a Spanish version, entitled "Siempre Hay Un Mañana" ("There Is Always a Tomorrow"), in 1979.
Thierry Le Luron performed a French version entitled "Les Tuileries" (referring to the Parisian Tuileries Garden) [11]
Moody Blues singer Justin Hayward (with Mike Batt and the London Philharmonic Orchestra) covered it on his Classic Blue album.
Carrie Underwood performed it in season four of American Idol.
Amber Holcomb performed it in season twelve of American Idol.
UK Hip Hop artist Roots Manuva uses the main chord structure in his 2001 single "Dreamy Days."
Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello) sings an Italian version called "Parco MacArthur (La Torta in Pioggia)."
Spanish singer Noelia Cano included a version on the reality show Operación Triunfo in 2008.
"Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the tune in his 1993 song "Jurassic Park."
Sung in the stage musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
Wu-tang Clan released a version called Second Coming as the penultimate track on their 1997 album Wu-Tang Forever.
It has appeared on The Simpsons at least twice: Homer sings it in the 15th season episode "Co-Dependent's Day," and Sanjay's daughter Pahusacheta Nahasapeemapetilon plays it on the tabla in the episode "Lisa the Beauty Queen."


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I wonder if people(like Jimmy iovine) find "Maria" in west side story "cheesy" ?

It's words are less abstract I guess --

The most beautiful sound I ever heard:

Say it loud and there's music playing,
Say it soft and it's almost like praying.

Yet there's something chew on there for me still.. less unusal... the words are more logical in their importance to the singer....but while not "scrambled eggs"

But, the music! --- the score for the singer how it lifts and floats.... anyway.. enough for Placido Domingo and



the plainer ... less inspired singer in the movie version:



Anyway I guess I hear "cheesy" to mean something sort of meaningless and appealing to a low form of taste so I probably react to much when I hear it applied to music that puts a heroic importance to simple things that can be overlooked as mundane

[My Alter Ego]

^^Tom, I can understand why MacArthur Park was recorded a lot: from a musician's perspective, it was musically interesting at a time when most popular music consisted of about 4 chords - 4 very simple chords.

But that musical interest is over the heads of most listeners. Add to that lyrics that didn't seem to make sense, and you end up with a piece that has been described as "polarizing" and "loopy" (thanks, Wikipedia).

I don't wish to belabor this point any longer. The horse is dead -- no need to keep beating it.

******

As for Lorenz Hart, the team of Rodgers and Hart was very, very popular in their day and, yes, I'm reasonably certain he was not a pauper. (According to Wikipedia, during the Great Depression, he was earning around $60,000 annually. That must have seemed like a fortune then!)

It's just that the level of sophistication and cleverness of his lyrics were on the same par as Cole Porter, and, when Hart died, and Rodgers moved on to partner with Oscar Hammerstein, while the music of Rodgers and Hart didn't disappear, people either didn't know who wrote these songs, didn't care enough to find out, and, again, given the level of sophistication of the lyrics, I suspect that people just assumed that these songs belonged to Porter. (It probably didn't help, that Hammerstein's lyrics had the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and, if that's how you know Richard Rodgers, then how on earth could he have been a part of something as nimble and sophisticated as the Rodgers and Hart team.)

[mercfan3]

The interpretation of MacArthur's Park that I heard made sense to me. (It's about lost love, MacArthur's Park, happened to be the place him and his ex lover used to visit.) The cake thing is simply a methaphor for having something good and sweet and ruining it.

I never knew it was a polarizing song. Granted, I listen to sounds much more than lyrics anyway.

[My Alter Ego]

The interpretation of MacArthur's Park that I heard made sense to me. (It's about lost love, MacArthur's Park, happened to be the place him and his ex lover used to visit.) The cake thing is simply a methaphor for having something good and sweet and ruining it.

I never knew it was a polarizing song. Granted, I listen to sounds much more than lyrics anyway.

That's what I found on Wikipedia this morning. The "cake" metaphor came as a result of seeing birthday parties at the park -- according to Jimmy Webb, composer, "the cake was an available object."

Also, the name is "MacArthur Park" (like the park, I suppose). Richard Harris kept using the possessive form while recording -- Jimmy Webb couldn't get him to do it right, and ultimately quit trying.

[Tom22]

The horse is dead -- no need to keep beating it.

guilty as charged ! lol

The more perplexing something is to me the more I tend to beat something.

Edit.. I cut out what I had this post.. and provided a link in different thread going out into deep end on my broader curiousity

[taperjean_girl]

This weeks theme is standards and hits of 2013. I would love to see Haley perform on the results show since she is one of the best jazz vocalists the show has ever discovered and perform a jazz standard.

They seem to be getting a lot of idol alums back this year. Casey came back and covered a Beatles song for Beatles week. I dont see why they cant get haley to cover a jazz song for standards week. Wishful thinking anyway.

[Tusk]

"At Last?"
Didn't she say she wanted to do that song during S10?

[Himm2]

Back to the top 4 discussion...Kree lacks charisma. Great voice with no vocal imperfections but she doesn't make me smile, doesn't make me say "wow", and doesn't leave me with any wishes to rewatch the performance.

My eyes prefer watching Amber,
My ears prefer listening to Kree,
My mind prefers studying Angie,
My heart prefers pounding for Candice.

[mercfan3]

So Idol planted a false story about Candice. Wow..they didn't even do that to Haley...

BTW: From spoilers, I think Angie is going to steal the show again.