Harriet "Story of Your Life" CD Single (2023)

My signed copy of Harriet's "Story of Your Life" CD single, 2023. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Harriet’s new album The Outcome will be released on May 12, 2023, and the third single “Story of Your Life” was released at the end of March. I’ve written about the other singles Harriet has recently released “Nothing Hurts Like You” and “Drop in the Ocean.” Like “Nothing Hurts Like You,” “Story of Your Life” has also been released as a physical CD single. (You can order the single from Harriet’s website here.) The CD single was very nicely designed, as it has a gatefold with Polaroids of Harriet, and a full-color booklet with lyrics included.  

“Story of Your Life” is an up-tempo pop song that starts with an insistent synth line. The lyrics deal with self-doubt and empowerment. In the second verse, Harriet wonders “And why do I run/from all the things I’ve done/when every adventure is part of the fun?” There are always times when we wonder if we’ve made the right decision or wonder why we’ve made certain decisions. Harriet sings on the catchy chorus: “No angels left to save you/just demons left to fight/it’s time to be the hero/in the story of your life.” That’s a message that most of us can probably relate to—to take charge and not be afraid to be the central character in our own narratives.  

Harriet’s backing vocals on “Story of Your Life” are fantastic, and you can really hear the wonderful tone of her vocals. “Story of Your Life” is another strong song from Harriet, and it just whets my appetite for hearing The Outcome when it’s released in May.  

The CD single also has two B-sides that won’t be on The Outcome album: “Some Die Young” and “I Lie.” “Some Die Young” is a cover of a song by Swedish singer-songwriter Laleh. Harriet does a fine version of the song, but the lyrics are quite depressing. I don’t like the thought that some people are fated to die young. “I Lie” is an original, co-written by Harriet, that first appeared in a live version on her 2020 CD Piano Sessions. The live version is just Harriet’s vocals and a piano, while the version on the CD single has a fuller arrangement. It’s a very nice song, and it catches the ear right away with the opening line, “Have I told you/I don’t love you.” It’s a lovely song, with a chorus that sticks in your head.   

Concert Review: Aaron Neville at the Dakota Jazz Club

Singer Aaron Neville

Last night I saw the legendary soul singer Aaron Neville at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. I’ve known who Aaron Neville is for a very long time, but I had never seen him in concert before. Neville performed with his pianist Michael Goods, and together they kept the audience at the Dakota spellbound for 90 minutes. 

Neville is known for his distinctive high voice, and it stills sounds pretty darn good at age 78. There’s no mistaking Aaron Neville’s voice for anyone else’s. Although Neville was seated behind a keyboard for the entire show, he only played a few opening chords to some songs. To his left was a music stand with a huge notebook filled with lyrics. Neville didn’t share that many stories during the concert, which surprised me. He’s certainly had a lengthy career in the music business. 

Neville opened the show with a medley of songs from the 1950’s and 1960’s: Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me,” Sam Cooke’s “Cupid” and “Chain Gang,” and the Drifters’ “There Goes My Baby.” Neville sang his big hits, “Don’t Know Much,” his hit duet with Linda Ronstadt, and “Tell It Like It Is,” with the former appearing early in the set, and the latter being one of the last songs of the evening. In between, Neville sang a mixture of songs, most of which were familiar to me, and most dating from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Some highlights were “Pledging My Love,” first sung by Johnny Ace and later covered by Elvis Presley, and Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire.” Neville sang two songs made famous by Nat King Cole, “Mona Lisa,” and “When I Fall in Love.” For those two songs, Goods switched to an electric keyboard, rather than the acoustic piano, and to me the keyboard ended up sounding like a cheap synthesizer. 

I was secretly hoping that Neville would play some songs by the great New Orleans songwriter Allen Toussaint, but that didn’t happen. Neville gave us lovely versions of Johnny Mathis’ “Chances Are,” and James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain.” Neville is an outstanding ballad singer, and it was fun to see such a legendary singer in such a small venue.

Concert Review: Tony Bennett at the State Theatre

State Theatre marquee for Tony Bennett, May 10, 2018. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

The one and only Tony Bennett.

Last night I saw Tony Bennett at the State Theatre in Minneapolis. At the age of 91, Bennett still has a terrific voice and he can still powerfully belt out songs. Bennett is the only star I can think of from the pre-rock and roll era who is still out there touring and sounding great. 

Bennett was backed by just piano, guitar, bass, and drums and his vocals were superbly jazzy. This is clearly a man who still loves what he does. Bennett has always brought an exuberant energy to his performances, and last night was no exception. The passion on his face shone through, even from where I was sitting in the upper balcony. 

Bennett’s voice is lower and has more vibrato than it did it his younger years, but on songs like “This is All I Ask,” that vibrato just adds to the emotional content of the lyrics. And you can tell it’s still Tony Bennett after he sings two notes—there’s nobody who sounds quite like Tony does. Bennett reached all the way back to 1951 for his very first hit record, “Because of You,” which spent ten weeks at number one. 

The song “I’m Old Fashioned” might as well be Tony Bennett’s theme song. After achieving great success on the singles and album charts during the 1950’s and 1960’s, Bennett had a lower profile during the 1970’s, as the hits stopped coming. But rather than change with the times, Bennett relied on what worked for him—jazzy renditions of songs from the Great American Songbook. In the early 1990’s he mounted one of the most successful comebacks of any pre-rock vocalist. Bennett earned a gold record for his 1992 tribute to Frank Sinatra, Perfectly Frank, and a platinum record for 1994’s MTV Unplugged, which also won him a Grammy for Album of the Year. Bennett’s comeback with a new, younger generation was sealed. Additional success has followed, as 2011’s Duets II and 2014’s Cheek to Cheek, recorded with Lady Gaga, both reached number one on the Billboard album charts. That’s an astonishing achievement for an octogenarian jazz singer. 

Bennett didn’t make a lot of small talk during the concert, but he’s very demonstrative, throwing his arms open wide or hugging his arms as he basks in the applause after a song. He’s also supportive of his musicians, as he often walks over to them during a solo and offers exclamations of encouragement. 

For the final song of the evening, Bennett put his microphone down and offered up a lovely, and still very audible, version of “Fly Me to the Moon.” It was beautiful and heartfelt, and it also meant that the last words he sang to the audience were “I love you,” which seemed very fitting for this energetic entertainer.

Setlist:

Watch What Happens

They All Laughed

This is All I Ask

I Got Rhythm

Solitude

I’m Old Fashioned

It Amazes Me

Steppin’ Out with My Baby

But Beautiful

Our Love is Here to Stay

The Way You Look Tonight

Because of You/Cold, Cold Heart/Rags to Riches/Who Can I Turn to?

Just in Time

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

The Good Life

How Do You Keep the Music Playing?

The Shadow of Your Smile

One for My Baby (And One More For the Road)

For Once in My Life

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Who Cares (So Long as You Care For Me)

Fly Me to the Moon-last song

Vic Damone, 1928-2018

Vic Damone, 1928-2018.

Singer Vic Damone died on February 11^th at the age of 89. The sweet-voiced crooner was one of the many Italian-American pop singers who flourished in the 1940’s and 1950’s, like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Al Martino, Jerry Vale, and Bobby Darin. Damone’s hallmark as a singer was his beautiful, pure tone. I’ve always felt that Damone was somewhat underrated compared to the other great pop singers of his era, as he made a number of excellent recordings. 

Damone was probably the first male singer to be strongly influenced by Frank Sinatra. After leaving Tommy Dorsey in 1942 to begin a solo career, Sinatra popularized a strikingly intimate way of singing and phrasing in his recordings for the Columbia label. Damone was just 19 years old when he made his first record in 1947, “I Have but One Heart,” and his vocal sound was very similar to Sinatra’s. Frank famously said that Damone “has the best pipes in the business.” What’s also remarkable about “I Have but One Heart” is how good Damone was, even at such a young age. He brings a pure yearning to this love song. The song peaked at number 7 on the charts. Damone had numerous other hits during the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. Most of them are very good, although there are some clunkers—“Cincinnati Dancing Pig” is just as silly a song as you would think. 

In 1956, the year of Elvis Presley’s ascendance, Damone scored his last Top Ten pop hit, a beautiful version of “On the Street Where You Live,” from Lerner and Loewe’s then-recent hit Broadway show, My Fair Lady. “On the Street Where You Live” is probably the song most associated with Damone now. The arrangement of the song is unusual—it begins with the orchestra building to a crescendo, and then Damone starts singing, “Oh, the towering feeling, just to know somehow you are near,” which is from the middle of the song, before going into the beginning of the song, “I have often walked on this street before.” It’s a bold choice, and it works. Damone’s control of his vocal dynamics throughout the song is amazing. Damone goes from almost a whisper as he sings, “People stop and stare, they don’t bother me,” to full throated belting at the end. It’s a wonderful performance.

After his commercial peak came to an end, Damone continued to record excellent albums like Linger Awhile, and Stay with Me, his bossa nova album from 1966. While he had something of a stormy personal life and was married five times, Damone’s legacy as a great pop singer is what will be remembered by his fans.