Articles by Tish Oney
"Good Morning, Heartache" by Irene Higginbotham
by Tish Oney
"Good Morning, Heartache" by Irene Higginbotham with lyrics by Ervin Drake and Dan Fisher remains one of the most well-known songs composed by Higginbotham, a highly prolific female songwriter of the Tin Pan Alley era, writing over 1,000 songs. Originally recorded by Billie Holiday in 1946, “Good Morning, Heartache" was later recorded by hordes of other vocalists including Diana Ross for the 1972 film, Lady Sings the Blues, in which Ross portrayed Holiday. Twenty-six years after it was composed and ...
Continue Reading"Willow Weep for Me" by Ann Ronell
by Tish Oney
"Willow Weep for Me" was copyrighted in 1932 by Irving Berlin, with both words and music composed by Ann Ronell (1905-1993). Ronell dedicated the song to her mentor, George Gershwin, with whom she shared a “sister-like" relationship, according to biographer Michael G. Garber (Songs She Wrote: Forty Hits by Pioneering Women of Popular Music, Rowman & Littlefield, 2025). Scores of singers and instrumentalists have performed and recorded this standard. Some of my favorite recordings include those featuring June Christy, Billie ...
Continue Reading"Alice In Wonderland" by Sammy Fain and Bob Hilliard
by Tish Oney
Fain and Hilliard's “Alice in Wonderland" debuted in 1951 in a Disney feature film by the same name. Having been performed since then by Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, and many others, it has attained “jazz standard" status for good reason. The composition achieves a heightened value in the lovely marriage of music and lyrics that all of the best standards display. As I was preparing to record my third album, Sweet Youth (BluJazz 2011), among five ...
Continue Reading"I Don't Know Enough About You" By Dave Barbour And Peggy Lee
by Tish Oney
The centennial year of another music icon has arrived. In celebrating the one hundredth birthdays of our musical forbears (as has become quite vogue in recent years), we pay special tribute to the catalogs of recordings, original works, and rich performances each has left as a legacy. This past week we celebrated the centennial birthday of American music pioneer Peggy Lee. As intricately detailed in my forthcoming book Peggy Lee: A Century of Song, Lee's prolific legacy included 1100 recorded ...
Continue ReadingThe Ultimate Peggy Lee
by Tish Oney
In honor of the 100th birthday of Peggy Lee (which we celebrated May 26, kicking off an entire year of Peggy Lee celebrations around the world), I have been enjoying listening to this timeless artist in a number of ways. Writing my new book, Peggy Lee: A Century of Song, opened my eyes to the treasure trove of recorded music Lee left us as a rich legacy, and it was my goal to make her music the main character of ...
Continue Reading"Time After Time" by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn
by Tish Oney
In 1946 Jule Styne (1905-1994) and Sammy Cahn (1913-1993) collaborated to write a song for Frank Sinatra for the film It Happened In Brooklyn. Sarah Vaughan was the first artist to record the new gem that same year, backed by the Teddy Wilson Quartet. In 1957 Sinatra finally recorded it with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. The song's timeless theme of looking backward over a life of faithful, monogamous love has resonated with fans ever since the song's debut.
Continue Reading"Pick Yourself Up" by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields
by Tish Oney
In 1936 Jerome Kern (1885-1945) and Dorothy Fields (1904-1974) collaborated to create several songs for the movie musical, Swing Time, starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. “Pick Yourself Up" served the film as the centerpiece around which a dance lesson given by Ginger to Fred yielded a remarkable “transformation" from a clumsy suitor to a technically superb dance master. Kern and Fields joined energies as a successful songwriting team for many projects yielding standards including “The Way You Look Tonight," ...
Continue Reading"Charade" by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer
by Tish Oney
Ever known for his peerless and timeless musical masterpieces created for the silver screen, Henry Mancini (1924-1994) opened the 1963 motion picture, “Charade," starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, with a masterfully written theme bearing the same title. Over his storied career, Mancini won six Grammy awards plus fourteen additional nominations as well as a slew of Oscar and Golden Globe nominations and wins for his film and stage compositions, among several additional awards. His 1961 classic, “Moon River," also ...
Continue Reading"It's Only a Paper Moon" by Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg and Billy Rose
by Tish Oney
One of my favorite Great American Songbook composers, Harold Arlen (nee Hyman Arluck, 1905-1986), composed music for over 500 songs during his long, successful career, even though he originally set out to become a great singer and was not particularly interested in writing songs. His tremendous success reached across Broadway stages, Hollywood film scores and Top 10 radio hits for countless singers. In 1932, Arlen collaborated with friends Yip Harburg and Billy Rose to create one of Arlen's best-known, enduring ...
Continue Reading"Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Frank Loesser
by Tish Oney
A host of seasonal songs may be categorized correctly as standards, and this well-known piece is no exception. “Baby, It's Cold Outside" is particularly noteworthy in that, in North America, it fits any month between mid-autumn and early spring. This makes the song particularly versatile as a seasonal favorite--I personally have performed it at Christmastime, at a St. Valentine's Day symphony concert, and this year on Thanksgiving weekend, as the months of November through February are all fair game for ...
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