Articles by Tish Oney
"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 ...
read more"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 ...
read moreThe 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 ...
read moreTake Five with Tish Oney
by Tish Oney
Meet Tish Oney Dr. Tish Oney tours internationally as a jazz vocalist and symphony pops soloist. She has recorded and produced five critically-acclaimed albums, taught voice and jazz at eight universities, and has served several more as an artist-in-residence. She has headlined at thousands of venues worldwide and has performed as soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Williamsburg Symphony, Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphoria, and several U.S. Army Bands including the Jazz Ambassadors, Pershing's Own Army Voices and ...
read more"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.
read more"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," ...
read more"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 ...
read more"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 ...
read more"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 ...
read more"Georgia On My Mind" by Hoagy Carmichael
by Tish Oney
Great American Songbook composer, Hoagy Carmichael, (1899-1981) penned many more standards besides the timeless “Stardust" and “Georgia On My Mind..." He also is credited with writing “The Nearness of You," “Heart and Soul," “Skylark," and “I Get Along Without You Very Well," to mention a few more classics. Carmichael starred in a couple of films as a pianist-actor, making his permanent mark in that medium as well as in recorded music and in the writing of American standards. The enduring ...
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