Great American Songbook of Love?

August 7, 2012 10:28 AM

Please recommend classic, Great American Songbook-style slow love songs.

Some of my favorites are:

Duke Ellington's "I Didn't Know About You"
Billy Eckstine's "Don't Tell Me"
Ray Noble's "The Very Thought of You"
"Time After Time" by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne

I'm especially looking for slow songs about happy-ending love - so, lyrically, the sense of "Time After Time".

(I do also like sad torchy songs, so if you've got one of those, that's welcome too.)

(And yes, I recognize that any of these can be done in a fast, peppy style, and probably has been.)

Thanks!

posted by kristi to media & arts (13 answers total)

"Our Love is Here to Stay", Nat King Cole
posted by Perplexity at 10:33 AM on August 7, 2012

Moon River
posted by mattbucher at 11:04 AM on August 7, 2012

I recommend the Ella Fitzgerald versions, but they're all good.


Irving BerlinLet's Face the Music and Dance
How Deep is the Ocean.


Do I Love You-Cole Porter

Geroge Gershwin

Embraceable You
I've got a Crush On You
Someone to Watch Over Me

This list is by no means comprehensive.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:47 AM on August 7, 2012

Gershwin's "How Long Has This Been Going On?" fits exactly what you're looking for. So does Arlen and Mercer's "Come Rain or Come Shine." So many artists have covered them (as befits Great American Songbook songs) that you'll have a bonanza of choices to select from.
posted by chonus at 12:08 PM on August 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

My Funny Valentine.
posted by cushie at 12:59 PM on August 7, 2012

Cole Porter's Easy To Love is his most beautiful song, IMHO.

Noel Coward's Mad About The Boy is his most beautiful song, IMHO.
posted by wittgenstein at 1:00 PM on August 7, 2012

Welcome to the inside of my head.

Dream a Little Dream of Me, otherwise known as the most perfect song in the world
I Can't Believe You're In Love With Me
I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
Cheek to Cheek
I've Never Been In Love Before
Tenderly
Easy To Love
In the Middle of a Kiss
I'm Glad There Is You
I'm in the Mood for Love

Also, don't overlook bossa nova...
Corcovado (Quiet Nights)
Only Trust Your Heart
Desafinado (or in English, a little more upbeat and under its alternate title: Slightly Out of Tune)
posted by ourobouros at 1:08 PM on August 7, 2012

You mentioned "Time After Time"—I absolutely love that song (especially Anita O'Day's version!) and it always makes me think of Blossom Dearie's version of "They Say It's Spring" for some reason.
posted by bcwinters at 4:24 PM on August 7, 2012

Oh, and how about O'Day's "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" (Maschwitz/Sherwin), too?
posted by bcwinters at 4:31 PM on August 7, 2012

Irving Berlin's "Always" -- he wrote it for his wife. She had been disinherited by her Catholic parents for marrying this fly-by-night Jewish musician (the very IDEA), so he wrote her this beautiful song and gave her the copyright in tribute for all she had potentially given up. And they lived very comfortably, thank you very much :)

We always do it at outreach gigs, and older people inevitably sing along and cry and tell us it means more to them now than it ever did. It's wonderful.
posted by Madamina at 4:57 PM on August 7, 2012

Some of these are sad, some are happy, and some may have been mentioned (I've read the thread, but this is digging through my I-tunes and memory, so I might forget that it's been mentioned), but they're all love songs and I've heard ballad arrangements of them all, and I bet you can find Ella or( (and) Louis singing every single one of them:

After You've Gone
Nancy With the Laughing Face
Alone Together
Sweet Georgia Brown (No really, it was written as a ballad)
I'll Remember You
I'll Remember April
Kiss To Build a Dream On
Be Anything, but Darling Be Mine
Polka Dots and Moon Beams
Body And Soul
I Could Write A book
Deep Purple
Easy Living
Embraceable You
My Funny Valentine
For All We Know
Georgia On My Mind
Good Morning Heart Ache
Dinner For One Please James
Happiness Is Just A Thing Called Joe
I've Got a Crush On You
I Loves You Porgy
It Had To Be You
Just The Way You Are
The Nearness of You
The Shadow Of Your Smile
Misty

Feel free to Me-mail me if you'd like specific recording recommendations for any of those, or really for most anything that's been mentioned.
posted by Gygesringtone at 5:59 PM on August 7, 2012

I really should have just marked all as best answer. These were ALL great - thank you so much!

I ended up marking things I either hadn't heard of or had forgotten about.

This is really fantastic - many, many thanks!
posted by kristi at 11:19 PM on August 8, 2012

Some more I'd forgotten, again a good chunk of these are melancholy:

I Love You For Sentimental Reasons
These Foolish Things
What A Difference A Day Makes
A Foggy Day
Blueberry Hill
Crazy He Calls Me
Darn That Dream
Detour Ahead
Stars Fell on Alabama
There is No Greater Love
Under a Blanket of Blue
Violets For Your Furs
posted by Gygesringtone at 11:42 AM on August 9, 2012