Often how well we like something say especially a song, an actor, any performer often the word "style" comes into play.
Case in point. The other night I was out driving one of my old cars ('55 Thunderbird) and I slipped in an Elvis cd and the first song that came on made me smile. The song was "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" It was written in 1926 Roy Turk and Lou Handman. Twenty-three years later it scored success with former Vaudeville great Al Jolson. In 1957 Elvis Presley went into the RCA studios in Nashville and recorded "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"
Now I feel pretty comfortable being a teenage product of the late 1950s' in which I think most of my generation had never heard of Al Jolson and if some station had played his recording of that song we would have turned up our noses at such. But let Elvis do that song and hey man listen to that. I can guarantee Elvis's style in delivering a song and Jolson were light years apart. If you are familiar with the song I bet Elvis's speak part of the song was nothing like (Toot's-Toot's Goodbye) Al Jolson's. By the way in the late 1950s' I'm not sure very many kids would have known what a parlor was.
Sometimes what we think is new is old. It's wrapped up in a different package and delivered with new ribbons. So with "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" Sometimes style wins over
substances.
Are you lonesome tonight, do you miss me tonight?
Are you sorry we drifted apart?
Does you memory stray to a brighter sunny day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart?
Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and bare?
Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there?
Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again?
Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight?
You know someone said that the world's a stage
And each must play a part.
Fate had me playing in love you as my sweet heart.
Act one was when we met, I loved you at first glance
You read you line so cleverly and never missed a cue
Then came act two, you seemed to change and you acted strange
And why I'll never know
Honey, you lied when you said you loved me
And I had no cause to doubt you.
But I'd rather go on hearing your lies
Than go on living without you.
Now the stage is bare and I'm standing there
With emptiness all around
And if you won't come back to me
Then make them bring the curtain down.
Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again?
Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight?
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August 15, 2016
Keep on,
Larry Adamson