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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

By Meredith Wilson
1951

A warm and fuzzy holiday classic from the idyllic '50s, this tune was introduced by Perry Como, joined by the Fontane Sisters and the Mitchell Ayres Orchestra. It's original title was "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas". Legend has it that writer Wilson was inspired to write the song by a stay at the Grand Hotel in Yarmouth, Novia Scotia. The Johnny Mathis version became very popular in more recent years thanks to its inclusion in the 1992 movie Home Alone 2. Today it remains one of the most ubiquitous modern-day secular carols.

Lyrics:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go;
Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again
With candy canes and silver lanes aglow.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Toys in ev'ry store
But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be
On your own front door.

A pair of hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots
Is the wish of Barney and Ben;
Dolls that will talk and will go for a walk
Is the hope of Janice and Jen;
And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go;
There's a tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well,
The sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas;
Soon the bells will start,
And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing
Right within your heart.

Recorded By:

Alvin & The Chipmunks
Michael Buble
Johnny Mathis
Bing Crosby
Perry Como

Friday, November 9, 2012

Just You, Just Me

By Jesse Greer & Raymond Klages 
1929 

A film musical number with understated grace, gentle simplicity and sublime beauty, it's no wonder that this song has become especially popular amongst jazz instrumentalists dating back to the Big Band era. It was introduced by Chaplin paramour Marion Davies and Lawrence Grey in the film Marianne (pictured), and was even later performed by Liza Minelli in the 1976 Martin Scorsese musical New York, New York, as well as by Edward Norton as a serenade to Drew Barrymore in the 1996 Woody Allen musical Everyone Says I Love You.

Lyrics:

Just you, just me
Let's find a cozy spot
To cuddle and woo.
Just us, just we
I've missed an awful lot
My trouble is you.

Oh, gee!
What are your charms for?
What are my arms for?
Use your imagination!

Just you, just me
I'll tie a lover's knot
Around wonderful you.

Recorded By:

Bing Crosby
Artie Shaw
Judy Garland
Lester Young
Duke Ellington

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