I have a deep love of the Great American Songbook – the songs that form the core of the jazz repertoire (as well as the songs we reach for at weddings, in romantic comedy movies, and when pop singers want to make a “retro” album). With that in mind, I’m introducing a new regular feature to my site: The Definitive Version. Edit: The Complete List of Definitive Versions is here)
One of the most valuable elements of this particular body of songs is that they are infinitely interpretable. They offer singers so many possibilities to shape their interpretation in terms of tempo, style, form, and much more. In The Definitive Version, I will consider a song each week and make my suggestions for the interpretation I feel most completely reflects an ideal version of that song. I will be considering only vocal solo interpretations of these songs.
Ground rules:
- This is personal. Your version might – and probably should – be different.*
- The definitive version might not be the most popular version.
- The definitive version exemplifies what the song is about.
- Selection will reflect consideration of multiple different versions of a song, and the post might include additional “Also Recommended” versions.
Specifics will include
- A brief narrative about the song.
- The key of this version
- Why I consider it definitive.
- Also Recommended
- Links to the recording.
For young singers beginning to learn songs, streaming has made it increasingly difficult to find excellent versions of songs. Their pool can increasingly become both too deep and too shallow. Too deep because there might be 5,000 versions of My Funny Valentine on Spotify – far too many to survey effectively. Too shallow because in the face of that range of options, listeners will tend to fall back on a few major artists or the “most listened” versions on streaming media. In both cases, they are likely to miss outstanding versions that might help shape their interpretation of a song.
I hope that this weekly feature will educate and enlighten and become a resource for listeners; more than that, I hope it sparks conversation and debate about what constitutes definitive versions of songs in general, and what is the definitive version of a particular song.
* for example, I can guarantee that Rod Stewart has never recorded the definitive version of a song!