Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most
"Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" (1955) is a popular song with lyrics by Fran Landesman, "the poet laureate of lovers and losers," set to music by Tommy Wolf. The title is a jazz rendition of the opening line of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, "April is the cruellest month".[1]
The song was featured in the 1959 Broadway musical The Nervous Set, but was written in 1955 before this musical and was incorporated into it.
Collaboration
Tommy Wolf was a pianist, composer, arranger, and musical director who met Fran Landesman while she was sitting in the bar of the Crystal Palace, a night club in St. Louis, while he was on the bandstand playing. This experience inspired her to begin writing song lyrics and in 1952 Wolf began setting her lyrics to music. More Landesman–Wolf collaborations followed, including the melodies for the songs for the Broadway musical The Nervous Set.
Notable recordings – 1950s
- Jackie Cain with Roy Kral (Jackie and Roy) – Storyville Presents Jackie & Roy (1955) – first recording. Reissued by Black Lion Records in 1987 as Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most
- Herbie Mann – Love and the Weather (1956)
- Rita Reys – The Cool Voice Of Rita Reys (1957)
- Tommy Wolf – Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most
- June Christy – The Song Is June! (1958)
Notable recordings – 1960s
- Dick and Kiz Harp – Again! (1960) 90th Floor Records
- Ella Fitzgerald – Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie! (1961)
- Chris Connor with Maynard Ferguson – Double Exposure (1961)
- Mark Murphy – Rah! (1961)
- Julie London – Sophisticated Lady (1962)
- Ramsey Lewis – The Sound of Spring (1962)
- Bobby Timmons – Sweet and Soulful Sounds (1962)
- Sarah Vaughan – Snowbound (1963)
- Stan Getz – Reflections (1963)
- Stanley Turrentine – A Chip Off the Old Block (1963)
- Carmen McRae – Bittersweet (1964)
- Betty Carter – Inside Betty Carter (1965)
- Chet Baker – Quietly There (1966)
- Ella Fitzgerald – Whisper Not (1966)
- Johnny Smith – Johnny Smith (1967)
- Hampton Hawes and Martial Solal – Key for Two (1968)
- Helen Merrill with Dick Katz – A Shade of Difference (1968)
- Steve Kuhn – Childhood Is Forever (1969)
Notable recordings – 1970s and later
- Carmen McRae – Carmen McRae (Mainstream Records) (live) (1971)
- Walter Norris with George Mraz – Drifting (1974)
- Irene Kral with Alan Broadbent – Where Is Love? (1974)
- Herb Ellis with Ross Tompkins – A Pair to Draw to (1976)
- Chuck Wayne – Skyliner (1976)
- Marian McPartland – Portrait of Marian McPartland (1979)
- Betty Carter – The Audience with Betty Carter (live) (1979)
- Bette Midler – Some People's Lives (1990) and the concert video/album Diva Las Vegas (1997)
- Rickie Lee Jones – Pop Pop (1991)
- Brad Mehldau – New York-Barcelona Crossing, Volumen 1 (1993)
- Carmen Lundy – Self Portrait (1995)
- Bootsie Barnes – You Leave Me Breathless (1995)
- Ira Sullivan – After Hours (1996)
- Bob Dorough – Right on My Way Home (1998)
- Emilie-Claire Barlow – Sings (1998)
- Regina Carter – Rhythms of the Heart (1999)
- Larry McKenna – It Might As Well Be Spring (2000)
- Jane Monheit – Come Dream With Me (2001)
- Barbra Streisand – Just For The Record (1962 television performance) (1991), Love is the Answer (2009) & corresponding live album, One Night Only (2010); Streisand also recorded a (never released) version for Simply Streisand (1967)
- Jackie Ryan – Doozy CD#2, (2009) – OpenArt Productions
- Kat Edmonson – Take to the Sky (2009) unlisted tenth track
- Bill Charlap – Uptown, Downtown (2017) as Bill Charlap Trio with Peter Washington (bass), Kenny Washington (drums)
References
- ↑ Martin, Douglas. "Fran Landesman, Lyricist With a Bittersweet Edge, Dies at 83". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 23 June 2018.