Jul 25, 2010

Happy Old Songs from Nora Ephron films

Have you noticed that the most famous movies directed or written by Nora Ephron have marvelous soundtracks that always include oldies?
I'm dedicating this post from the Happy Old Songs series to these soundtracks. Let's see:

"When Harry Met Sally" (1989)
Written by Nora, its soundtrack includes "Let's call the whole thing off" (written by the Gershwin brothers and sung by Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong); "Have yourself a Merry little Christmas" sung by Bing Crosby; "It had to be you" sung by Frank Sinatra; "Say It Isn't So" (written by Irving Berlin); "Stompin' At The Savoy" (written by Benny Goodman); "Isn't It Romantic" (written by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers). Embedding the happiest from the list:




"Sleepless in Seattle" (1993)
The movie was directed by Nora and we all love it. Yeah, I'm totally generalizing, but you gotta love this film, with all the references to "An affair to remember" plus Tom + Meg at their second best. Besides it has "As times goes by", "Over the rainbow", "Jeepers Creepers", "Makin' Whoopee" (sung by Dr. John), "Stardust" by Nat King Cole, "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" by Louis Armstrong, "Sleigh Ride" (sung by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans) and the marvelous "Make Someone Happy" by Jimmy Durante. The happiest IMO (they aren't the same versions from the movie):




"You've got mail" (1999)
Marvelous movie based on the Lubitsch's classic "The Shop Around the Corner". Includes songs by Louis Armstrong ("Dummy Song"), "Over the rainbow", "Rockin Robin" by Bobby Day, "Splish Splash" by Bobby Darin, "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" (written by Joe Young and Fred E. Albert and sung by Billy Williams), "I Guess The Lord Must Be in New York City" (written and performed by Harry Nilsson). It also features "Dreams" by one of my favorite modern bands, The Cranberries.





"Bewitched" (2005)
The movie is horrible, but the soundtrack includes "Witchcraft" performed by Frank Sinatra, "L-O-V-E" by Natalie Cole, "The name song" by Shirley Ellis, "Bout Time" performed by Louis Armstrong and, of course, "Bewitched Theme".





"Julie & Julia" (2009)
I liked the movie overall, but I think it wasn't very well developed. Anyway, its soundtrack presented me "A Bushel and a Peck" (written by Frank Loesser/published in 1950). This song was first used in the Broadway show "Guys and Dolls", many singers covered it, but my favorite by far is the one by Doris Day used in the film. Oh, it also included a song by one of my grandparents' favorite singers, Charles Aznavour.



Previous "Happy Old Songs" posts:

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4 comments:

  1. abril en parisJuly 26, 2010 at 6:51 PM

    Muy buenas versiones ¡ si señorita !
    Las pelis las he visto y sus b.s.o estan en mi discoteca particular... que escucho amenudo.
    ¡ Qué buen gusto tienes ! ;-))

    Un besito

    ReplyDelete
  2. emma wallaceJuly 28, 2010 at 4:24 PM

    I love every one of those soundtracks! Even the more modern tunes have such a timeless sound. I think the "Harry Met Sally" soundtrack was one of the first c.d.s I owned and I listened to it until it was too scratched to play!

    ReplyDelete
  3. abril en parisMay 22, 2011 at 8:20 PM

    Muy buenas versiones ¡ si señorita !
    Las pelis las he visto y sus b.s.o estan en mi discoteca particular... que escucho amenudo.
    ¡ Qué buen gusto tienes ! ;-))

    Un besito

    ReplyDelete
  4. ruthJune 27, 2012 at 3:32 PM

    This is an awesome tribute Clara! I'll be doing a tribute for her later today as well. I really enjoy her films, especially Sleepless in Seattle.

    ReplyDelete