Sinister: legrand whatever

[Michael Lucey]

Chris McQuain, who has pleasantly complimented my on my filmic taste,
whereas my film buff friends consider me a rank amateur, wistfully complained:

>>>>>I previously asked Mr. Lucey to let me know where, oh where may I obtain
Michel Legrand's pop recordings? CD titles, please? I shall weep into my
pillow until he delivers. Legrand's music for Godard's My Life to Live is in
my top 5 film scores ever. 

I read the brilliant comments of sinistereens in digest form, and too
quickly, apparently, since I missed that request when it first came along....

OK,  I know  him mainly as a film composer so soundtracks are in fact a
great place to hear his stuff, like in the inimitable "Umbrellas of
Cherbourg" or "Young Girls of Rochefort".  He also did the music for the
cool film--or should I say the film about coolness-- "the thomas Crowne
affair"  in which faye dunaway is, well, cool, and which includes the
classic "the windmills of your mind".  Some of his other great songs are
from films i've never seen.  "What are you doing the rest of your life?" is
apparently from something called "The Happy Ending".  "Little Boy Lost" --
a  b&s kind of song if there ever was one, and one i've loved dearly since
childhood-- is from a film called "Pieces of Dreams" that i've never seen.

Flash: my boyfriend, looking over my shoulder as I type, says "you want
Michel Legrand, I'll give you Michel Legrand," and pops "the best of scott
walker" on the record player.  Walker does a killer version of "I will wait
for you."  Go get it. Other cool versions of songs: there's a jazz singer
named earl coleman who does a sultry version of "what are you doing".  I
have it on a compilation some one gave me, so don't know where it's from.
Tony Bennett and Bill Evans did two albums together (yes, it's true) and on
the second one, called "together again", they do a version of "you must
believe in spring." Some people think the Bennett/Evans albums sound ugly,
but that song at least is cool.  Abbey Lincoln does that song too somewhere.

Legrand himself is (was?) a pretty happening jazz pianist himself.
Evidence being a record I found a couple months ago called "Michel Legrand
with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne at Shelly's Manne-Hole."  (I kid you not.)
It's on Verve and it's fun.  Don't know if it's been reissued on cd.  He
does a version of his "Watch What Happens" --Betty Carter does a cool
version of that one somewhere too.  He also does a cool version of the
Johnny "Shadow of Your Smile" Mandel song, "A Time for Love.'"  I kind of
think of Johnny Mandel and Michel Legrand as peas in a pod sometimes.  

Anyway, gone on long enough.  Sorry if I bored you. ;-)  

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