The other day at the Pinole Artisans Gallery (“The Gallery” as we usually put it) a series of All Time Standards was on the CD player. Our music selections are wonderfully diverse. Everyone has favorites from Bach organ to Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash to standards like “You Make Me Feel So Young,” which Frank Sinatra made famous and countless musicians have covered.
It is spring. The hills are green, trees are in leaf, countless flowers are in bloom. (I thought I could count the ones I have seen driving between Emeryville and Pinole this spring, but there are too many.) “You Make Me Feel So Young” is just the right song for the day. All of a sudden, I started paying attention to the rhymes.
The song, music by Josef Myrow, lyrics by Mack Gordon, have a few variations, depending on which rendition you are listening to. Even Frank Sinatra, who made the song famous, changes the lyrics a bit from rendition to rendition.
The first quatrain of the published lyrics goes like this:
You make me feel so young
You make me feel as though spring has sprung
And every time I see you grin
I’m such a happy individual
Sinatra was known for his swinging rhythms. I swear what I heard at the Gallery was:
You make me feel so young
You make me feel so spring has sprung
And every time I see you grin
I turn into a happy in [pause] dividual
(Interestingly, there’s no end line punctuation in online versions of the lyrics I saw.)
So what’s the big deal? “Young” rhymes with “Sprung.” “Grin” rhymes with — hey! wait a minute! — individual? “Grin” rhymes with “in,” but not the rest of it!
OK. So what do we hear with the music?
You MAKE me FEEL so YOUNG (CAPS for emphasis)
You MAKE me FEEL so SPRING has SPRUNG (“as though” just doesn’t make it for me)
And every TIME I SEE you GRIN (brilliant word to use in a rhyming position — it’s unexpected)
I TURN into a HapPY IN [big pause here for the rhythm] — di — vid — U -al
It is spring. The hills are green, trees are in leaf, countless flowers are in bloom. (I thought I could count the ones I have seen driving between Emeryville and Pinole this spring, but there are too many.) “You Make Me Feel So Young” is just the right song for the day. All of a sudden, I started paying attention to the rhymes.
The song, music by Josef Myrow, lyrics by Mack Gordon, have a few variations, depending on which rendition you are listening to. Even Frank Sinatra, who made the song famous, changes the lyrics a bit from rendition to rendition.
The first quatrain of the published lyrics goes like this:
You make me feel so young
You make me feel as though spring has sprung
And every time I see you grin
I’m such a happy individual
Sinatra was known for his swinging rhythms. I swear what I heard at the Gallery was:
You make me feel so young
You make me feel so spring has sprung
And every time I see you grin
I turn into a happy in [pause] dividual
(Interestingly, there’s no end line punctuation in online versions of the lyrics I saw.)
So what’s the big deal? “Young” rhymes with “Sprung.” “Grin” rhymes with — hey! wait a minute! — individual? “Grin” rhymes with “in,” but not the rest of it!
OK. So what do we hear with the music?
You MAKE me FEEL so YOUNG (CAPS for emphasis)
You MAKE me FEEL so SPRING has SPRUNG (“as though” just doesn’t make it for me)
And every TIME I SEE you GRIN (brilliant word to use in a rhyming position — it’s unexpected)
I TURN into a HapPY IN [big pause here for the rhythm] — di — vid — U -al