SongTrellis
Music and Musical Know-how For You

Author:  David Luebbert Posted:  1/6/04; 12:11:52 AM Topic:  The Night Has a Thousand Eyes Msg#:  4044 (in response to 4043) Prev/Next:  4043/4045 Reads:  1942

I've never heard the Bobby Vee performance, but this is the Benjamin Weisman tune that uses lyrics similar to those you quote.

The arrangement I've posted matches the way most jazz performers play the tune. John Coltrane introduced this way of  playing  the tune on his "Coltrane's Sound" album. .

I'm pretty sure Coltrane's tempo is much faster than Bobby Vee would have performed it. They would do the first 8 bars with a Latin feel and then swing the second eight.

Also the Coltrane performance starts with the tune's chorus, where it looks like the vocal performance had something else happening for the first 8 bars of the tune, which is answered by the chorus. Perhaps to you, this rendition sounds like it's beginning in the middle of the tune.

Coltrane during this period was known for restructuring tunes to fit the feeling he wanted for his quartet. He would impose different rhythm schemes than the composer originally wrote and would retain the written melody but use harmonic alterations. I don't have original sheet music for the song to consult to see if he did that kind of thing here, but it's possible that this would also make the song sound different than you might remember.

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