Download   This song has an identity crisis.  “Blue Moon” was written by composers “Rodgers & Hart” in 1934 for the movie Hollywood Party.  In the flick, Jean Harlow had a scene where she was praying to be a movie star, singing the melody to “Blue Moon” – only the title then was “Prayer”.  That scene was eventually scrapped.  Then they trotted the tune out again as the title song for the movie Manhattan Melodrama – this time they called it “It’s Just That Kind of Play” (which was the original name of that movie – are you confused yet?).  But a nightclub scene in the movie required a special song, so Hart wrote more lyrics and the tune became “The Bad in Every Man”. Finally, to give it more commercial appeal, Hart was convinced to write even more lyrics and it became “Blue Moon”.  Whew!

It’s remarkable that a song written decades before rock’n’roll was around became a rock standard.  The Marcels were most responsible for this.  They were a racially- mixed vocal group from Philadelphia with a definitive “doo-wop” style.  They recorded it in 1961 with only two takes – featuring the prominent bass vocal carrying the bottom and great falsettos soaring over top.  Now add an absolutely frantic tempo and there’s your hit version of “Blue Moon”… at last!

Of course, now everyone’s recorded it, from Elvis to Dean Martin to Rod Stewart.  How you perform it with these backups is entirely up to you.  If you’ve got great bass singer, mute the bass (trombone) track.  No bass vocalist?  Keep the trombones and mute the backup vocal track.  I’m sure you’ll figure it out.  Just have some fun with it…

Here’s something interesting – the movie Manhattan Melodrama was what was playing in the Chicago theater John Dillinger stepped out of before being shot to death by federal agents.  So the last song he heard was “The Bad in Every Man” (Blue Moon).  Well… the things you learn.

  Download Instrumental   Whenever you sit down to arrange a song, you have to sort of channel the original artist and let your mind shift into the mood you want to create.  For example, if you’re arranging a Jimmy Buffett tune, you might imagine yourself on a faraway beach with a steel drum band behind you.  Or maybe you’re doing “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees, in which case you would place yourself in a 70’s disco trying to fill the dance floor.  Every song inspires a certain mood and the frame of mind of the arranger determines that mood.

For this Frank Sinatra classic, “That’s Life”, I put myself in a New Orleans speakeasy (there’s an old word I just love) around midnight and I’m on my fifth Hurricane.   The stage lights go down and out walks the great Al Hirt – which is quite an accomplishment since he passed in 1999.  But this is imagination for inspiration, so you’re allowed some leeway in the “alive or dead”  department. The man picks up his trumpet and utters one word into the mic…”Sinatra”, before he brings the horn to his lips. And there you go… the arrangement writes itself now.  You’ve already done the hard part.

I also stole an idea from Michael Buble (he’s still alive) for this piece.  Toward the end, a terrific backup chorus takes this arrangement out by crooning “That’s Life” in a sultry gospel style that is pure genius.  Forget the Sinatra version – try mine instead the next time you perform this one.  Use your imagination…

  Download   If you’re of a certain age, you have a favorite Lionel Richie song,  perhaps ” Still” or “Hello” or “All Night Long”.  I think this one is his best by far.

“Easy” was written by Richie in 1977 while he was lead singer with The Commodores.  The band had previously been considered a “funk” group, but this tune brought them over to the Adult Contemporary side of the music biz.  It went to #1 on the charts almost immediately, which prompted them to follow up with softer hits like “Three Times a Lady”.  When Lionel left The Commodores in 1981, he soon became a Soft Rock superstar in his own right.

I arranged this piece with a solo performer in mind.  The backup vocals were nothing but a bunch of “ahhhs” anyway, so I just used trombones to fill in the blanks.   If you are the only member of your band, you’ll still have a nice full sound behind you.  And the cash at the end of the night is all yours – that’s a very good thing.

  Download Instrumental   Time to get funky, folks!  And you don’t get much funkier (is that a word?) than Earth, Wind, & Fire.  This will please your crowd like nobody’s business, even if it’s a bunch of millennials.  They simply cannot resist this beat.

Maurice White wrote this piece for E,W&F while taking a stroll beneath a starry sky during a break in the recording of another one of their hits, “That’s the Way of the World”.  He came back into the studio with half the lyrics already in his head and the band finished the rest of it.  “Shining Star” was their first number one hit in 1975, and is a perfect example of “funk” finally breaking into mainstream music.  The song is noted for the ending, where after repeated choruses the band drops out and the group sings the final line a cappella and then suddenly, without warning, the song is over.  Surprise!

I had to use 15 tracks to get the instrumentation right.  They are, starting with track 1:  electric piano, bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, voice lead, organ, another rhythm guitar, overdrive guitar, tuba (yes, tuba), drums, French horn, trumpet, brass section, trombone, and sax.  Whew!  If you download this sequence and intend to perform it, you’ll have an irresistible urge to tweak the mix.  Please don’t!  Like my Dad always says, don’t mess with what ain’t broke!  Thank you…

  Download MP3   In one of our local, somewhat tawdry, beach bars, we used to have a woman request this song every time she came in.  She really didn’t need to, as we played this classic at least twice every night.  She would order a cheeseburger, wait for the first few notes, then dance with her burger.  Everybody thought this was hilarious – just made me hungry.  To this day, every time I see a “Hardees” commercial I think of her flailing around on the dance floor – lettuce and tomatoes flying in the air and clutching that dill pickle in her left hand.  Must have been something terribly symbolic for her – I don’t wanna know.

Jimmy Buffett released “Cheeseburger in Paradise” in 1978 and it reached #32 on the Billboard Hot 100.  It may not have been the hit it should have, but it’s still one of Buffett’s “Big 8” – the eight songs that he has to perform every concert to keep his fans happy.  I’m sure he doesn’t mind.  There have been rumors he wrote the song for some particular restaurant he ate at or cooked in along the Gulf Coast, but not so.

In his younger days as a sailor, he and his crew ran into some rough weather off the coast of Puerto Rico.  The boat was disabled, so they limped along for days eating nothing but canned food and peanut butter.  The image of a piping hot cheeseburger kept popping into his head as he shoved another cracker and peanut butter in his mouth.  After six days of this, they finally landed on the tiny island of Tortola.  At the end of the dock, like a mirage, was a brand new marina and bar that featured American cheeseburgers.  Now Jimmy had a hit song.

According to the lyrics, the man wants his burger “medium rare with muenster’d be nice”.  Muenster?  As in the cheese?  Well, crap!  I’ve been singing with “mustard” all these years!  Boy, the things you find out when you do a little research.  Should have just asked Alexa.