It's all in the game
It's All in the Game is a song by Charles Gates Dawes (music) and Carl Sigman (lyrics), which has been recorded by various performers since 1951 and has hit the charts several times. It had its greatest success in the 1958 version of Tommy Edwards , which topped the charts in both the US and Great Britain and sold more than 3.5 million singles .
The song was based on an instrumental piece composed by Charles Dawes in 1911 called "Melody in A Major" . Dawes later became a Nobel Laureate and Vice President of the United States in the second term of Calvin Coolidge . It's the only number one hit written by a politician who held that office.
Melody in A Major
The melody was written in 1911 and published in 1912 under the title "Melody in A Major" ("Melody in A Major"). The composer was the then Chicago bank president and amateur pianist and flutist Charles Gates Dawes. He wrote the melody in one piece at his home in Evanston, Illinois . After playing them to his friend, the violinist Francis MacMillan , he was so impressed that he secretly gave the sheet music to a music publisher. Dawes, who at that time was already politically active and also known for running for the Senate, was surprised to find a printed sheet of music with his portrait in a music shop a little later. He commented at the time: “I know that I will now become the mockery of my friends. They will say that if all the notes in my bank are as bad as my music notes, then they are not worth the paper they were written on. ”The piece, often referred to as “ Dawes's Melody ” , followed him into politics - and he later hated that it was played everywhere he appeared. The melody was also spread by the violinist Fritz Kreisler ; for years it was the final number in his concerts; in the 1940s, the piece went into the repertoire of various Swing - big bands , among other things, at Tommy Dorsey .
It's all in the game
In the summer of 1951, a few weeks after the death of Charles Dawes, songwriter Carl Sigman had the idea for a song, and Dawes' "Melody in A Major" struck him as fitting for his sentimental lyrics (which began "Many a tear has to fall , but It's all in the game ... " , German:" Some tears have to flow, but that's all part of the game ... "). The song was released a little later in recordings by Dinah Shore , Sammy Kaye , Carmen Cavallaro and Tommy Edwards. Edwards' version was the most successful, reaching number 18 on the US pop charts.
The wide range of the classical melody would have been "difficult to sing" so it had to be rearranged . Louis Armstrong recorded a well-known jazz arrangement as singer with arranger Gordon Jenkins ; Jenkins produced a version with Nat King Cole in a similar fashion in 1956 .
In 1958, MGM was on the verge of letting Tommy Edwards' contract expire. But shortly before that, stereo recording had been invented, and since Edwards was to record one last record, MGM decided to use it as a demonstration of the new technology. During these recordings, Edwards played, among other things, his old hit “It's All in the Game” in a new arrangement , based on the current rock and roll sound . Those in charge at MGM liked the result so much that they released the song as a single in August 1958. It made the Top 100, and on September 14, Edwards sang it on television on the Ed Sullivan Show . 15 days later, "It's All in the Game" rose to the top position on the Billboard charts and was not ousted for six weeks. In November the song reached number one in the UK. The title also reached first place in the R&B charts, which it occupied for three weeks.
Recordings of It's All in the Game
The song has been interpreted more or less successfully by many different artists. Well-known versions are available from:
- Tommy Edwards , in two versions as a single: 1951 No. 18 in the USA, 1958 chart topper in the USA, Great Britain and Australia
- Andy Williams , on his LP "Lonely Street" , 1959
- Robert Goulet , on his LP “Always You” , 1961
- Cliff Richard , as single, numbered 2 in the UK in 1963, 25 in the US in 1964
- The Lettermen , on their LP "She Cried"
- Jackie DeShannon , on her LP "What the World Needs Now Is Love" , 1968
- Four Tops , as a single, ranked 5th in the UK in 1970 and 24th in the US
- Van Morrison , on his LP “Into the Music” and as the single B-side of “Cleaning Windows” , 1979
- Elton John , on his album "Cotton Fields" (or "Legendary Covers as Sung by Elton John" )
- Keith Jarrett with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette , on his album "The Out-of-Towners" , 2004
- Barry Manilow , on his album "The Greatest Songs of the Fifties" , 2006
Individual evidence
- ^ "I know that I will be the target of my punster friends. They will say that if all the notes in my bank are as bad as my musical ones, they are not worth the paper they were written on. "Quoted from Bill Kauffman, " The Melodious Veep " ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , June 2004 in The American Enterprise (online version November 15, 2006)
- ↑ Veep's Waltz , TIME Magazine, December 17, 1951 (online version November 15, 2006)
- ^ Fred Bronson, "The Billboard Book of Number One Hits," 3rd edition, New York 2003; Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Records 1940-1955 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, 1973, p. 21
- ↑ "Carl Sigman's Legacy ..." Interview with his son in Pianoforte Magazine (online version from August 21, 2006)
- ^ Will Friedwald, "The Old Songster" in The Village Voice of June 6, 2001 (online version of August 21, 2006)
- ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1994, p. 190
- ^ Nugent, Stephen / Fowler, Anne / Fowler, Pete: Chart Log of American / British Top 20 Hits, 1955-1974. In: Gillett, Charlie / Frith, Simon (eds.): Rock File 4 . Frogmore, St. Albans: Panther Books, 1976, p. 155
- ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top 40 R&B and Hip-Hop Hits. 1942-2004. New York, NY: Billboard Books, 2006, p. 170
