In honor of our First Anniversary, I would like to publish a track listing with liner notes of the playlist that played during the reception. I hope that it gives folks some insight to the wonderful ten years that Renee and I have had together.
The playlist used eighty-six tracks and was just under five hours in length. If produced on a hard copy, a cd, say, the track listing takes up four of them, each one a different "section" or "theme", if you will. I was in complete charge of the playlist and made all selections. As we are both massive movie buffs who are constantly watching films in our free time, and what with our reception being at a restaurant called Foreign Cinema, that shows old films as you eat your dinner, obviously, I incorporated a movie theme in to the track listing.
The two film soundtracks I drew from the most are Martin Scorsese's smashing cult classic, After Hours (which is a blend of famous classical pieces and deep, dark old R&B songs) and Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco (which is a blend of Disco, naturally, R&B, and old ska/reggae numbers.) But there are other soundtrack songs that made the cut, as well, from films as diverse as Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky and the hockey classic, Slap Shot.
Also, as guests were arriving, a slide show made by father rolled on the far wall on a loop. My father picked the song for that, In My Life by The Beatles. During the reception we had two films play on the wall with the sound down, "Moving Wallpaper" Renee likes to call it. The two films were Kelly and Donen's classic, An American in Paris, and Ernst Lubitsch's pre-code Masterpiece, Trouble in Paradise.
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DISC ONE
Classical, or How to Tell the Iliad from The Odyssey.
1. Mozart/Symphony No. 45, Movement 1 This is the song used for the opening credits of After Hours, one of Renee and I's favorite films.
2. Bach/Air on the G string Yeah, I know I know, corny as all get out, but a masterpiece and is played during the first scene of After Hours.
3. Chopin/Prelude No. 1 I love all Chopin, but especially his Twenty-four Preludes. I only picked upbeat ones for the reception, though.
4. Chopin/Prelude No. 3
5. Chopin/Prelude No. 5
6. Chopin/Prelude No. 7
7. Chopin/Prelude No. 9
9. Chopin/Prelude No. 11
10. Chopin/Prelude No. 13
11. Chopin/Prelude No. 15
12. Chopin/Prelude No. 17
13. Chopin/Prelude No. 19
14. Chopin/Prelude No. 23
15. Mozart/Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter", Movement 1
16. Mozart/Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter", Movement 3 My favorite piece of Mozart, ever. It is so sly, witty, and sublime. He is winking at us.
17. Ella Fitzgerald/There's a Small Hotel Is there a finer singer, ever? I think not. It is amazing the way she bends notes with such subtlety and panache. She makes all these "American Idols" and Mall Divas sound rather silly.
19. Ella Fitzgerald/I Could Write a Book
20. Ella Fitzgerald/My Funny Valentine Still the absolute gold standard for this song as far as I am concerned. I do not care for Chet Baker's version, and, yet, I have a very special idiosyncratic place in my heart for Elvis Costello's bombastic reading. "But don't change a hair for me/Not if you care for me/Stay little Valentine, stay/Each day is Valentine's Day"
21. Ella Fitzgerald/Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered An absolute masterpiece, both in songwriting and in Ms Fitzgerald's performance. It is a whole relationship brilliantly illustrated in seven glorious, hilarious, moving minutes.
22. Ella Fitzgerald/Have You Met Miss Jones? The song, not Ms Fitzgerald's performance, is a running gag in Richard Linklater's absolutely brilliant film, Me & Orson Welles, which those who have not seen yet, should see instantly!
23. Ella Fitzgerald/I Get a Kick Out of You What is it Woody Allen says to Dianne Weist in Hannah and Her Sisters? "You don't deserve Cole Porter!"
24. Ella Fitzgerald/Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) "People say in Boston even beans do it"
Love you, Peanut.
The Liner Notes and more videos for the other three discs will be published soon.
Mwah, ...
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