Why this tune?
Back in May I wrote about my first song “I Believe In Rhubarb,” inspired by a conversation about gardening. My wife liked the song but suggested that I write another one about a subject closer to her heart. That led to my second song, “I Hate Onions,” which also marked the end of my exploration of vegetable-themed music. I’ve been performing this one with Barbara Papendorp and other singers for years – it works well in restaurant gigs when you want to present a food-themed set (we usually pair it with the classic “Frim Fram Sauce”).
Dig this detail!
For Onions, I included the titles of fifteen jazz standards in the lyrics. It was a fun exercise to see how many titles I could include while still telling a consistent story. One future project is to play a set of all of the tunes included in the song:
- April In Paris
- Moonlight In Vermont
- Groovin’ High
- Blue Skies
- Stardust
- Easy To Love
- Lover Man
- I Could Write A Book
- I Should(n’t) Care
- As Time Goes By
- Don’t Explain
- It Don’t Mean A Thing
- Minority
- All Of Me
- What’ll I Do
Check it out!
Barbara Papendorp sings “Onions” live in 2013
Beth Logan Raffeld sings “Onions” in 2009
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 