Why this tune?
On New Year’s Day 2022, a new collection of songs and recordings written or recorded in 1926 entered the public domain, after their 95-year copyright term expired. This addition to the public domain repertoire happens every year, but we’re now seeing songs on the list that are still popular today in the jazz world.
One example from the class of 1926 is George Gershwin’s “Someone To Watch Over Me” from the musical “Oh, Kay!”, a fast song in the show that became a ballad in the jazz and pop canon, recorded over 1800 times, mostly as a ballad. I’m continuing that ballad trend with my piano version this week.
I perform this song often with Barbara Papendorp, who delights our audiences with lyrics in English and French.
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Complete piano track
Rickie Lee Jones
Brad Mehldau
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 