Why this tune?
This week’s we’re celebrating the 100th birthday of the great composer Henry Mancini with one of my favorite Mancini songs. “Two For The Road” is the title song of a 1967 film directed by Stanley Donen, starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney.
This beautiful song has been recorded over 200 times, with and without the romantic lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. It’s a challenging and satisfying tune to play, with so many lovely melodic and harmonic details and possibilities. Many recordings treat the song as a slow
ballad, but I’ve been playing it faster, with more of a Latin feel. That’s the approach Barbara Papendorp and I take when we perform it in our shows around the DC area. We always include at least a couple of Mancini tunes in our set, and are planning a program dedicated to Mancini and other composers of his era.
Tunes On Tuesday Reel
Peggy Lee sings
Fred Hersch plays
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 