Monday, March 25, 2013

Jack Nicholson Sings!

Jack has sung a few times.  Judge for yourself what kind of voice he has.

Here is a video of him playing/singing a doctor in The Who's Tommy.

Personally, I prefer a more sentimental song from the Broadway musical, "On A Clear Day, You Can See Forever" (1965)  The recording of Jack singing "Who is There Among Us Who Knows?", (surprisingly well!) can be found on Youtube along with a series of pictures of him and Barbra Streisand.  The scene was cut from the movie (1970), which did feature Bob Newhart and Yves Montand.  It reappeared on Broadway in 2011, starring Harry Connick Jr.  and a whole new plot.

The Lyrics are written out on someone else's blog, here and below.  Sentimental and vaguely references the topic of ESP which is featured in the plot.


Who is there among us who knows?

The echo of a love song heard before it's sung,
wandering through a memory dreamed when you were young.
Foolish or fantastic -- which do you suppose?
Who is there among us who knows?

From nowhere, the thought of someone gone for many years.
Then all at once a footstep: Lo, and he appears.
Imagined or a mystery --which, do you suppose?
Who is there among us who knows...

Or even cares which one is true?
There's hardly anyone except a haunted few...

Who long ago remembered somewhere they would see
someone wrapped in twilight, carrying the key,
carrying the secret everywhere he goes,
someone here among us who knows.

Someone here who may not even know she knows.


Music: Burton Lane. Lyrics: Alan Jay Lerner
Vocal: Jack Nicholson


The music was written by Burton Lane, who discovered Judy Garland.  He  wrote the music for "Finian's Rainbow" (1941), "Royal Wedding" (1951) and "On a Clear Day" (1965).  The Great American Songbook treasure "Old Devil Moon" comes out of the first, with lyrics by Yip Harburg.  Fred Astaire and Petula Clark were in the 1968 film adaptation, directed by Francis Ford Coppola (one of his first early big movies!!).

Lyrics written by Alan Jay Lerner.  In collaboration with Frederick Lowe, wrote the Broadway musicals "Brigadoon" (1947), "My Fair Lady" (1956) "Camelot" (1960).  Jackie Kennedy and many others were able to extend the metaphor to the early 1960's to capture the innocence of America before JFK's assassination.
He wrote screenplays for movies as well; for "Gigi",  for "American in Paris" (1951), "Royal Wedding" (1951) starring Fred Astaire (there he is again!).

Garden Path Digression:
Alan Jay Lerner collaborated with Kurt Weill (music) on a Broadway production called "Love Life" (1948),  (Peter worked on a Bertolt Brecht show, "Good Person", see previous blog post).  And Brecht/Weill are famous for "Threepenny Opera".  Back to "Mac the Knife", made popular in the US by Bobby Darin, who was best friends and had as an agent, Steve Blauner. The S of BBS!

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