[Twotone]

A favorite song of mine, & a rendition I'd never heard before from Dinah Shore. Interesting, the different lyrics.

[Sans-Culotte]

Being a huge Sinatra fan, I really like his version on the "Point of No Return" album. I think the album is a little better than Steyn does, but Steyn is correct that Sinatra had a "mail it in" attitude on his last couple of contractual obligation albums for Capitol (a pity since Sinatra's best work was at Capitol). I daresay I was disappointed when I first listened to the album. Starting as it does with such a brilliant version of "When the World Was Young", it could only be downhill from there. In keeping with the theme of the album, all the songs on "Point of No Return" are about goodbyes, wistful looks at the past, memories, etc. Considering Sinatra's attitude, the album is way better than it has a right to be.

I saw Marlene Dietrich in a filmed concert doing "When the World Was Young". She talked it more than she sang it. She started is as "It isn't by chance I happen to be a femme fatale, the toast of Paris".

[Buttons12]

LOL, all I saw was the thread title and I KNEW it was a Steyn.

[Savage Beast]

"Summers at Bordeaux
Rowing the bateau...

It's Bor-DEAUX but it's not ba-TEAU. The French say BA-teau, and Mercer rowed his a wee bit out of his depth there.

Not at all. The word bateau has been a part of the English language for at least two centuries and has been commonly used around Mercer's hometown Savannah for at least that long. It is today. A bateau is a small boat, either rowed or used with a small outboard motor. Hang out on the waters around Savannah and you're sure to hear it.

And also, the French pronunciation would be more like BA-TEAU than BA-teau.