Coronavirus: Dame Vera Lynn uses 103rd birthday to buoy Britain

BBC ^ | 3/20/2020

[Borges]

Dame Vera Lynn has used her 103rd birthday to call on the British public to find "moments of joy" during these "hard times".

The London-born singer marked the special occasion with a new video for her wartime classic We'll Meet Again.

[Thank You Rush]

That is super too - thanks for posting. Listening to this singing is hitting me hard. I think it’s the stress of what we’re being deluged with each day now even tho’ I try to stay away from it.. Stay well, everyone!

[Rummyfan]

Happy Birthday Vera Lynn! Wow. Did not know she was still alive.

[Fiji Hill]

This thought-provoking tune should have been a hit. Although it didn't even chart, it's better than just about anything else that came out that came out that year.

In the Snow--Vera Lynn (1967)

[Fiji Hill]

On this tune, she's way out of character.

Hollywood Square Dance--Vera Lynn & Anne Shelton (1949)

[Fiji Hill]

This is the only one of her songs in which her name is mentioned.

Let's Harmonize--Vera Lynn & Anne Shelton (1950)

[Steven Scharf]

Took some searching, but I found the video the BBC article is about, but is missing from the article.

Dame Vera Lynn - We’ll Meet Again - 103rd Birthday Celebration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDK07LKIsDUII&v=K07LKIsDUII&feature=emb_rel_end

It is probably the version from the 1943 movie of the same name.

[golux]

Great thread. Thanks!

[Mathews]

So true.

[katana]

All very good points. I liked the irony of Kubrick using that song as theme for the end of the world. But I’m sure it strikes many differently. Dame Vera is the last of a generation of British patriots and should rest, when the time comes, in Westminster Cathedral.

[Borges]

That use of the song was significant in another way. Having a ready-made pop recording playing over a scene in a movie that is not coming from anything happening on screen (someone singing or a playing a recording) was not done at the time. It was believed that having some disembodied voice singing on the soundtrack would break the ilusion of what’s onscreen. Also in 1964, “A Hard Day’s Night” did the same thing: Beatles records were playing on the soundtrack when the band wasn’t performing. It paved the way for a new form of musical...the “pop”-sicle. Saturday Night Fever, Flashdance etc. Today, virtually every other film has pop tunes playing on the soundtrack.