Which songs or musical standards have haunted you?



For my entire life I've been hearing certain songs and musical tunes. These same songs and melodies have been done by countless artists. Today I decided to search the origination of this music.

"Tenderly" has probably been the most consistent tune in my life. I recall it from my high school prom.

"Tenderly" is a popular song published in 1946 with music by Walter Gross and lyrics by Jack Lawrence. Copyright 1946 by Edwin H. Morris & Company, Inc. Originally written in the key of Eb as a waltz in 3/4 time, it has since been performed in 4/4 and has subsequently become a popular jazz standard.

Early recordings were by Sarah Vaughan, who recorded the song in 1946 and had a US pop hit with it in 1947;[1] and the Brazilian crooner and pianist Dick Farney (Farnésio Dutra e Silva) who recorded the song in 1947.[citation needed] Since then, "Tenderly" has been recorded by many artists, but perhaps the best-known version was by Rosemary Clooney. Clooney's recorded version reached only #17 on the Billboard magazine pop charts in early 1952, but it is more popular than the chart data would suggest, as is evidenced by the fact that Tenderly served as the theme song for Clooney's 1956-1957 TV variety show. The song featured in the 1953 film Torch Song.

"Early Autumn" is another favorite of mine sung by "Anita O'Day"

"Early Autumn" (1949) is a song composed by Ralph Burns and Woody Herman with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was a hit for Woody Herman in the year it was written.

"Claire de Lune" is one of the most beautiful melodies I've ever heard.

Suite bergamasque was first composed by Debussy around 1890, but was significantly revised just before its publication in 1905. It seems that by the time a publisher came to Debussy in order to cash in on his fame and have these pieces published, Debussy loathed the earlier piano style in which these pieces were written.[2] While it is not known how much of the Suite was written in 1890 and how much was written in 1905, we do know that Debussy changed the names of at least two of the pieces.

"Passepied" was called "Pavane", and "Clair de lune" was originally titled "Promenade Sentimentale." These names also come from Paul Verlaine's poems.[3] It is interesting, however, to note that "Promenade Sentimentale" alludes specifically to one of Verlaine's earliest collections, "Poèmes saturniens," a fact that Debussy obviously took into account when he changed the name (and most likely much of the music)[citation needed] in order to suit both his later style, and Verlaine's.

"My Funny Valentine" is a show tune from the 1937 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart musical Babes in Arms in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green. After being recorded by Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra, and Miles Davis, the song became a popular jazz standard, appearing on over 1300 albums performed by over 600 artists.

"Round Midnight" appears in my collection by more artists than any other tune.

"'Round Midnight" is a 1944 jazz standard by pianist Thelonious Monk. Jazz artists Cootie Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Pepper, and Miles Davis have further embellished the song, with songwriter Bernie Hanighen adding lyrics. Both Williams and Hanighen have received co-credits for their contributions.

What standards can you add to this list that have haunted you for many years?


orpheus10
Orpheus. I would say Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind". Written by Bob in 1962, it's been covered by hundreds of artists. Most notably Peter, Paul & Mary. Other covers have been by The Hollies, country guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins, Odetta, Dolly Parton, folk chanteuse Judy Collins, The Kingston Trio, Marianne Faithfull (1964 single), Jackie DeShannon, The Seekers, soul singer Sam Cooke, blues belter Etta James, Duke Ellington, Neil Young (with air raid sound effects), the Doodletown Pipers, Marlene Dietrich, Bobby Darin, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Presley, Sielun Veljet, on their single "Blowin' in the Wind", Stevie Wonder (whose version became a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966), John Fogerty, The Hooters on their 1994 album The Hooters Live, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and was performed by Jenny in the award-winning film Forrest Gump (sung by Joan Baez), and was lampooned in Me, Myself & Irene. The Me First and the Gimme Gimmes' version appears on their album Blow in the Wind, a play on the title of the song.

An instrumental arrangement by Stan Getz served as the B-side for Astrud Gilberto's 1964 hit single "The Girl From Ipanema" and Stanley Turrentine recorded an instrumental version on his album Common Touch (1968).

A traveling exhibition called Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956–1966, which was featured at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, contains an audio display with samples of dozens of different cover versions of the song, sung in numerous languages and from a variety of musical genres.

The song has also been sung and recorded in German by Marlene Dietrich as "Die Antwort weiss ganz allein der Wind".

Bender briefly sang this song when a magnet gets attached to his head on the Futurama episode "The Series Has Landed".

In Bengali there has been a translation of the song recorded by Bengali singer, songwriter, political activist Kabir Suman. It goes "Kotota Path" ("How Many Roads") in Bengali.

The song was translated to Romanian by poet Adrian Păunescu and was sung by folk band Pasărea Colibri under the name "Vânare de vânt" ("Windhunting").

The Italian version was written by Giulio Rapetti (better known as Mogol) and sung by Luigi Tenco with the title "La risposta (è caduta nel vento)" ("The answer (has fallen down the wind)").

Tore Lagergren wrote lyrics in Swedish, "Och vinden ger svar" ("and the wind gives answer"), which chartered at Svensktoppen for two weeks during 1963, first as recorded by Otto, Berndt och Beppo, peaking at #8 on October 12, and by Lars Lönndahl during November 9–15 with sixth and seventh position. Both were released on single A-sides during 1963. This lyrics version was also recorded by Sven-Ingvars, as B-side for the single "Du ska tro på mej", released in March 1967.[24] With these lyrics, the song also chartered at Svensktoppen in 1970, with Michael med Salt och peppar.

Hugues Aufray sang a French version, entitled "Dans le souffle du vent" ("In the blow of the wind"). Aufray has been known to adapt various international artists' songs to French, including several from Dylan's repertoire. Another French singer Richard Anthony recorded an adaptation of the song in French as "Ecoute dans le vent" (1964).

The song was covered on American singer-songwriter Jay Brannan's 2009 album In Living Cover.

Gerard Quintana (former lead singer of the Catalan rock band Sopa de Cabra) recorded a cover of this song in Catalan under the title "Escolta-ho en el vent" (Hear it in the wind) for his album Els Miralls de Dylan (Mirrors of Dylan).

Josh Sigurdson covered the song to critical acclaim in 2010.

Brazilian singer Zé Ramalho recorded a Portuguese language cover of this song called "O Vento vai Responder" (The Wind will Answer) on his 2008 album Zé Ramalho Canta Bob Dylan – Tá Tudo Mudando.

The song was covered and translated on Ukrainian by singer-songwriter Yuriy Veres 2012 album 60/70.

In addition, "Blowin' in the Wind" is one of seven Dylan songs whose lyrics were reset for soprano and piano (or orchestra) by John Corigliano for his song cycle Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan.

And yes, that was a copy and paste.
Donjr,
Even if I liked that song, that is way more information than I would ever want to know about it. That aside, it's hard (for me ) to see it as haunting. I've always considered it a seminal 60's protest song.
I am surprised so far by some of the songs that posters consider "haunting", such as Fever. Sultry, yes, but haunting? I will be interested to see what other songs appear i this thread.
A few Haunted melodies that come to mind

Theme from Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky
Dance Macabre - Saen Saints
Night on Bald Mountain - Musskorsky

Memorable, some haunting, standard Pop melodies most have been recorded countless times by different artists off the top of my head

My Funny Valentine - Rodgers and Hart
Night and Day - Cole Porter
Stardust - Hoagy Carmichael
Yesterday - McCartney and Lennon
Body and Soul - Johnny Green (most notably the Coleman Hawkins version from the late 30's)
Round Midnight - Monk
Embraceable You - Gershwin

Haunting beautiful Classical standards

Ave verum corpus - Mozart
Claire de lune - Debussey