Songs To Fall In Love To: "The Way You Look Tonight"

It was two years ago now that Rod Stewart, a funky old Rock star, changed his tune and began singing great musical classics from "the Great American Songbook." These are songs that were written from the 1920s through the early 1960's by great writers like George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington and many others.

These songs are incredibly romantic and conjure up visions of full orchestras with string and brass sections, musicians in tuxedos, well-dressed men and women dancing. I love this genre of music. Think of Bob Hope singing "Thanks for the Memory" or Louis Armstrong singing "As Time Goes By." The list of great songs includes "Deep Purple," "I'm In the Mood for Love," "Moon Glow," "Sentimental Journey," "Makin' Whoopee" and many others.

Stewart produced five albums of this music and I bought all of them. Throw away your image of Stewart as the edgy rocker singing "Do You Think I'm Sexy." His dusky voice in these recordings captures the original spirit and feeling of these songs. I highly recommend his "Great American Songbook" series. This guy can actually sing.

Here's one of those songs, "The Way You Look Tonight." Think of that special girl you took to the Senior Prom and how blown away you were when you came to pick her up...and saw her more beautiful than you had ever seen her before.

This is why I want to play the old-fashioned upright string bass. I want to be a part of music like this.