I stumbled across this album of Mark’s on Apple Music when driving back from my parents after a family visit. I’ve been a fan of Mark’s playing for years and this rendition of ‘Skylark’ just blew me away.
Skylark was composed by Hogay Carmichael, who wrote the melody, based on a Bix Beiderbecke cornet improvisation, as “Bix Licks”, for a project to turn the novel Young Man With a Horn into a Broadway musical. After that project failed, Carmichael brought in Johnny Mercer to write lyrics for the song. Mercer said that he struggled for a year after he got the music from Carmichael before he could get the lyrics right. Mercer recalled that Carmichael initially called him several times about the lyrics but had forgotten about the song by the time Mercer finally wrote them. The yearning expressed in the lyrics was based on Mercer’s longing for Judy Garland, with whom he had an affair.
Several artists recorded charting versions of the song in 1942, including the Glenn Miller Orchestra (vocal by Ray Eberle), Harry James and His Orchestra (vocal by Helen Forrest), Dinah Shore, and Bing Crosby.[6]
Before you start this project, spend some time listening to this playlist, it will help you understand Mark’s version and the subtitles of his improvisation.
Have you anything to say to me
Won’t you tell me where my love can be
Is there a meadow in the mist
Where someone’s waiting to be kissed
Have you seen a valley green with spring
Where my heart can go a-journeying
Over the shadows and the rain
To a blossom covered lane
Haven’t you heard the music of the night
Wonderful music, faint as a will o’ the wisp
Crazy as a loon
Sad as a gypsy serenading the moon
I don’t know if you can find these things
But my heart is riding on your wings
So if you see them anywhere
Won’t you lead me there
I don’t know if you can find these things
But my heart is riding on your wings
So if you see them anywhere
Won’t you lead me there
