This is a 3/4 time version of the song My Way. The song is of French origin, its original title is Comme d'habitude, which means something like business as usual. The short form Comme d'hab is colloquial French.
Christian, you have a real skill at taking well-known tunes (almost clichéd) and injecting real freshness into them. I really enjoyed this. Incidentally, I listened to this on YouTube before you posted it here. The YT algorithm decided that therefore I wanted to watch a debate between Foucault and Chomsky next. This might have been because both are iconoclastic and original thinkers in the Frank Sinatra mould. Or it might just have been because Foucault was French. I'm surprised it didn't try to sell me a packet of Gauloises and a glass of Ricard.
I agree with Richard -- this sounds really fresh and light in your arrangement, with a great sense of melody and an unfamiliar twist with the waltz time signature. I don't think I posted it to SAW or anywhere else on the Cafe (or if I did, I can't find it), but I recorded "My Way" back in 2019. My treatment is about as different from yours as possible, based on a full-blown mandolin orchestra arrangement I found at the Japanese Nakano Archive site. Parts for two mandolins, mandola (in G), mandocello, double bass and guitar. I played the bass part on second mandocello. It was fun to put together, but definitely a challenge in a home recording solo setup. Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin 1890s Umberto Ceccherini mandolin Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin Suzuki MC-815 mandocello (x2) Vintage Viaten tenor guitar https://youtu.be/IibgGFDBksk Martin
Christian, you played the song with a lovely elegance. Very nice! Martin, your full orchestra version sounds great, too. “… definitely a challenge” to synchronize all voices “in a home recording solo setup.”
Martin, that is a real feat, but it works in a way that is much closer to Sinatra - the time signature primarily, I suppose. I enjoyed it.
Not a song/tune I’ve heard played on the mandolin before…and it isn’t one that I would have contemplated playing myself. However, WOW, two very different but accomplished entertaining versions provided here.
Breath-taking performances Gents! Nice images Both, I’ve just seen The Budapest Hotel which seems similar.
Thanks a lot, Frithjof, Richard, John and Simon. It's sometimes fun to see how far the mandolin can stretch. This is not my only Sinatra adaptation either: in addition to my recent "Fly Me To The Moon" (link to SAW thread), I also recorded "Strangers In The Night" in 2019: This is a six-part orchestral setting I adapted from strings (Link to score) and played on three mandolins, OM, mandocello and tenor guitar. Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin (x3) Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin Suzuki MC-815 mandocello Vintage Viaten tenor guitar Martin
This one's even better, Martin. It really works on these instruments (surprisingly, perhaps).
