Sea Of Heartbreak & Save The Last Dance For Me

  1. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    I've been playing around with an old songbook today, "101 Rock 'n' Roll Hits for Buskers". Here are a couple of fairly straightforward instrumental covers, mainly to try out a few ideas on how to play bass lines on my new mandocello. The mandolin simply plays the vocal line.

    Instrumentation for both songs is:

    Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
    Ozark tenor guitar
    Suzuki MC-815 mandocello

    1) Sea Of Heartbreak (Hal David/Paul Hampton): This was a big hit for Don Gibson in 1961, and has more recently been covered by Johnny Cash (backed by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) and by Roseanne Cash & Bruce Springsteen.

    [MP3=1]http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=117446&d=1396207018[/MP3]



    2) Save The Last Dance For Me (Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman): A Number One for Ben E King & The Drifters in 1960, and covered by lots of acts since. A very simple tune, and I've kept it plain -- works pretty well on mandolin.

    [MP3=2]http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=117445&d=1396207018[/MP3]



    Martin
  2. maudlin mandolin
    maudlin mandolin
    An inspired idea to use the comic strip on Sea of Heartbreak, which I prefer both visually and musically. Cant help associating Save The Last Dance with that syrupy Englebert Humperdinck version.
  3. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, Maudlin!

    The comic pictures are actually all paintings by Roy Lichtenstein from the early 1960s and they are all separate and (nominally at least) unrelated artworks made over a period of several years. The final one, Drowning Girl, is one of Lichtenstein's most famous pictures and hangs at MOMA in NYC. I've assembled them into a storyline, and as this was surprisingly easy I suspect that Lichtenstein painted them with that in mind. They're from the same period as the song and "Drowning Girl" in particular fits the "Sea Of Heartbreak" metaphor perfectly, so I thought they make a nice match. It's a great song, and really good fun to play on mandolin. I prefer the original Don Gibson version over Johnny Cash, or indeed the Roseanne Cash/Springsteen duet:



    "Save The Last Dance For Me" may have been ruined by sugary cover versions (I hear your Englebert Humperdinck and raise you Michael Bublé...), but the original Drifters recording with the Ben E. King lead vocals is a stone cold classic. Check it out:



    Martin
  4. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Another old one to revisit: here is "Sea Of Heartbreak", which is really good fun on mandolin!

    Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
    Vintage Viaten tenor guitar



    Martin
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