… how faint the tune… somewhere there’s heaven… how high the moon”
How High The Moon is one of those songs that plays off and on in my head over time. Usually when I’m trying to work things out for myself. Not always, but often, I can be found humming it on my morning walks. Sometimes it is a frenetic “jump” arrangement and at other times something more “ballady”… depending on what I’m trying to work out in my rabid mind.
Although the Mary Ford/Les Paul version is the most iconic… it was one of Ella Fitzgerald’s take on the song I first heard as a wee tyke that stuck. I was 8 or 9 and had been on an Ella kick… pretty much devouring any and all recordings she had made like a junkie on a bender. Let’s face it… her instrument and use of it was divine. In my book, she was also the mother of all scat singers.
OK… fine… I’ll post it here so you can bask in it’s glory.
BTW… this is the very first version I heard… and now perhaps you can understand a little of what originally blew me away. I distinctly remember my eyes widening in pure wonder… especially in the scat section.
The melody itself is catchy. The lyrics on their own could be construed as a longing love song. But together… that’s where the real magic blooms into something quite extraordinary. It transforms into the joy of reaching… for something beyond… at least it does for me.
That “beyond” could just about be anything… love (the most obvious), the illumination of a solution, the next good cup of coffee… like I said – pretty much anything. That’s what resonates with me – the reaching out part. The striving for what might presently be beyond one’s reach… and all presented with a joyful optimism.
It’s the kind of optimism I try to take with me into any creative project I undertake. Ultimately, any creative project is reaching beyond one’s reach to be realized in the real, isn’t it?
Yeah, we all have songs that play in our heads. This is one of mine. What is one of yours?