Pearls
According to the OM Dictionary, a pearl is a song that can be listened to 20 times or more in a row without becoming the least bit irritating. It is small (<5 mins) but perfectly formed and is not reliant on era or genre to qualify its greatness. While there is often a quintessential performance, a pearl will be just as lovely in a cover version as it is in the hands of the original performer.
Here are five that have been getting significant airtime at OM Headquarters these past weeks:
Nina Simone – My Baby Just Cares For Me; Fauré – Cantique de Jean Racine (Choir Of St John’s College, Cambridge); Couperin – Barricades Misterieuses (Alexandre Tharaud); Louis Armstrong – Hello Dolly; Bishop Allen - Butterfly Nets
Have you got a few pearls to nominate? Let us know what we’re missing out on in the comments, or better yet, embed a video so we can all enjoy listening.
Via Facebook, Evan nominates Ben Harper - Steal My Kisses
With the Couperin I would add that it can also be played 20 times or more in a row without irritation or loss of interest. I love that piece!
I would add Cole Porter’s “De-Lovely”.
Here’s Donald O’Connor and Mitzi Gaynor with De-Lovely from Anything Goes. [My goodness that's a narrow waist!]
Napalm Death – You Suffer
OK, clearly no one got this and the YouTube supplied embed tag failed as there is no ‘preview’ function here and I had to wait for comment moderation so I had no way of checking. Here’s the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dws87NR6DpM
Fritz Wunderlich ‘Il mio tesoro’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GbTmkn1Y28
Joni Mitchell ‘A Case of You’
This list changes over time of course, but off the top of my head I would list:
Yo-yo Ma and Allison Krauss – Simple Gifts
T. V. Carpio (from Across the Universe) – I want to hold your hand
Holly Cole – I can see clearly now
H. Robert Reynolds wind arrangement of Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium
Eric Whitacre – October
(purposely left out songs from musicals)
Mozart ‘Ave Verum Corpus’