Old Songs.

Nice list of great songs made over for a new time.

I was thinking along these lines when If I Loved You, from Carousel, came on during that awful gay rom-com, Red White & Royal Blue, in a cover by a singer called Vagabon (I’d never heard of her, is that because she’s obscure or because I’m old?). It was gorgeous and immediately moving. I downloaded the recording and enjoyed it, I love the airy arrangement, but I probably won’t play it much. Toward the end of the song, she alters the melody in a couple of places in ways that diminish it.

Strangely, I don’t have any trouble with Dolly Parton’s loose approach to the melody in her recording of Let It Be. I think I’d put McCartney is the same category as Richard Rodgers when it comes to just sing the tune as written, but something about the churchiness of Let It Be makes it feel okay.