blueonblue wrote:I first heard this Marvin Hamlisch /Johnny Mercer song about 43 yrs ago.
It has "haunted" me ever since.
"blue"
blue, you might get a kick out of this: (If the video doesn't show and, instead, you see a big exclamation point, hit your F5 button on your computer and it should refresh and then you should be able to watch the video.)
Hamlisch has written a few songs that should be in this thread! His impersonation was spot on. Speaking of Johnny Mathis. Here are two ethereal songs. Heavenly which is an early Bacharach( pre david ) in a style more fitting of Cole Porter/ Harold Arlen.
I also think warm and tender is pretty haunting in the traditional sense in that it starts with a tritone with very trill sounding wailing to accompany it. I think this was one of Bacharach and Davids first songs together as well.
Dear geoff85,
From 1996, a Burt Bacharach & John Bettis (who wrote many classics for the Carpenters) song, produced by the great Phil Ramone, the background vocalists (Alexandra Brown, Warren Wiebe, Carmen Twillie and Monalisa Young - I mention them by name because the interplay between their vocals and those of Mr. Mathis, quite magical) help create a dreamy, languid beauty of a song, "Like No One In The World":
I don't believe there are any other versions of this song, as far as I know.
grooverider wrote:A memorable melody, lyrics and performance, Miss Shirley Horn (with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra, arranged by the great Johnny Mandel), "Here's To Life":
This song had alot of potential to be haunting. However the whole thing was way too meandering for me. Their needed to have been more drama in the beginning and middle of the song. The only thing haunting melodically was the closing notes. The lyrics were poignant and without them it would have been hard to call the song haunting.
This song was sampled in coldplays talk. I think there version shows the real haunting beauty of the melody. It is way too lost in the 80s dance theme in the original. I have posted alot of Coldplay in this thread already and think all their music is always haunting and beautiful matter.
The theme from the Good Son which is a very heart wrenching movie of a troubled child who dies when his mother lets go of his hand and he falls off a mountain to his death after she chooses to save another boys life instead. This is the song that plays after that happens. I was a little kid myself when this movie came out so the film and music are very touching for me. Song score written by Elmer Bernstein who I know nothing about but the commenters on youtube gave me the impression that he was a noteworthy musician.
This piece which i played in the 9th grade piano recital is often said by many to be like looking inside heaven. Franz Liszt consolation no. 3 shows Liszt exercising alot of restraint on his tendency to be very heavy handed with notation and just allowing us to marinate in the tranquil beauty of the melody that must have been inspired by god himself. It is often said Liszt interpretation of Chopins songs were superior to the original and Chopin acknowledged that. Some of the songs Liszt wrote and performed as solo are only played today as orchestrations. The fountains at Villa Deste is probably more ethereal than it is haunting it is suppose to encapture the various movements and rythms of various waterfalls on the beautiful Lake Como. Just beautiful.
geoff85 wrote: It is way too lost in the 80s dance theme in the original.
Well, the question was about haunting melodies. And the originator of this melody is ... not Coldplay.
Besides this: Computer Love was recorded by an electronic band in 1981. It's a bit ridiculous to blame the track for not sounding like a mainstream rock band in 2012. For my ears the Kraftwerk version sounds still valid. Let's talk about the Coldplay version in 2044.
