Doin' the Friday Shuffle

1. "The Soul Cages" - Sting - The Soul Cages
That rare straightforward Sting rock song.

2. "You Do Something to Me" - Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Sings the Cole Porter Songbook
A slow, lazy swing, with nice muted trumpet highlights.

3. "Rose" - James Horner - Titanic (Film Score)
A slow, measured rendition of the main theme (the melody of that horrid Celine Dion song).

4. "Hello, Little Girl" - Stephen Sondheim - Into the Woods (Original Broadway Cast)
One of Sondheim's slyest songs, with the Wolf charming Little Red off of the path with a little soft shoe. His ravenous (and sexually charged) asides to the audience are hilarious.

5. "The Miller's Song" - Stephen Sondheim - A Little Night Music (Original Broadway Cast)
A wonderful song, an eleven o'clock number, that nonetheless always felt very tacked on in the context of the show. Still, as a song it's great, urgent and sexy with very effective, sudden tempo shifts throughout.

6. "Wild Bill" - Thomas Newman - The Green Mile (Film Score)
A fast, excited piece of quick-pickin' on the guitar.

7. "Prelude to a Kiss" - Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook
Soft jazz guitar and coy strings over a halting shuffle. Very nice.

8. "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" - Sting - Mercury Falling
I just blogged about this song, here.

9. "Come out here, both of you" - George Gershwin - Porgy and Bess
Big, dramatic confrontation from the opera.

10. "The Ballad of Floyd Collins (Reprise)" - Adam Guettel - Floyd Collins (Original Cast Recording)
This, Guettel's first, is a gem of a score, all banjos and fiddles and acoustic guitar in the service of the true story of a Kentucky man who gets trapped in a cave and the ensuing media circus--one of the first of its kind. This reprise is of the opening, introductory ballad, and it's a fine, simple, rustic song with some great country harmonies.

Until Whenever