What are your favorite torch songs?

A favorite from Judy

This particular version of “This Is My Life” Shirley Bassey

Memories of You - Shirley Horn and Miles Davis

Oops -- for r3

Damn ... okay, third time's a charm. Memories of You which does NOT feature Miles Davis (who does play in r4)

Cleo Laine’s version of “Losing My Mind.”

Fever — Peggy Lee.

Alice Faye You'll never know

Liza's Losing My Mind

Drinking Again - Dinah Washington

Black Coffee - Sarah Vaughan

In what universe is “Fever” a torch song?

In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning - Frank Sinatra

Lush Life - John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman

"The Man That Got Away" - Judy Garland.

"I Get Along without You Very Well" - Carly Simon

Tess' Torch Song

Francoise Hardy Parlez-moi de lui.

One Less Bell to Answer - great live rendition by Marilyn McCoo

Cole Porter's Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye. Love several versions. This one is great.

Miss Froman's *Lost in a Fog*

Ella also does a great Ev'ry Time

BTW, thanks for this thread, OP. I've been needing some new chill music lately.

And, thanks, r3, r4, and r5. Certainly knew her name, but hadn't listened to much Shirley Horn. Great addition. Just bought her [italic]Softly[/italic] album for $5.99.

Shirley Horn is my favorite jazz musician r23. Check out "I Love You, Paris" and "You Won't Forget Me" next. :-)

You Don’t Know Me by Ray Charles. I can’t think of a better expression of unfulfilled love. Makes me cry every damn time I hear it.

"Hasten down the Wind" - Linda Ronstadt

Blame it on My Youth - Mabel Mercer

Love Letters - Ketty Lester

[italic]From Wikipedia[/italic] A torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, where one party has moved on, or where a romantic affair has affected the relationship. The term comes from the saying, "to carry a torch for someone", or to keep aflame the light of an unrequited love. Tommy Lyman started the use in his praise of "My Melancholy Baby."

Miss Suzuki's Black Coffee...

Instrumental version of Blue and Sentimental by Count Basie

Not really a torch song, but Eydie made it one...

The Man I Love

I'll Be Around -- Billie Holiday's cover

It's a Sin to Tell a Lie

I like Miss Faye's, r33...

Long Long Time- Linda Ronstadt

R36, Frances Faye, Frances Faye, Frances Faye — gay, gay, gay, is there any other way?

Should I strip or should I sing?

I think when you're pretty, it doesn't matter how you wear your hair.

"Cry Me A River" - Julie London

"Crazy Arms" -- many singers covered it, but my favorite version by far is by the late great Patsy Cline (it's one of the last songs she ever recorded before her death)

The Divine Miss Cline had the perfect voice for torch songs:

Does it have to be from black and white days?

Fun fact: the phrase "torch song" was first used to describe the song "My Melancholy Baby," which was introduced by William "Fred Mertz" Frawley on Broadway.

Here's his version of it from the 1950s (though he first sang it in the 1920s). It has a weird complicated introduction.

I am so sick of you gay bitches. You know I should have been the first entry in this f*cking thread!

[quote] Does it have to be from black and white days?

No, actually. It just has to be a sentimental love song about an unrequited, lost, or dying love.

Jennifer Holliday “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”...

Amazing

Frank Sinatra) You think you're husband's a better singer than me?

Gracie Allen) Of course, last week we were at a party given by Dinah Shore and they both sang a torch song and everyone agreed, of the two, George was the torcher

Beautiful

Eydie Gorme had a great voice for torch songs.

Love ridden, I've looked at you

With the focus I gave to my birthday candles

I've wished on the lidded blue flames

Under your brow

And baby, I wished for you

Nobody sees when you are lying in your bed

And I wanna

Crawl in with you

But I cry instead

I want your warmth, but it will only make me colder

When it's over

So I can't tonight, baby

No, not "baby" anymore

If I need you, I'll just use your simple name

Only kisses on the cheek from now on

And in a little while, we'll only have to wave

My hand won't hold you down, no more

The path is

Clear to follow through

I stood too long in the way of the door

And now, I'm giving up on

You

No, not "baby" anymore

If I need you, I'll just use your simple name

Only kisses on the cheek from now on

And in a little while, we'll only have to wave

No, not "baby" anymore

If I need you, I'll just use your simple name

Only kisses on the cheek from now on

And in a little while, we'll only have to wave

Always

I'd say that this goes beyond the sentimental to become deeply empathetic and sentimental at the same time...a woman singing from the point of view of a man whose wife is struggling not to die while giving birth to their child.

Since it's Kate Bush, let's call it a torch song. This is as mainstream as she ever got.

One of the all-time greatest torch songs. This is my favorite cover of it.

Shirley Horn's cover of "Someone To Light Up My Life" is exquisite. I've always adored these lyrics and Jobim's music never disappoints.

Go on your way, with a cloudless blue sky above.

May all your days be a wonderful song of love.

Open your arms and sing of all the hidden hopes you'll ever treasure

And live out your life in peace.

Where shall I look for the love to replace you?

Someone to light up my life.

Someone with strange little ways

Eyes like a blue autumn haze

Someone with your laughing style

And a smile I know will keep haunting me endlessly.

Sometimes in stars or the swift flight of seabirds, I catch a memory of you.

That's why I walk all alone, searching for something unknown

Searching for something or someone to light up my life

k. d. lang singing "Stormy Weather" in [italic]After Midnight[/italic] on Broadway. Fantasia did a great job too

R56 check out this amazing performance

Oh that is one of my favorites r58!!! Her delivery of "Suppose I didn't play, stayed away, wouldn't stay, the devil, what a potion he would brew" is sublime. Nobody but nobody can deliver a lyric like her.

She is also one of my favorite jazz pianists.

She passed away in 2005, right as I was discovering jazz. I wish I'd been able to see her live.

I don't think My Ship is a torch song r55, it's a want song. She isn't carrying a torch. However, Bernie...is.

R42, most of Patsy Cline's repertoire consisted of torch songs. Think of her most famous songs - "Walking After Midnight", "I Fall to Pieces", "Why Can't He Be You", "She's Got You", "Crazy", "Sweet Dreams" ... every one is a torch song, although the Nashville Sound of the later hits is more consistent with the style we associate with that genre.

No torch songs don't have to be from the "black and white" era, but it helps if they have a sweet, sad melody; a lush, melancholy arrangement; and literate lyrics that are sung comprehensibly by a singer with a good voice. These things have been thin on the ground since about 1970.

Anyway, here's Sweet Dreams - about as torchy a song in melody, lyrics and style as there is.

Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year - Helen Merrill's cover

Not a mainstream torch song, but....

As well as this.

R59 I saw Shirley live at Yoshi’s in Oakland. Was right in front, although the venue is so small it didn’t matter. Legendary.

I'm Thru With Love - Diana Krall's cover

Helen Merrill - What's New? (with Clifford Brown, shortly before his death)

Helen Merrill's cover of These Foolish Things

Shirley Horn - I Fall In Love Too Easily

....

Eileen Farrell nails this one. Although a full-fledged opera singer, she could sing pop songs too.

R31 My mom had that album!

It All Depends On You - Doris Day

I always wonder when and if Shirley Horn will ever get to the end of the song. If snails could sing....

You sound limited, r73

Miss Bergen

Green

Green...a torch song, r76?

R72 - Love Me Or Leave Me! Yes! That movie is one long string of torch songs - "Mean to Me", "You Made Me Love You", "I'll Never Stop Loving You", the title song itself, and this number, one of my favorites: "Never Look Back".

This video includes a clip from the film. Doris Day has never looked lovelier, Cameron Mitchell is handsome and manly, and James Cagney's character is just catching on that there's something going on there.

What a great movie! As a gayling, I absolutely loved it, and played the album from my parent's collection over and over again. (And to think they were surprised when I came out.) I think I'll put it on my watchlist.

La Lupe had a few but I keep coming back to this one

How could I forget Ne me quitte pas?

Perhaps the greatest torch song lyric ever: Let me be the shadow of your shadow, the shadow of your hand, the shadow of your dog. But don't leave me.

It really needs Lainie's drama, r80.

Alice Smith "I Put A Spell On You." Her vocal is incredible -- aching, despairing and imperious at the same time.

Judy on the Perry Como Show in 1966 singing Gilbert Bécaud's Et Maintenant, known in English as What Now My Love. Love all those coq feathers on her gown. WOW.

It's more a song of total desperation rather than a torch song, but what the hey even Elvis sang it.

Perhaps, r74, but not musically. Perhaps we simply have different tastes.

For slooooow ballads, I like Irene Kral.

^R73.

What Comes Naturally by Sheena Easton

L'inoubliable Barbara chante Dis, Quand Reviendra-Tu?

"Que tout le temps perdu ne se ratrape plus."

Libby's Moanin' Low...

A Case of You - Joni Mitchell

r84 suit yourself

Spring is Here -- rarely sung (thought more of as an instrumental)

Answer Me, My Love

A Blossom Fell

Maybe You'll Be There

Not sure to what extent this would be considered a "torch song" ...

I love this thread! Keep them coming, please!

Here you go, r96. A favorite from Billie

Also Billie -- My Man.

Surprised this hasn't been posted yet

Helen Merrill's cover of Don't Explain

Another Merrill ... When Your Lover Has Gone

Another Merrill cover

Beautiful instrumental cover of Stardust

^

Another instrumental ... Last Night When We Were Young

A little blues ... Koko Taylor's cover of I'd Rather Go Blind

R80 and R87: Well, if we're going to get all Frenchy, there's "Je voulais te dire que je t'attends". The original French hit was recorded by Michel Jonasz. In the US perhaps the best-known version was sung by Laurel Masse of the Manhattan Transfer. The song was on their album Pastiche, which came out in 1978. I wore the grooves out on that record.

Hearing the song now brings back a flood of memories of the time, of what the world was like in the late '70s.

Glad to be Unhappy

My favorite track from Billie

Vikki Carr. It Must Be Him. Shirley Bassey does a great version as well.

The seldom heard Rosemary Clooney version of One Less Bell to Answer is better than Marilyn McCoo’s.

Ray Price “For the Good Times”. Rendered here in the glorious palate of an RCA TK-42 color television camera. And recorded on 2” video tape.

For our lesbian sisters... Dusty!

I’ll Remember You. Kui Lee wrote this song as he was dying of cancer. Elvis’ version is the best known, but Don Ho recorded it first.

A medieval selection ... I Am Grieved Beyond All Measure (Middle High German)

I am grieved beyond all measure that the cold winter-time withered many a bright flower.

Moreover the hardship of yearning besets me.

Both these grievances estrange me from the goal of all my joys.

Alas, for the good lady even does this with intent.

She, who could well ease all my suffering!

Alas, would I live to see the day that she would grant me favour.

Alice Faye singing "This Year's Kisses," which she introduced in "On the Avenue."

helen Shapiro singing Carole King's Sixties classic "It Might as Well Rain Until September."

"Crying" by Roy Orbison

I'll Be Seeing You

"Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray" -- k.d. lang, back when she was so attractive

Eva Olmerová - Černá kára

Mel Tormé - I Should Care

Nat King Cole - I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life

early Horn - Travelin' Light

Arthur Prysock - I Don't Stand A Ghost Of A Chance With You

Fuck. OP posts 40+ posts in response to the original post? Loser.

And a well-deserved F&F for r125

Carmen McRae signs But Not For Me and accompanies herself brilliantly on the piano.

Why Was I born?

Why am I living?

What do I get?

What am I giving?

Ten Cents a Dance

Love For Sale

My favorite of Billie's torch songs, nicely served by Clef without the heavy strings of Lady in Satin...

🔥

Great song and album

Dusty Springfield's version of "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" is my favorite version of that song.

Smokey

Barbra. “If I Love Again” - Funny Lady

Just her and the piano.

i hear this song every once in awhile and it always gets to me / anyone know it?

Lots of versions of this song out there, but this one always stays with me. The entire album is torch songs.

"My Buddy/ How About Me" My favorite Streisand recording, flawlessly arranged by Peter Matz.

Barbra at her most mournful, controlled and expressive.

An instrumental of Spring Is Here

Louis Armstrong - There Must Be A Way

Another Horn favorite ... He Was Too Good To Me

One Never Knows Does One?

Astonishing how many of these women seem to be singing to their eyebrows.

I love this thread. I didn't know at least half of these.

Thank you!!

Helen Merrill - Solitude

Fans of this thread should enjoy the link below / ia very complete database to display all recorded versions of a song / with audio links when available.....really great for nailing a version you vaguely remember but don't know the artist....... I highly recommend itl

Thank you r146!!

Here is another site that tracks jazz standards and orders them by recording volume (Body and Soul and All The Things You Are are the two most recorded standards, by the way)

I know it shouldn't be surprising, but I am always amazed at how many jazz standards were originally written in the 1920s and 1930s ... probably because I am most familiar with the later recordings.

R131, I love Laverne Baker. Her version of Tomorrow Night is very torchy

An anti-torch song of sorts ... one of my favorite of NKC

From the same album

In my silly, forgotten past I identified with this tune many more times than I care to remember.

Marianne Faithfull "Dreaming my Dreams"

Eva Cassidy - "Autumn Leaves"

Dorothy Loudon sing 50 Percent gets me every time.

Gramps, y’all so old, driver’s license is the number one song in america and the world!

This is the only torch song I know.

Does anyone here remember Vera Lynn?

Here’s her rendition of By the Time I Get to Phoenix

Oh my, you cunts are slipping! Over 150 posts and no mention of k.d. lang?!?

Turn in your gay cards.

She's the queen of torch songs!

R159 She's in there somewhere.

When she was pretty...

r159 meet r119

“Blues in the Night”

Judy kicks ass with this song, but Ella makes passionate love to it.

I love how two covers of the same song can each convey something totally different (at least to me).

For example, Helen Merrill singing End of a Love Affair (released 1955):

Billie Holiday's cover of the same tune (1958):

Also interesting (to me anyway ...) is that both r163 / r164 are backed with strings

This *feels* like a torch song, anyway (to Paris, perhaps? The city she once loved). One of my favorite Judy performances:

Trigger warning/heresy alert:

I think Billie Holiday is overrated. Her voice is thin and whiny and every song she sings sounds like every other song she sings. Some of her songs are classics because they suit her voice and style - "I've Got A Right to Sing the Blues", a great torch song, comes to mind - but she is nowhere near as good at putting across a torch song as most of the great ladies of 20th century song that have been named already in this thread.

The only thing you triggered is a laugh at your ignorance, R167. Billie Holiday is often at the top or near the top of of polls of all-time greatest jazz singers, and if you listen to her body of work over 25 years, you'll hear a wide range of songs and styles. Nat Hentoff of Down Beat: "Throughout the night, Billie was in superior form to what had sometimes been the case in the last years of her life. Not only was there assurance of phrasing and intonation; but there was also an outgoing warmth, a palpable eagerness to reach and touch the audience. And there was mocking wit. A smile was often lightly evident on her lips and her eyes as if, for once, she could accept the fact that there were people who did dig her...The beat flowed in her uniquely sinuous, supple way of moving the story along; the words became her own experiences; and coursing through it all was Lady's sound – a texture simultaneously steel-edged and yet soft inside; a voice that was almost unbearably wise in disillusion and yet still childlike, again at the centre. The audience was hers from before she sang, greeting her and saying good-bye with heavy, loving applause. And at one time, the musicians too applauded. It was a night when Billie was on top, undeniably the best and most honest jazz singer alive."

One of my favorites--probably the most beautiful lyrics in all Johnny Mercer's oeuvre.

"There's a dance pavilion in the rain,

All shuttered down--

A winding country lane,

All russet brown--

A frosted window pane--

Show me a town

Grown lonely."

Oops--here it is.

Marilyn Maye. The Man That Got Away.

She was 85 when she did this performance and is still going strong at age 92.

See if I was to go a Billie Holiday song it would be Good Morning Heartache or Don’t Explain.

{R167} I appreciate the humorous trigger warning at the beginning but yeah, you’re just wrong. As the saying goes, there’s no accounting for taste. If you can’t feel something when you hear Billie Holiday sing, then well, you may have misplaced your soul somewhere along the way.

Every song sounds the same? Are you high?! What A Little Moonlight Can Do sounds nothing like You’ve Changed, which sounds nothing like Strange Fruit, which sounds nothing like Crazy He Call Me and on and on. Fine if you don’t like her style, but I wonder how much of her repertoire you’ve actually heard?

And you don’t speak to how innovative a stylist she was for the times and how influential she remains today. Billie Holiday IS jazz. Consequently her importance to black music, and black history for that matter, can’t be overestimated. Billie Holiday carries the entire history of her people in the delicate tones of her voice.