JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

We still have five more days of “Trump time,” making it too early to start celebrating Joe Biden’s inauguration. And, besides, who knows what the hell might happen between now and the inauguration?

So while we’re waiting for what we hope will be a “peaceful transfer of power,” let’s dial down and enjoy three memorable oldies.

For this installment, I’ve selected songs that sprang from three teams of powerhouse musical figures — The Lettermen and composer Jerome Kern; Paul Anka and conductor and record producer Don Costa; and Percy Faith and arranger and conductor Hugo Winterhalter.

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First up is The Lettermen’s “The Way You Look Tonight,” an achingly beautiful song released in 1961.

No wonder this song has endured: The music was written by the great Jerome Kern, whom Wikipedia calls “one of the most important American theater composers of the early 20th century.” Kern wrote more than 700 songs, which were used in more than 100 stage works.

He wrote “The Way You Look Tonight” for the 1936 movie Swing Time, which starred Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In the movie, Astaire sang the song to Rogers while she was washing her hair in an adjacent room. Astaire’s recording reached the top of the pop music charts in 1936, and it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year.

The lyrics were written by Dorothy Fields, who said: “The first time Jerry played that melody for me, I went out and started to cry. The release absolutely killed me. I couldn’t stop, it was so beautiful.”

The Lettermen’s version was released in 1961 and went to No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was The Lettermen’s second biggest hit, after “When I Fall in Love,” which made it to the top, also in 1961.

Here it is, a song that never gets old…

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“Put Your Head on My Shoulder” — Paul Anka

Anka, a Canadian by birth, wrote the words and music to this song and released it in 1959. It rose to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, behind only Bobby Darrin’s “Mack the Knife.”

The lyrics go a long way toward making this song irresistible…

Put your lips next to mine, dear
Won’t you kiss me once, baby?
Just a kiss goodnight, maybe
You and I will fall in love

…but it’s the arrangement, with lilting guitar chords interspersed throughout, that makes it soar.

The arranger was Don Costa, who, when Anka came along, was working for ABC-Paramount Records. Their first song together was “Diana,” which Anka recorded when he was just 15. “Diana,” released in 1957, went to No. 2.

Costa went on to work with such stars as Frank Sinatra, Sara Vaughan and Tony Bennett.

Costa died of a heart attack in 1983 at age 57. Anka, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1990, is still living. He would be 80 in July.

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“Theme from A Summer Place” — Percy Faith and his Orchestra

This song was written by Max Steiner, with lyrics by Mack Discant, for the for the 1959 film A Summer Place, starring Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue. (When I saw that movie at age 13, I thought it was the greatest movie ever made and Troy Donahue was the best actor who ever lived.)

Released as a single before the film came out, the song was not an immediate hit. It didn’t break into the Billboard Hot 100 until mid-January 1960. Six weeks later, it went to No. 1 and stayed there for nine consecutive weeks — a record at the time.

The song earned Faith a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1961. It was the first movie theme and the first instrumental to win that award.

Like Anka with “Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” “Theme from a Summer Place” benefited from the touch of a great arranger and conductor, Hugo Winterhalter.

After graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music, Winterhalter taught school for several years before turning professional during the mid-1930s, serving as a sideman and arranger for Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey and other band leaders.

Some of the singers he arranged songs for included Dinah Shore, Billy Eckstine, Perry Como and Harry Belafonte.

Winterhalter died from cancer in Greenwich, CT, on Sept. 17, 1973. He was 64. He had a son, Hugo Francis Winterhalter, who was killed in Vietnam on December 29, 1966.

Faith died in 1976 at age 67.

On this snowy winter’s day in early 2021, here’s “Theme from a Summer Place,” in memory of Percy Faith and Hugo Winterhalter, two musicians who made the world a better place.

P.S. Minutes after I posted this, our 32-year-old son Charlie, an amateur musician and Oldies aficionado, told me The Lettermen did a cover version of “Theme From a Summer Place.” I listened to it, but…it isn’t in the same league with Percy Faith’s original. I won’t link to it, but you can check it out on YouTube if you’re inclined.