LOVE IS A LOOSING GAME
AMY WINEHOUSE
SONGWRITER: AMY WINEHOUSE
COUNTRY: U. K.
ALBUM: BACK TO BLACK
LABEL: ISLAND MUSIC
GENRE: SOUL
YEAR: 2006
 
       Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer and songwriter. She was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues and jazz.
         A member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra during her youth, Winehouse signed to Simon Fuller's 19 Management in 2002 and soon recorded a number of songs before signing a publishing deal with EMI. She also formed a working relationship with producer Salaam Remi through these record publishers. Winehouse's debut album, Frank, was released in 2003. Many of the album's songs were influenced by jazz and, apart from two covers, were co-written by Winehouse. Frank was a critical success in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize. The song "Stronger Than Me" won her the Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors.
        Winehouse released her follow-up album, Back to Black, in 2006, which went on to become an international success and one of the best-selling albums in UK history. At the 2007 Brit Awards it was nominated for British Album of the Year, and she received the award for British Female Solo Artist. The song "Rehab" won her a second Ivor Novello Award. At the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008, she won five awards, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night and becoming the first British woman to win five Grammys, including three of the General Field "Big Four" Grammy Awards: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year (for "Rehab"), as well as Best Pop Vocal Album.
     Winehouse was plagued by drug and alcohol addiction. She died of alcohol poisoning on 23 July 2011, at the age of 27. After her death, Back to Black temporarily became the UK's best-selling album of the 21st century. VH1 ranked Winehouse 26th on their list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music.
         "Love Is a Losing Game" is a song by English singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse from her second and final studio album Back to Black (2006). It was chosen as the fifth and final single from Back to Black and was also the final single released in Winehouse's lifetime. The single was released on 10 December 2007 in the United Kingdom. The song was added to BBC Radio 1's playlist on 7 November 2007
For you I was a flame
Love is a losing game
Five story fire as you came
Love is a losing game
 
One I wish I never played
Oh, what a mess we made
And now the final frame
Love is a losing game
 
Played out by the band
Love is a losing hand
More than I could stand
Love is a losing hand
 
Self professed, profound
Till the chips were down
Know you're a gambling man
Love is a losing hand
 
Though I'm rather blind
Love is a fate resigned
Memories mar my mind
Love is a fate resigned
 
Over futile odds
And laughed at by the gods
And now the final frame
Love is a losing game.

GRACIAS A LA VIDA

MERCEDES SOSA
COMPOSITOR: VIOLETA PARRA
PAIS: ARGENTINA
ÁLBUM: HOMENAJE A VIOLETA PARRA
DISCOGRÁFICA: PHILIPS ARGENTINA
GÉNERO: ZAMBA/LATIN FOLK
AÑO: 1971
 
          Haydée Mercedes Sosa (San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, 9 de julio de 1935-Buenos Aires, 4 de octubre de 2009) fue una cantante de música folclórica argentina, considerada la mayor exponente del folklore argentino. Se la conoció como La Voz de América Latina.
           Fundadora del Movimiento del Nuevo Cancionero y una de las exponentes de la Nueva canción latinoamericana. Incursionó en otros géneros como el tango, el rock y el pop. Se definía a sí misma como «cantora» antes que «cantante», siendo una distinción fundamental de la nueva canción latinoamericana de la que ella fue una de las iniciadoras: «Cantante es el que puede y cantor el que debe» (Facundo Cabral).
          Ese ideal fue expresado por Mercedes Sosa en los títulos de sus álbumes como Canciones con fundamento y Yo no canto por cantar. Entre las interpretaciones con que se ha destacado en el cancionero latinoamericano se encuentran «Al Jardín de la República», «Canción con todos», «Alfonsina y el mar», «Como la cigarra», «Zamba para no morir», «Solo le pido a Dios», «La maza», «Todo cambia», «Duerme negrito», «Calle angosta».
          Entre sus discos se destacaron Canciones con fundamento (1965), Yo no canto por cantar (1966), Mujeres argentinas (1969), Homenaje a Violeta Parra (1971), Cantata sudamericana (1972), Mercedes Sosa interpreta a Atahualpa Yupanqui (1977), Mercedes Sosa en Argentina (1982), Alta fidelidad (1997), su interpretación de la Misa criolla (2000) y Cantora (2009), su último trabajo, lanzado poco antes de su muerte, es un álbum doble donde interpreta 34 canciones a dúo con destacados cantantes iberoamericanos, y cierra con el Himno nacional argentino.
Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto
Me dio dos luceros, que cuando los abro
Perfecto distingo, lo negro del blanco
Y en el alto cielo su fondo estrellado
Y en las multitudes el hombre que yo amo
 
Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado el sonido del abecedario
Con él las palabras que pienso y declaro
Madre amigo hermano
Y luz alumbrando, la ruta del alma del que estoy amando
 
Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado la marcha de mis pies cansados
Con ellos anduve ciudades y charcos
Playas y desiertos, montañas y llanos
Y la casa tuya, tu calle y tu patio
 
Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto
Me dio el corazón, que agita su marco
Cuando miro el fruto, del cerebro humano
Cuando miro el bueno tan lejos del malo
Cuando miro el fondo de tus ojos claros
 
Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado la risa y me ha dado el llanto
Así yo distingo dicha de quebranto
Los dos materiales, que forman mi canto
Y el canto de ustedes que es el mismo canto
Y el canto de todos que es mi propio canto
Gracias a la vida, gracias a la vida
Gracias a la vida, gracias a la vida.

CASTLES IN THE AIR

DON MCLEAN
SONGWRITER: DON MCLEAN
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: BELIEVERS
LABEL: MILLENNIUM
GENRE: COUNTRY
YEAR: 1981
 
      Donald McLean III (born October 2, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his 1971 hit song "American Pie", an 8.5-minute folk rock "cultural touchstone" about the loss of innocence of the early rock and roll generation.
          His other hit singles include "Vincent", "Dreidel", a rendition of Roy Orbison's "Crying", a rendition of the Skyliners' "Since I Don't Have You", and "Wonderful Baby".
           His composition "And I Love You So" has been sung by Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Helen Reddy, Glen Campbell, and others, and in 2000, Madonna had a hit with a rendition of "American Pie".
         In 2004, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In January 2018, BMI certified that "American Pie" and "Vincent" had reached five million and three million airplays respectively.
        "Castles in the Air" is a song by Don McLean. Originally recorded in 1970, it was his first American single release, preceding "American Pie". The original version of "Castles in the Air" was included on the Tapestry album. In February 1971, it was released as the first single from the album and reached Nº. 40 on the Billboard Easy Listening/Adult Contemporary chart. After the success of the "American Pie" single, "Castles in the Air" was included as the B-side to its follow-up, "Vincent", and received enough radio airplay to reach the Hot 100 chart as a "flip".
        In 1981, McLean re-recorded and re-released "Castles in the Air" The new version of the song, a slower ballad version compared with the more mid to uptempo version of the original, first appeared on his álbum Believers, and later replaced the original version on some copies of Tapestry. The new rendition was more successful, becoming a Top 40 hit in the US (No. 36 Billboard and Nº. 31 Cash Box), and reaching No. 11 in Australia. It was also a top 10 hit on the Adult Contemporary charts of both the US (No. 7) and Canada (Nº. 2). "Castles in the Air" became McLean's final pop hit before his genre shift to country music in the mid-1980s
          The song describes a man who is unsatisfied with and weary of an urban lifestyle. Although native to the city, he decides to forsake not only his urban 'castle in the air' but also his love interest there. Because of his desire for and love of a country life, he decides to seek romance with a like-minded woman.
And if she asks you why you can tell her that I told you
That I'm tired of Castles in the Air
I've got a dream I want the world to share in castle walls
Just leave me to despair
 
Hills of forest green where the mountains touch the sky
A dream come true, I'll live there 'til I die
I'm asking you, to say my last goodbye
The love we knew, ain't worth another try
 
Save me from all the trouble and the pain
I know I'm weak but I can't face that girl again
Tell her the reasons why I can't remain
Perhaps she'll understand if you tell it to her plain
 
Oh, but how can words express the feel of sunlight?
In the morning in the hills away from city strife
I need a country woman for my wife
I'm city born, but I love the country life
 
For I will not be part of her Cocktail-Generation Partner's Waltz
Devoid of all romance
The music plays and everyone must dance
I'm bowing out, I need a second chance
 
Save me from all the trouble and the pain
I know I'm weak but I can't face that girl again
Tell her the reasons why I can't remain
Perhaps she'll understand if you tell it to her plain
 
And if she asks you why you can tell her that I told you
That I'm tired of Castles in the Air
I've got a dream I want the world to share in castle walls
Just leave me to despair.

CHEEK CHEEK

BOSWELL SISTERS
SONGWRITER: IRVING BERLIN
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: THE BOSWELL SISTERS/COLLECTION, VOL. 5, 1933-1936
LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS
GENRE: JAZZ
YEAR: 1935
 
          The Boswell Sisters were a singing group of close harmony, formed by sisters Martha Boswell Lloyd (9 of June of 1905 - 2 of July of 1958), Connee Boswell (originally Connie, 3 of December of 1907 - 11 of October of 1976) and Helvetia "Vet" Boswell (20 of May of 1911 - 12 of November of 1988), known for intricate harmonies and rhythmic experimentation. They achieved national prominence in the United States in the 1930s.
            The sisters grew up in a middle class family at Camp Street, 3937, in uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. Marta and Connie were born in Kansas City, Missouri. Helvetia was born in Birmingham, Alabama. (Connee changed the way he wrote his name in the 1940s.) Born from a former vaudeville actor, Clyde "AC" Boswell, and his music-loving wife, Meldania, the sisters, along with his brother Clyde Jr. ("Clydie"), aged 14 - arrived in New Orleans as children in 1914. Martha, Connie, and Vet studied classical piano, cello, violin and guitar, respectively, under the tutelage of Professor Otto Finck, from Tulane University. They played their repertoire of classics in local recitals, often as a trio, but the jazz scene soon won them over, personally and professionally. "We were studying classical music... And we were being prepared for the stage and a concert tour across the United States, but the saxophone got us," Marta said in an interview in 1925 for the Shreveport Times.
            In addition to providing young Boswells with a classical and formal musical education, Meldania Boswell regularly took her children to see the great African American artists of the moment at the Lyrical Theater. There, young Connie heard Mamie Smith, whose "Crazy Blues" (1920), the first blues recorded by an African American, was a success. Connie would later emulate Smith's style on the Boswells 'first recording, "I'm Gonna Cry (Cryin' Blues)," before defining her own vocal style. In interviews, the sisters reported that they were walking around New Orleans in search of new and interesting sounds, which were often found outside African American churches and bars.
Heaven, I'm in heaven
My heart beats so that I can hardly speak
And I seem to find the happiness I seek
When we're out together dancin' cheek to cheek!
 
Heaven, I'm in heaven
The cares that hung around me through the week
Seem to vanish like a gambler's lucky streak
When we're out together dancin' cheek to cheek!
 
Oh I love to climb a mountain
And to reach the highest peak
But it doesn't thrill me half as much
As dancin' cheek to cheek
 
Dance with me
I want my arm about you
That charm about you
Will carry me through to...
 
Heaven, I'm in heaven
My heart beats so that I can hardly speak
And I seem to find the happiness I seek
When we're out together dancin' cheek to cheek!
 
Oh, darlin' I'm in heaven when I'm out with you
I'm in heaven when I'm dancin' with you
My heart beats so that I can't speak
When we're out together dancin' cheek to cheek!
 
Oh, darlin' I'm in heaven when you're by my side
When we're out together I'm so satisfied
Blues disappear like a gambler's streak
When we're out together dancin' cheek to cheek!
 
I love to climb a mountain and reach the peak
It doesn't thrill me like dancin' cheek to cheek
 
Heaven, I'm in heaven
My heart beats so that I can hardly speak
And I seem to find the happiness I seek
When we're out together dancin' cheek to cheek!