Episode 303. Everything Must Change
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Something a little outside of the normal scope of Countermelody for today’s episode:
Earlier this year I published a bonus episode on the fascinating singer/songwriter Benard Ighner (1945-2017) and his modern-day standard “Everything Must Change.” The song has had a profound effect on me ever since I heard the version by the great Oleta Adams on her 1990 solo debut album, Circle of One. At the time I assumed that Oleta herself had written it, but I came to discover that it was penned by Ighner and first recorded by Quincy Jones on his 1974 album, Body Heat, and that since then many, many pop and jazz singers of the past fifty years have covered the song. All these different versions have both delighted and fascinated (as well as occasionally mystified and frustrated) me. The song itself is both fatalistic and hopeful, which is exactly the place I find myself as Election Day in the US approaches. Intrigued by both the song and its composer, I dug deeper and discovered all I could about Benard Ighner. An autodidactic musical polymath, Ighner rubbed shoulders with some of the greatest pop and jazz musicians of his time, and not just the hundreds of singers and instrumentalists who have jumped on the “Everything Must Change” bandwagon! This song brings out either the very best or the very worst of those who interpret it. In choosing my favorite versions, I have veered toward those who embrace understatement rather than vocal caterwauling and children’s choruses. The episode begins with examples of Ighner’s early work from the late sixties and early seventies, including pseudonymous encounters with Dizzy Gillespie (as Benard Ito) and Lalo Schifrin (as Alexander Saint Charles); proceeding through songs he wrote and produced for Shirley Bassey, Marlena Shaw, and Carmen McRae; as well as two excerpts from his solo album, a one-off 1978 Japanese release entitled Little Dreamer. We then hear ten different versions of the song, including, among others, Nina Simone, June Christy, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Minako Yoshida (sung to her own Japanese translation), a recent magisterial live performance by Oleta Adams, and, even Ighner himself, who, alongside his other many musical talents, possessed a velvety baritone voice of exceptional beauty, poise, and power.
May this episode provide hope, courage, and insight for all of those who do believe that we can overcome the mad popularity-contest antics of this election cycle and lean toward a future in which morality and hope can still prove to be guiding principles.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Benard Ighner: Everything Must Change. Benard Ighner with Quincy Jones [from the 1974 Quincy Jones album Body Heat]
Dizzy Gillespie: Con alma. Benard Ighner (as Benard Ito), arranged by Benny Carter [1967 single]
Benard Ighner, Lalo Schifrin: No More Lies, Girl (Dirty Harry). Benard Ighner (as Alexander Saint Charles), arranged and conducted Lalo Schifrin [1971]
Lalo Schifrin: Tract (Rock Requiem [for the Dead in the Southeast Asia War]). Benard Ighner (as Alexander Saint Charles), Instrumental Ensemble arranged and conducted by Lalo Schifrin [1971]
Benard Ighner: Davy. Shirley Bassey, Benard Ighner, arranged and conducted by Gene Page [from her 1974 album Nobody Does It Like Me]
Benard Ighner: Loving You Was Like a Party. Marlena Shaw, arranged by Benard Ighner [from her 1974 album, Who Is This Bitch, Anyway?]
Benard Ighner: You Know Who You Are. Carmen McRae, arranged, orchestrated and conducted by Roger Kellaway [from her 1975 album I Am Music]
Benard Ighner: It’s The Same Old Story. Benard Ighner [from his 1978 album Little Dreamer]
Benard Ighner: Everything Must Change (10 versions):
Benard Ighner, arranged and conducted by Byron Olson (from his 1978 album Little Dreamer)
Paul van Kessel, Charly Zastrow [live Netherlands, Theater De Storm 12.XII.20]
Randy Crawford, produced by Stewart Levine [title track from her 1976 album, Everything Must Change]
Minako Yoshida [translation and vocal], orchestrated and arranged by Susumu Arima, produced by Kunihiko Murai [from her 1975 album Minako]
Nina Simone [from her 1978 album Baltimore]
June Christy, Lou Levy, Jack Sheldon, Bob Cooper, Frank Rosolino, Bob Daugherty, Shelly Manne [from her 1977 album Impromptu]
Shirley Horn, George Mesterhazy, Ed Howard, Steve Williams [from her 2003 album May the Music Never End]
Peggy Lee, produced by Ken Barnes [live London Palladium 13.III.1977, from her 2015 release Peggy Lee Live in London]
Oleta Adams, Bremer Philharmoniker [live Seebühne Bremen 01.VII.22]
Sarah Vaughan, Carl Schroeder, Jimmy Cobb, Walter Booker [live Ronnie Scott’s, London June 1977, from her 1979 album Ronnie Scott’s Presents Sarah Vaughan Live, Volume 2]
