Public Domain

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I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby…

Image by YREA from Pixabay

My dad used to sing this song to me and my siblings at bedtime.

It’s another one co-written by Dorothy Fields with composer Jimmy McHugh.

This song recently entered the public domain, which means that we — Molly Ruggles, Carole Bundy and I — can now release our own version of this beloved standard.

Molly is a pianist, singer, songwriter and arranger who worked at Harvard and MIT for many years.

She kept her love for music alive during that period of her life by writing songs (including a complete musical) and working as the music director at a UU church.

Image by soufiane koraichi from Pixabay

During the past few years, I have discovered that Molly has a fascinating musical gift.

She likes to write entirely new sections for pre-existing songs!

Some people write new lyrics for songs, and she has been known to do that as well.

But I have never met anyone who can write an entirely new section which matches the musical style (melody, chords AND lyrics) of the original song in such a seamless way.

If you listen to our recording (in the player above and or via a music streaming service), the entirely new part written by Molly begins “I gotta tell you, I wish that I had a big bank account” and ends with “and I have one simple goal — giving my love to you!”

Image by Walter from Pixabay

It is brilliantly done.

She also wrote a new section for Cole Porter’s song “Let’s Do It” (which recently entered the public domain) and for a few others which are not yet in the public domain.

We perform those songs live but cannot release a recording of them (which would include Molly’s new section) without getting permission from the people who wrote them and/or their descendants and/or the music publishing companies which own them.

Going forward, I am hoping that Molly focuses her creativity on songs which are already in the public domain — of which there are MANY from the early years of what is now called “the Great American Songbook.”

Image by Jasminka Kovačević from Pixabay

For example, a bunch of Irving Berlin’s earliest hits are now in the public domain including “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

And one of my favorite songs of all time, “Makin’ Whoopee“ is also in the public domain, I think.

Thank you to Molly for creating this great arrangement of “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby” as well as playing piano and singing on it.

Thank you to Carole for singing on it.

Thank you to Doug Hammer for engineering our recording session and then mixing our version with me via Zoom.

Thank you to the generous and talented photographers at Pixabay — who let me use their beautiful photos in my blog posts.

Image by Jürgen from Pixabay

And thank YOU for reading and listening to yet another blog post.

Deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

ps: If you are inspired to stream our version of this song, you can click here for links to various companies including Pandora, Apple Music and Spotify.

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Let’s Do It

Cole Porter in the 1930s

Today’s blog post is made possible by our copyright laws.

Cole Porter’s terrific song “Let’s Do It” entered the public domain last year.

So my friends Carole Bundy, Molly Ruggles and I can now share a very fun version which includes some updated lyrics (by Molly and Carole) as well as an entirely new section of the song — written in the style of Cole Porter — by Molly.

Molly created the first draft of this song for a performance with her friend Kate Stringer at Club Cafe in Boston during which I sang some harmony.

Then — after Kate moved to London — the song evolved a bit when Molly, Carole and I added it to our repertoire.

Adding new sections to pre-existing songs is one of Molly’s many creative super powers.

But it can create copyright challenges — unless one is able to get permission from whomever owns the rights to the song.

But now, because “Let’s Do It” (which was first published in 1928) has entered the public domain, we are allowed to take creative liberties with it.

Molly, me and Carole in Maine

“Let’s Do It” was one of several hit songs from Cole Porter’s first big Broadway success — a show called PARIS.

He had been writing songs for a couple of decades — starting in Peru, Indiana (where he grew up the only surviving child in a very wealthy family) and continuing in Massachusetts (where he was valedictorian of his class at a prep school, Worcester Academy) and in Connecticut (where he attended Yale).

According to Wikipedia, he wrote hundreds of songs at Yale — two of which continue to be sung at football games.

He also wrote the songs for four entire musicals which were performed in New Haven and also on tour at college clubs during vacation breaks.

After he graduated from Yale, Mr.Porter pretended to study law at Harvard (to satisfy his very wealthy grandfather, who was paying for his education) while actually studying music and writing songs — and rooming with future a Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, who was then an avid law student.

Cambridge borders East Arlington (where I live), and I love walking through Harvard Law School — which happens to be next to Harvard’s music department — and thinking about Mr. Porter treading the same streets a hundred years ago.

Although he lived an extravagant life, the second half of it was filled with chronic pain due to a horseback riding accident on Long Island.

This accident (the horse he was riding fell and rolled on top of him) left him with multiple leg fractures which never healed well…

Molly, Carole and I leading a service at the UU Church in Milton, MA

He endured many corrective surgeries over the following decades and eventually had the lower part of one of his legs amputated.

Argh!

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Although some of his earlier songs had been interpolated into other shows, Mr. Porter did not have his own hit show until he was 36 years old.

But — in the midst of much revelry and travel — he could be a very disciplined person.

He continued working on music during his 20s and early 30s while simultaneously leading a life of extraordinary luxury — renting historic palazzos in Venice during the summer and hiring entire ballet companies to entertain at his parties.

He even wrote a jazz-inflected music score for a ballet production in Paris which pre-dates George Gershwin’s much more famous Rhapsody In Blue.

You can click here to skim his WIkipedia bio — it is full of fascinating details about his personal and professional lives.

Carole, Molly and I are not living lives of extraordinary luxury, but we ARE acutely aware of how fortunate/privileged we are to be able to devote time and energy to making music during this very challenging — and at time horrifying — time on planet earth.

A deep breath of gratitude in.

And a deep breath of gratitude out.

Thank you to Cole Porter for writing “Let’s Do It.”

Thank you to our copyright laws for allowing creative material to go into the public domain after a certain number of years.

Thank you to Peter Kontrimas for recording us.

Thank you to Doug Hammer for helping us fix, mix and master this recording.

Thank you to Rada Ruggles and Owen Hartford for taking photos of us.

Thank you to Pixabay for their talented and generous photographers.

Thank you to CD Baby for releasing our music — and for paying us (very modest) royalties each month.

Image by Anrita from Pixabay

And a special THANK YOU to everyone who has been streaming, liking, and playlisting our “Molly, Will & Carole” music!

We’re up to 2500 total streams on Spotify and 6500 total streams on Pandora (which are the only two music-listening platforms I currently keep tabs on…)

I have recently learned that streaming activity on the very first day of a song’s release strongly influences the future algorithmic behavior of that song on that platform — ie: whether a song is recommended to other potential listeners.

So if you might be willing to click here to stream “Let’s Do It” on the platform of your choice — and maybe even “like” it and add it to a playlist — we would be very grateful.

I will end with one final THANK YOU to you for reading and listening to yet another one of my blog posts!

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.