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Here is Frank Sinatra that same year, 1964, from the album Softly, As I Leave You, with the Mandel and Mercer song “Emily,” on Afterglowįrank Sinatra in 1964 with the song “Emily,” by the “Johnnys” Mandel and Mercer. Mercer crafted a beautiful lyric, and got creative trying to find near rhymes for the title character’s name, like “family” and “dreamily.” The song became a hit, performed by Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, Bill Evans, and more. They gave Mandel his choice of lyricists to work with, so naturally, he went with the best: Mr. Mandel was brought on to write the musical theme, but the studio wanted some words.
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I’ll start with the first pop song that Mandel ever tried to write, the 1964 song “Emily,” written for the James Garner and Julie Andrews film The Americanization of Emily. Thankfully, there are plenty of other Johnny Mandel songs with excellent vocal versions that I’d like to feature in this Mandel tribute. So while you might be humming along to that tuneful Mandel melody in your head right now, those lyrics are a main reason why we don’t have many good vocal versions of that tune. Unfortunately, the lyrics to “Suicide Is Painless” are a bit silly-and purposefully so! According to Mandel, director Robert Altman wanted the song to be, quote, “ stupidest song ever written.” Altman even asked his 14-year-old son to write the lyrics. The success of I Want To Live established Mandel as a film composer, a title that he held proudly throughout the 1960s, leading to the theme to M*A*S*H in the 1970s. But he made his transition into the world of film in 1958, when he composed a moody, hip jazz-based score to the Robert Wise film I Want To Live, featuring performances from Gerry Mulligan and his jazz combo. Johnny Mandel got his start in the world of jazz, writing and arranging for a number of musicians, including Count Basie, Chet Baker, and Stan Getz. The plaintive melody was reused as the theme to the television show as well, a testament to Mandel’s skill as a melodist. What you’re hearing in the background right now is one of Mandel’s most memorable melodies, the song “Suicide Is Painless” from the 1970 Robert Altman film M*A*S*H*.
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On this show, we’re saluting the late composer and arranger Johnny Mandel. MUSIC CLIP - Bill Evans, “Theme From M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)” (con't) Songwriter Paul Williams, the man behind songs like The Carpenter’s “We’ve Only Just Begun” and The Muppets’ “Rainbow Connection,” wrote the lyrics to that tune for the 1979 Agatha, starring Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave. Tony Bennett, with the Johnny Mandel song “Close Enough For Love.” That comes from Bennett’s 2004 album The Art Of Romance, which was also arranged by Mandel. MUSIC - Tony Bennett, "Close Enough for Love" It’s A Time For Love: The Music of Johnny Mandel, coming up next on Afterglow On this episode, we’ll hear Mandel’s work sung by Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Shirley Horn and more. His best work came, though, in the 1960s, when he wrote award-winning film songs like “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “Emily,” and “Suicide Is Painless,” (aka the theme from M*A*S*H). Johnny Mandel was more than a composer: he was also a notable brass player and arranger who found his voice towards the end of the big band era, writing for Artie Shaw, Woody Herman and more. This week on the program, we pay tribute to composer Johnny Mandel, the man behind some of the most well-known film songs from the 20th century. Welcome to Afterglow, I’m your host, Mark Chilla.