Ronstadt, Linda - Skylark Lyrics

all of the three records with nelson riddle make me fall asleep so easily and peacefully at night. <3 LOVE ALL THE ALBUMS.

the Nelson Riddle work was good, and a little overrated, mostly from fans. she actually got way better on her hummin' to myself recording. really good work.

What a talent!

Wonderful music - thanks to Linda Rondstat for trying to bring this music to the uncomprending, moronic future,

Wonderful job, Linda! Dreamy and delicious. I've come to enjoy this version more than the original one by Helen Forrest and Artie Shaw. Nice view of that sexy Lockheed Constellation.

I received the record with this recording on it about 30 years ago. It is still one of my favorite iterations of the song.

She is asking us real questions, can we understand her? The sound is so terrific. Thanks

Pardon me while I melt from this amazing song being sung by an angel!! Chills factor 10+.

Simply Angelic...

it's such a dreamy song & this version is wonderful. Thank You !

I always had a crush on Linda, her voice is like a beautiful velvet caress

Maravillosa!!!!!! Me hace recordar a mi esposo...Partiste hace 8 años ....y esta noche te recuerdo con esta canción💌

Always wondered what Nelson could have accomplished had he recorded with Karen Carpenter. Indeed there were songs he did for their TV specials but an entire album would have been fantastic. .

Beautifully done by one of my musical inspirations.
The first time I heard this song, it was done by Aretha Franklin. That is my personal favorite. Check it out. Her voice was perfectly suited for this song.

Back when the world did NOT completely suck. thanks, trump for fucking up our lives.

My favorite song by her.

Linda RONSTADT. You either get it or you don't. Gorgeous pipes.

Linda, we miss your singing...so glad we have the recordings!!!

god i love her.....

Wow. Perhaps the one version that approaches the heights that Ella Fitzgerald scaled. Of course, to be included in the same sentence as Ms. Fitzgerald is high praise indeed. Good luck, Linda, good health. (The dogs are great too.)

Anyone know who's blowin' the harp on this lovely tune?

Tommy Morgan - He also did an amazing live performance with Barry Manilow on a track entitled, "Just Remember".

I think this is among her best vocal performances

as I understand it --she had to learn to sing all over in a 40's 50's big band era style not her normal great shout it out and capture the audience

Lovely, just wonderful, ok boys, my girlfriend looks so much like her and we love listening to Her with Nelson Riddle..peaceful in the horse barn or on the deck with a great red blend...Just enjoy the voice of our generation.

My favorite version of this Hoagy Carmichael classic!

Liberty Tree indeed

Erin Last I forgot to give Nelson Riddle credit also. He is the conductor on this album.

Then you obviously haven't heard this one. She owned this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHYDafTrpMU

Liberty Tree johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics.

Miss the wonderful voice of Linda Ronstadt.

Nelson's arrangements, with Linda vocal artistry makes for the very best performance of The American Standards. The composser's would be proud indeed. 'round midnight' is my favorite 2 CD set ever.

Warm and gorgeous.

what is soul? To me it's a lot of irrelevant, useless embellishment.

Nelson Riddle?

Phaedra Ovid yes the wonderful Nelson Riddle ...

somebody tell me where they got that Constellation from?

This is clearly one of the best performances of this tune. Very few contemporary popular singers can approach Linda when she was at her best.

Linda Ronstadt’s instincts were obviously correct when she felt that a switch from her rock and country leanings might do well with the public, maybe believing that a good song was a good song, period. When asked about the recording by DownBeat magazine in 1985, she said, “’Skylark’ is just an incredible adventure to sing – I just love it.” The three albums of standards (the other two were What’s New and For Sentimental Reasons) sold in the millions, with exceptional performances by Ronstadt and arrangements by Nelson Riddle.

“Skylark” was first recorded in 1941 by three different female big band vocalists. With lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Hoagy Carmichael, the song was about the universal search for love, with the singer asking the titular bird if it has any idea where the man or woman of one’s dreams can be found:

"Skylark
Have you anything to say to me?
Won’t you tell me where my love can be?
Is there a meadow in the mist
Where someone’s waiting to be kissed?"

By many accounts, the song was inspired by Mercer’s ill-fated affair with the much younger Judy Garland. It also may have had something to do with his love of birds, or at least a love of writing about them. In addition to “Skylark,” Mercer was known for such songs as “Little Birds” (performed by Julie Andrews) and “Bob White,” which name-checks more than a dozen birds in a duet he sang with Bobby Darin. The music to “Skylark” was written by Carmichael in a nod to the late jazz trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke, but it supposedly took Mercer a year to write lyrics he was happy with. The song has been recorded by dozens of artists, including Dylan on his album Fallen Angels.

By recording “Skylark” and other classics, Ronstadt introduced a new generation to some of the finest songs ever written in America.

Mercer wrote lyrics to hundreds of recorded songs for some of the most iconic artists in the world from the 1930s through the 1960s. He died in 1976. But even if he’d only been mildly successful as a writer or singer, he wouldn’t have needed to worry much about money, as he was one of the three founders of Capitol Records.

Warms my heart every time I hear her voice.

A voice and soul in a league of her own. Linda, very rare

Great pipes. ZERO soul.

Jonathan Kieran That's your sanctimonious opinion. The pipes are great but it is Linda's emotional surrender, without vanity, especially live that is so remarkable. Someone said something similar to you years ago, so sad he was taken seriously. He has been proven a fool and Ronstadt's devotees have been vindicated.

Jonathan Kieran enlighten us about a "soul"...you Trumpheads are toxic😠

This is a fair criticism. A good deal of people have found her standard interpretations to be stilted and lacking the soul of a jazz voice (which she technically doesn't have). Her phrasings to some are too respectful and surface bound, that she doesn't get into them and personalize them like many have before her. I agree on some of the songs but she really nails some others. (12/27/18)

@Henry Jackson kinda agree,
Dianne Reeves, Aretha Franklin
i can't see anyone coming close to their renditions.
But I'll take Linda under the category of greatness, Alex, for the Adios song!

Nailed it

Written by Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael.
Arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle. Harmonica obbligato by Tommy Morgan.

Thank you . I was wondering who was playing the harmonica.

Aye, there is a GOD!😁

Linda with that ultra gorgeous voice and some fine hounds. Luv her.

Great song, but unfortunately about 1985 when this came out, only the adult contemporary soft rock stations played this.

Linda was flying into the face of the times -- new wave, heavy metal were the thing of the day. I had been a fan of hers for years. Was fortunate enough to see her in concert with Nelson Riddle during this time.

And the music of your life stations (such as WFTL AM 1400 in Fort Lauderdale) which is how I heard it.

Beautiful rendition of this song along with a nicely done video to capture the theme.  Wow, she sure is one pretty gal!

Versión española en letrascantables punto blogspot punto com

i cry many times with that excellent and beautiful song from  the only one and awesome Linda! it was really one amazing years then...........

So, so beautiful.

This is the first version I heard of this song, and still one of my favorites.  I liked the entire Lush Life album.  I went through a phase of female vocalists teamed up with orchestras, and glad I did.

Lush Life is still available on the Round Midnight Trilogy CD.........

Sublime, reminds me a little of Karen Carpenter at her best.

@Martin Dennis As musical artisans, they were carpenters. Fine art furniture, but withal a bit too wooden. Karen never experienced the reciprocal love she sang about.

@Henry Jackson Karen's melancholy was that of someone too Puritanically repressed to express her natural sexual energy, other than by becoming a girl drummer and singing ballads of love longing. And after one critic said she was plump, she saw all eating as gluttony. She should have been allowed to live and express her feelings, all of them. That is essential to an artist's reaching their full potential.

Henry Jackson I am not “anti-Karen”. I have no contempt for Karen and her brother. Karen was gifted with a voice that they well-employed to create sweet songs that spoke of love, admiration and devotion — and every piano lesson chord of it devoid of any passion. “We’ve Only Just Begun” is a honeymoon song that has the lyrics: “sharing horizons that are new to us. Watching the signs along the way. Talking it over just the two of us. Working together day to day”. And THAT in essence is the Carpenters. A lopsided duo working together day to day making songs about emotions they repressed and smoothed over with lush background arrangements.

Henry Jackson “ a genuine artist who crystallized emotions millions felt but couldn’t name”. Uh... no. I knew the feelings she was singing about. It was she who couldn’t crystallize them. Every time it seemed a song was on the verge of a genuine emotion it was smothered by a chorus or arrangement that was upbeat, sweet and empty. Re: “Superstar”

Ronstadt had a better upper register and more power, which allowed her to sing a much wider range of material.

Greatest Skylark ever. Thanks, Linda

Dinah Shore is pretty awesome too!

Thanks again, fabtastique!