The lyrics! Yesterday I started working on a kind of folky-pop song (I guess, who knows about musical genres these days!) It's kind of a slow ballad, you can imagine it would well with just acoustic guitar and vocals, so the arrangement I have for piano and vocal seems very natural.

But the lyrics! When you sing something, you really know what you're singing, and it wasn't until I started practicing this that I realized the lyrics are kind of cheesy. :rolleyes:

Um, I'm wondering if this song was well known in the US. I heard it was incredibly popular in the UK, then was overplayed and now everyone hates it! It was really popular in Japan and I decided to play it because it will be a huge crowd pleaser (and I like it well enough of course.) but you know how it goes "I'll play this pop song so then you'll sit quietly while I play all the other unknown pieces that I really want to play" kind of a thing.

So, don't laugh. The song I'm talking about is called "You're beautiful" by British singer James Blunt. Does anyone know it?

Yeah, it's a well known song.

"My life is brilliant. My love is pure. I saw an angel. Of that I'm sure. She smiled at me on the subway. She was with another man. But I won't lose no sleep on that, 'cause I've got a plan..."

I liked it... time ago... when I hadn't heard it for a billion times :p

Yup,

Gets just as much overplayed here in the US.

Ah well, I probably won't record it, so no one here will have to suffer!

But I'm thinking of reviving my song-repertoire (i.e. specifically pieces that I sing and play) so I can have kind of a short set of songs. I'll have 2 or 3 Japanese songs, and then "Time After Time" (Cyndi Lauper) "You're Beautiful" and I'm thinking of doing "the Rose" (Bette Midler) if I can get a decent arrangement for piano and vocals.

That should make for a nice collection, and all are songs well-known in Japan (and the US for that matter.)

I know I probably shouldn't think about it this way, but the lyrics for "You're Beautiful" really bug me because of the inconsistency.

First he says he's not worried about it because he has a plan, as in he's seen the love of his life and he's figured out a way to be with her. But in the end he says "I will never be with you." Well, which is it already?! :p

I was thinking I could change it into a song for my mother:

"My life is brilliant. My love is pure.
I have the best mom. Of that I'm sure."

I think it has real potential!

The lyrics for "Time after Time" and "The Rose" don't bother me, I think they're quite nice. Ah well, you can't have everything!

I must be hopelessly out of it, because I wasn't familiar with that James Blunt song. But I just listened to it on Rhapsody. His music reminds me a lot of John Mayer.

Hmm... I like "Time after Time" and "The Rose" better than "You're Beautiful," anyway. (The Rose, especially; if I'm listening to it in a particularly sentimental mood, it can make my throat catch.) And as a female vocalist, it would make more sense for you to sing those than "You're Beautiful."

When I saw your thread title I thought you were actually going to be talking about something else, Shiro. Every time I have ever tried to sing along with the piano I get hopelessly messed up. I don't think my brain is capable of singing and playing at the same time! My hat's off to you.

Monica, I was at karaoke the other day (don't laugh, I live in Japan! ) and sang threw "You're Beautiful," it was ok, but maybe I was just faking it in the lower parts. Thinking of it that way, "The Rose" is much easier for me to sing (I sang that too ) I haven't started the Rose yet because I can't find an arrangement I like. I was working on "Time after Time" for awhile, so I just need to bring it back. So "You're Beautiful" is just one piece of that, not an either/or thing.

Regarding singing and playing, as long as I have an arrangement that works for me, I usually do ok. "An arrangement that works for me" means not having the melody in the piano part at all, and not having too much going on the LH while the vocals are going (i.e. not complicated rhythms!)

Singing is just like playing music with 3 voices, your voice is the melody, RH is the accompany part and LH is the bass/percussion. Hmm, maybe that's my requirement right there, that all elements be separate. I never thought of it that way.

BTW, the real trouble with me singing is that I don't work on it enough (i.e. I have voice exercises that I never do etc.) I will spend a lot of time and effort on the piano part. Once that's worked out, I just sing as if that element of it needed no practice. Not really the best way to do it!

Apple, thanks for that.

Yeah, the chorus is fine, but some of the verses have a low Bb (if I'm remembering correctly, I haven't been paying attention to the vocal line on the score just yet) that's the only part that's a bit of a stretch.

Maybe I can get Mr SK to sing it. He has a fantastic voice. The only trouble with that is, I never want to sing after him! :p

That makes him sound like a deranged stalker to me. Kinda creepy.

Maybe it's just me, but I can't stand to hear James Blunt sing!!! And I hate that song!!

Hey Shiro, how about you and Mr. SK singing "Way Back into Love" as a duet? (It's the ballad from the Hugh Grant movie "Music and Lyrics"). Very pretty and nice piano accompaniment to it.

[I broke my "no new sheet music" rule and ordered it today. ]

I don't mind that Blunt's song at all. He has a very interesting voice - quite different from anyone else's.

Piano Again, ROTFL!!

Rocky, as they say, to each his or her own. But you're certainly not alone, I think the song was so overplayed in the UK that there was a bit of a radio-listeners' uprising against it.

But then there are also a lot of people like Eternal, esp in Japan. I think Blunt's style of singing is so different from the way Japanese male singers tend to sing, that was part of his appeal here. (That and the fact that the Japanese pop music buying public seems to have a very big soft spot for love-ballads sung in English!)

Monica, have never heard Way Back Into Love, and never even heard of that movie! Yikes, a bit out of touch eh? Will go have a search...

James Blunt's song "You're beautiful" is well known. I heard an instrumental version by Kenny G on a jazz radio program (same song and same melody). At least give credit when it is due.

- Mark
------------------------------------------------------------
The ultimate joy of music is the joy of playing the piano...

Hotkeys, what do you mean? Who isn't giving credit where it's do, and for what?

Don't mean to sound argumentative, if I do that that's fault of the net-format, but your comment got my curiosity up.

I still like it because I am not listening to what pop radio channels that play it a billion times.


I think I have heard it a couple of times.
Once when he just played as solo piano on an interview show. Tried my hand at picking up the melody and came up with a version that I intend to some time play with again.

I think it's been years since I listened to anything on the radio but Public radio which mostly plays classical and Opera and occasionally Pacifica for Blues and the gloom&doom reports when I am in the mood. All those corporate radio sites all seem to be playing music that was popular when I was in high school or the anti-music rap garbage. To listen to something interesting pop music wise, you have to go on the web to places like youtube or indie band sites. The nice thing is I determine how many times I hear something.

I am so out of it! All these people from the U.S. have heard this song enough to be sick of it, and I have no idea what they're talking about. I don't even have teenagers yet, and I'm already hopelessly unhip!

ShiroKuro, please post some of your singing with piano. I'd love to hear you do The Rose.

Nancy

It's out on DVD now, Shiro, so you should go rent it. It's got Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore (Hugh plays a has-been pop star from the 80s), and it's very piano-oriented. One scene even shows Hugh Grant playing a M&H CC at the Faust Harrison piano store in NY. It is a feel-good movie and often hilarious. It's got some wicked satires of 80s style music in it as well. I think it's Hugh Grant's best movie since "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (and yes I've seen them all. ).

Kenny G did a cover of Blunt's song. Blunt's version is the original...

Monica, Hugh Grant is pretty popular in Japan, I would be surprised if the movie wasn't released here, but I've never heard of it... Hmm, will try and find it. It sounds like of like the Wedding Singer. Anyway, it sounds like a very fun movie, so hopefully I'll find it.

Nancy, the Rose I might even share, my husband (who has a very critical ear for singing) said that song sounds very natural "in my voice." If you know what I mean.

I can't really say at this point, but I doubt I'll want to record me doing "You're Beautiful," just because it's so low. We'll see though, you never know!