A foreign singer tries to correct lyrical slovenliness

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I've been hearing a lot of English-language songs on Taiwan Radio's web stream for the last couple of months, many of them sung by the same vocalist...he's clearly fond of easy-listening stars of the 1950s, as evidenced by this track list:
"Around the World"
"Last Waltz With You"
"Misty"
"Strangers in the Night"
"Theme from 'A Summer Place'"
"When I Fall In Love"
"Walkin' My Baby Back Home"
"Volare"
(Okay, the last one's not sung in English, but it's undeniably the same singer as all the others)..
I've deliberately left one title out of the list above, because it's afflicted with Mondegreenitis...as this man sings it, it should be "Can't Take My Eyes Over You"...my assumption is that someone liked the Frankie Valli version but felt compelled to "correct" the grammar of the original lyrics..

Comments?...r

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I've been hearing a lot of English-language songs on Taiwan Radio's webstream for the last couple of months, many of ... assumption is that someone liked the Frankie Valli versionbut felt compelled to "correct" the grammar of the original lyrics.. Comments?...r[/nq]
You're right to put the scare quotes around "correct" in you post, but you're wrong to refer to "lyrical slovenliness" in your subject line. "Off of" is a standard usage in the informal register and it thus is indeed appropriate for use in a popular song such as the one in question. See the entry for the preposition "off of" in the Online Merriam-Webster Dictionary ( www.m-w.com ) and the AHD4 ( www.bartleby.com/61 ).

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

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Raymond S. Wise filted:
[nq:1]You're right to put the scare quotes around "correct" in you post, but you're wrong to refer to "lyrical slovenliness" ... entry for the preposition "off of" in the Online Merriam-Webster Dictionary ( www.m-w.com ) and the AHD4 ( www.bartleby.com/61 ).[/nq]
I suppose I could have said "perceived lyrical slovenliness" to suggest that it's the singer (or his agent, manager, arranger, whatever, but in any event someone Chinese) who thought "off of" insufficiently formal to be good English...but then the subject line was already getting a little on the long side..
I'm a little surprised that he did some of the other songs with so little change from the classic hits...surely that "doo-bee-doo-bee-doo" business in "Strangers in the Night" must have come under some scrutiny, but he sings it just the same...(Peter Schickele, by the way, points to the Sinatra recording of that song for an example of the most blatantly unadorned key modulation he's aware of)..r

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I've been hearing a lot of English-language songs on Taiwan Radio's web stream for the last couple of months, many ... is that someone liked the Frankie Valli version but felt compelled to "correct" the grammar of the original lyrics.. Comments?...r[/nq]
"Can't Take My Eyes Over You" has a certain charm, as if the singer is very shy too shy, in fact, to really look. On the other hand, it could be just truthful "I can't stand to look at you."

What I find surprising is "off of" or even "offa" being "corrected" to "over." Do you know where, on the rhoticism scale, the (presumably Taiwanese) singer lies?
(Are all of the songs really from the 50s or before? Of course, many easy-listening stars of the 1950s were still around and making records in the 60s.)
Maria Conlon
"Most of us die with our music still in us." /O. W. Holmes/ (That has more than one meaning, doesn't it?)

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Maria Conlon filted:
[nq:1]"Can't Take My Eyes Over You" has a certain charm, as if the singer is very shy too shy, ... or even "offa" being "corrected" to "over." Do you know where, on the rhoticism scale, the (presumably Taiwanese) singer lies?[/nq]
Not sure I can trust my own ears on this...I'll post the mp3 tonight someplace and let you all know where it is...this will allow all and sundry to pick it apart in a variety of ways..
[nq:1](Are all of the songs really from the 50s or before? Of course, many easy-listening stars of the 1950s were still around and making records in the 60s.)[/nq]
Valli didn't have his hit single with the song under discussion until 1967, but I'm pretty sure it had been around for a few years before that time...of the songs listed the one that may actually have been composed last is "Strangers in the Night"...I'll check Lissauer's when I get back to the house and fill in the dates for the whole list..r

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R H Draney filted:
[nq:1]Maria Conlon filted:[/nq]
[nq:2]What I find surprising is "off of" or even "offa" ... where, on the rhoticism scale, the (presumably Taiwanese) singer lies?[/nq]
[nq:1]Not sure I can trust my own ears on this...I'll post the mp3 tonight someplace and let you all know where it is...this will allow all and sundry to pick it apart in a variety of ways..[/nq]
Just listened to it again in preparation for this message, and he's pretty non-rhotic (in English; he rolls the Rs in "Volare" like a pro)...at any rate, the song is here: http://web.newsguy.com/dadoctah/040610 1544.mp3
[nq:2](Are all of the songs really from the 50s or ... 1950s were still around and making records in the 60s.)[/nq]
[nq:1]Valli didn't have his hit single with the song under discussion until 1967, but I'm pretty sure it had been ... the Night"...I'll check Lissauer's when I get back to the house and fill in the dates for the whole list..r[/nq]
Plenty of data follows...I've corrected the phrasing and capitalization of the song titles to match the "official" entries from the book:

"Around the World" w. Harold Adamson, m. Victor Young, 1957. Theme from Michael Todd's

Around the World in 80 Days. Best-selling recods, instrumental: the orchestras of Victor Young (Decca) and Mantovani (London); vocal: Bing Crosby (Decca) and The McGuire Sisters (Coral).

"Last Waltz, The" w/m Les Reed and Barry Mason, 1967. Hit record, recorded in England by Engelbert Humperdinck (Parrot).
"Misty" w. Johnny Burke, m. Erroll Garner, 1954. First recorded as an instrumental by the Erroll Garner Trio (Mercury). Garner recorded it again, this time featuring his piano with Mitch Miller's Orchestra (Columbia), 1956. Burke wrote a lyric and, in 1959, Johnny Mathis had the first vocal hit (Columbia). Among later chart records: Lloyd Price (Double-L), organist Richard "Groove" Holmes (Prestige), Ray Stevens (Barnaby).

"Strangers in the Night" w. Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder, m. Bert Kaempfert, 1966. Adapted from a theme from

A Man Could Get Killed, starring James Garner. #1 record by Frank Sinatra, and voted Grammy Award Winner (NARAS) Record of the Year (Reprise). Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra had a popular instrumental version (Decca).
"Theme from 'A Summer Place'" m. Max Steiner, 1960. Theme from

A Summer Place. #1 million-seller by Percy Faith and his Orchestra (Columbia). Later popular recordings by Roman (Harmon), 1962, and The Lettermen (Capitol),
1965.

"When I Fall In Love" w. Edward Heyman, m. Victor Young, 1952. From

One Minute to Zero. Top 20 record by Doris Day (Columbia), followed by Nat "King" Cole (Capitol) and Jeri Southern (Decca). Revived via hit record by the Lettermen (Capitol), 1962.
"Walkin' My Baby Back Home" w/m Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert, 1931, 1952. Introduced by Harry Richman. Among records: Nick Lucas (Brunswick); Louis Armstrong (Okeh); Maurice Chevalier (Victor); Ted Weems, vocal by Parker Gibbs (Victor). Johnny Ray revived it with a million-seller (Columbia), 1952, and the song reached #1 on "Your Hit Parade". Nat "King" Cole (Capitol) and Dean Martin (Apollo) also had big-selling releases in the renascence. Donald O'Connor sang it as the title song of (MM) Walkin'My Baby Back Home, 1953.

"Volare" (a.k.a "Nel Blu, Dipinto di Blu") w. Mitchell Parish (Engl.), m. Domenico Modugno, 1958. Italian words by Franci Migliacci and Modugno. The song was winner of First Prize at the San Remo (Italy) Festival of Music. Domenico Modugno's recording, under title of "Nel Blu, etc.", sold nearly a million copies in Italy, after which it was released in the U.S. (Decca) and became not only the #1 best-seller of the year, selling over three million discs, but it was voted Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Male Vocal Performance at the first Grammy Awards presentation under the aegis of NARAS. Under "Volare" title with English lyrics by Parish, Dean Martin had a Top 20 version (Capitol). In 1960, Bobby Rydell had a popular recording (Cameo).
"Can't Take My Eyes off You" w/m Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, 1967. Gold record by Frankie Valli (Philips). Hit record by The Lettermen, who sang it in medley with "Goin' Out of My Head" (Capitol), 1968. Nancy Wilson had a chart version (Capitol), 1969.
..r

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]R H Draney filted:[/nq]
[nq:2]Maria Conlon filted: Not sure I can trust my own ... sundry to pick it apart in a variety of ways..[/nq]
[nq:1]Just listened to it again in preparation for this message, and he's pretty non-rhotic (in English; he rolls the Rs in "Volare" like a pro)...at any rate, the song is here: http://web.newsguy.com/dadoctah/040610 1544.mp3[/nq]
In general, it's good. He has a pleasant singing voice.
[nq:2]Valli didn't have his hit single with the song under ... house and fill in the dates for the whole list..r[/nq]
[nq:1]Plenty of data follows...I've corrected the phrasing and capitalization of the song titles to match the "official" entries from the book:[/nq]
Your new notes on dates fit with what I remembered. (Forty- and fifty-year-old songs? No problem remembering those. Yesterday's events? That's another story..)
(dele notes for space reasons)
Maria Conlon
"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words." (Attributed to "Donna Roberts.")

A foreign singer tries to correct lyrical slovenliness

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