Fairytales

Fairytales Twenty years ago Cecilia Bjärno pressed on me a tape, Fairytales by the late Radka Toneff. Her interpretations of melancholy standards like “My Funny Valentine”, “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress” and “Lost In The Stars” haunted me for years and more than almost anything else, inspired me to sing myself. Decades later, when Barb Jungr asked me to sing something, I attempted a song I had learned from the album by ear, apologising that I couldn’t identify it. (Neither could Barb, but that might have had something to do with my singing before her lessons.) Of the entire magical album, this was my favourite.

Seek and ye shall find. When I turned to the Web I found that Fairytales could not be had even from Amazon, but iTunes delivered a copy in minutes. And I discovered that my much-loved song, note-for-note as I remembered it, is called “Before Love Went Out Of Style” and is credited to our very own Fran Landesman and the late Dudley Moore. This remains my all-time favourite jazz album; find it if you can.