Welcome to my music blog - The Soundtrack of My Life!

Many of you have asked me “What’s with all the music, Dr. Weiss?” Well, as I’ve told some of you:

I personally call every surgery patient on the evening of surgery just to make sure they are doing well and have no questions that need answering. Occasionally, I would be at the piano and play a song that we had listened to that day. I gradually realized that I wanted to go through all the music that I had played during my life and at least start making a list of the songs that I had recently played.

Well, there are now about 600 songs on the list and I realized that it in a way it represented the ‘soundtrack of my life’! And that’s how I got the idea to record these songs and share them with my patients, friends and family. After I record them they will reside here, for easy access.

Music is truth. It’s honest. It’s really the first social media, where in a way, people could share their souls directly. And isn’t that what the purpose of social media is and why it’s so popular - trying to share who you really are, as completely and directly as possible?

Finally, it has been (and will continue to be) a genuine pleasure sharing these different songs with you and I really appreciate all of your positive feedback!!

Musical Genres

I Could Have Danced All Night pic

I Could Have Danced All Night

June 28, 2019

On this day in 1988 we lost Frederick Loewe, who composed the music for “I Could Have Danced All Night”. This is a love song from the musical My Fair Lady, with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, published in 1956. The song is sung by the musical’s heroine, Eliza Doolittle, expressing her excitement after an impromptu dance with her tutor, Henry Higgins. Interestingly, in the 1964 film adaptation of the musical, the song was sung by Marni Nixon, dubbing the singing voice of Audrey Hepburn, who played Eliza Doolittle in one of her most memorable roles. Check out Audrey Hepburn doing the song on youtube – she does an excellent job of lip syncing, although I’ve read that she also had a great voice! Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I've ever owned!!
West Side Story Poster

Somewhere

March 22, 2019

On this day (March 22) in 1930, Stephen Sondheim was born. Sondheim wrote the lyrics to the beautiful love song “Somewhere” (sometimes referred to as “There’s A Place for Us”) from the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story. Stephen was one lucky boy when he got his first professional job to write the lyrics to Leonard Bernstein’s landmark musical.   I think the music stands very strong on it’s own (understatement.) But I have to admit, Sondheim’s lyrics are pretty good. Sondheim has received an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer (including a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre,) eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. In the 1961 film, the song occurs after the rumble in which Tony has stabbed Maria's brother, Bernardo. Having nowhere else to go, Tony runs to Maria, who has just been told of her brother's death and who killed him. When Tony comes to her room through the balcony window, Maria, in shock, pounds against his chest. Realizing in spite of her anger that she still loves Tony, Maria begs him to hold her. After Maria cries [...]
Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

March 14, 2019

On This Day (March 14) in 1991, Howard Ashman who wrote the lyrics for “Beauty and the Beast” passed away at age 40 from complications due to AIDS. He also wrote the lyrics for The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. While finishing “Beauty and the Beast” his health began to decline due to his illness. He grew weaker but he remained productive and continued to write and he completed the lyrical work on “Beauty and the Beast” before succumbing to AIDS. The film was released mere months after his death and is dedicated to him. “Beauty and the Beast” is dedicated "To our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul, we will be forever grateful. Howard Ashman 1950–1991. I’d like to dedicate this performance to my dear friends Peggy and Dan, who treated my new wife and I to an unforgettable performance of the play at the Schubert Theatre in Los Angeles in 1995. Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial [...]
Judy Garland as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz holding Toto

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

March 5, 2019

On This Day (March 5) in 1981, Yip Harburg, the lyricist of “Over The Rainbow” passed away. Critics have ranked Judy Garland’s rendition of “Over the Rainbow” as the Number One recording of the 20th century! Yip put words to Harold Arlen’s music for “Over the Rainbow" for the movie The Wizard of Oz, for which he won an Academy Award for best original song.  He also contributed much of the script for The Wizard of Oz, including the part where they give out the heart, the brains and the nerve. Unbelievably, the song was deleted (and later thankfully reinserted) from the film after a preview because MGM chief executive Louis B. Mayer thought it "slowed down the picture”! Yip also wrote the lyrics to the standards "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?", "April in Paris", and "It's Only a Paper Moon", as well as all of the songs in The Wizard of Oz. He was known for the social commentary of his lyrics, championing racial and gender equality and union politics. Tragically, although never a member of the Communist Party, he was falsely accused and blacklisted in McCarthy’s fake communist witch hunt of the 1950s.  He refused to identify other [...]
Poster of the Warner Bros. film "Gold Diggers of 1933"

We’re in the Money! (Gold Diggers’ Song)

February 11, 2019

On This Day: Al Dubin passed away in 1945. He wrote the lyrics to what is formally called "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)", from the 1933 film Gold Diggers of 1933, sung in the opening sequence by Ginger Rogers. The song's lyrics reflect a positive financial turnaround and a fantasized end to the Great Depression, which in the U.S. began to turn around in early 1933 but wouldn't actually end until the late 1930s. Al Dubin, like me, was a Jewish guy from Philadelphia, perhaps explaining my affinity for this song. He also wrote "Tiptoe through the Tulips", "I Only Have Eyes for You" and "Lullaby of Broadway." Harry Warren wrote the music and was the first American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars. He wrote the music for the first blockbuster film musical, 42nd Street, choreographed by Busby Berkeley and over a career spanning four decades, wrote more than 800 songs. Other well known Warren hits included "I Only Have Eyes for You", "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", "Jeepers Creepers", "That's Amore", "There Will Never Be Another You", [...]
The original members of singing group The Platters.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

January 25, 2019

This romantic ballad was popularized by artists like Sarah Vaughan and Nat King Cole! Jerome Kern, one of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century,  wrote more than 700 songs, including including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "All the Things You Are” and  "The Way You Look Tonight. “ He was nominated eight times for an Academy Award, and won twice.  At the time of Kern's death, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was filming a fictionalized version of his life, Till the Clouds Roll By, which was released in 1946 starring Robert Walker as Kern. In the film, Kern's songs are sung by Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson, Lena Horne, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury, among others. Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I've ever owned!!
fiddler

Now I Have Everything

January 25, 2019

"Now I Have Everything" is a classic from the Broadway play, "Fiddler on the Roof"!  Dedicated to my friend Jerry B. Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I've ever owned!!
The composers, Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar

Nevertheless (I’m in Love With You)

January 25, 2019

Nevertheless was composed by Harry Ruby (born January 27, 1895) with lyrics by Bert Kalmar.  Their songwriting partnership was portrayed in the 1950 MGM musical 'Three Little Words', starring Fred Astaire as Kalmar and Red Skelton as Ruby. I love those old ’tin-pan alley’ movies! Notable cover versions of Nevertheless: (I especially want to track down the Telly Savalas (Kojak) version!) The Andrews Sisters Fred Astaire Count Basie Bing Crosby Barry Manilow  Dean Martin Liza Minnelli Olivia Newton-John Andy Gibb Harry Nilsson Frank Sinatra  Rod Stewart Rudy Vallée Betty White Telly Savalas Bob Dylan Other songs by Ruby and Kalmar: “Who's Sorry Now?”, "I Wanna Be Loved by You” (sung by Marilyn Monroe in the film Some Like It Hot), "Three Little Words”, and the television them for “The Real McCoys” (1957-1963).  They also wrote the musical scores for three classic Marx brothers films, Animal Crackers, Horse Feathers and Duck Soup which Included the classics “Hello I Must Be Gong”, “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”, and “Everyone Says I Love You!”  Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no [...]
Original sheet music for Give My Regards to Broadway

Give My Regards to Broadway

November 5, 2018

I’ve always loved this song. “Give My regards to Broadway” was written by George M. Cohan, who has been called “the greatest single figure the American theatre ever produced”. “Give My Regards to Broadway” was from his first Broadway play, Little Johnny Jones in 1904, after which he wrote, composed, produced, and appeared in more than three dozen Broadway musicals. Cohan published more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including the standards “Over There” (America’s most popular World War I song), “Give My Regards to Broadway”, “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag”. This little tribute to Cohan is also an homage one of my personal favorite actors, James Cagney. Cagney played Cohan in the Academy Award-winning film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), which includes James Cagney’s unforgettable musical tap dance rendition of “Give My Regards To Broadway”, for which he won an Oscar. On May 1, 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented him with the Congressional Gold Medal for his contributions to World War I morale, in particular the songs “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and “Over There.” Cohan was the first person in any artistic field selected for this honor, which previously had gone only to military and political leaders, philanthropists, scientists, inventors, and explorers. In 1959, at […]

I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy!

July 3, 2016

Happy Birthday, America! From our family to yours, we wish you all a fantastic holiday filled with food, fun and fireworks! And to kick off your holiday weekend, we thought we’d give you a little song and dance. Enjoy your holiday weekend while we wait anxiously for the recording contract offers to come rolling in 😉   Happy Independence Day From Weiss Cosmetic