It’s Magic: The Songs of Sammy Cahn Steve Tyrell

• 1Come Fly With Me03:06
• 2It's Magic04:40
• 3The Tender Trap03:34
• 4All the Way03:42
• 5Teach Me Tonight03:31
• 6The Second Time Around04:21
• 7It's Crazy03:51
• 8Call Me Irresponsible04:38
• 9Ain’t That a Kick in the Head02:18
• 10I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry05:01
• 11It's Been a Long, Long Time03:09
• 12Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)02:11
• 13I Fall in Love Too Easily03:07
• Total Runtime47:09

Info for It’s Magic: The Songs of Sammy Cahn

On Steve Tyrell’s 10th album, It’s Magic: The Songs of Sammy Cahn, the GRAMMY award-winning singer/songwriter/producer celebrates the iconic American songwriter’s centennial birthday. Complemented with longtime collaborators, Tyrell explores 13 of his favorite Cahn songs, illustrating their everlasting vitality. The musicians include guitarist Bob Mann, pianists Alan Broadbent and Quinn Johnson, bassists David Finck and Ed Howard, drummers Kevin Winard and Jim Sapporito, and feature soloist David Mann on saxophone, and Lew Soloff on trumpet. The arrangements are provided by a legendary group that include Alan Broadbendt, Don Sebesky, John Oddo, and Bob Mann, and is produced by Steve Tyrell and Jon Allen.

The idea to record a Cahn songbook project first came to Tyrell last year, after he performed “It’s Crazy,” at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va. (right outside of Washington, D.C.). It was one of the last tunes Cahn penned in collaboration with Tyrell’s friend Artie Butler, “It was a song that slipped through the cracks, Artie told me, so I thought it would be great to try a Sammy Cahn song that no one knew. We played it that night and everybody went crazy,” Tyrell remembers, “It was like finding a buried treasure.” Underscored with an after-hours blues feel, and graced with a sultry trumpet solo from Lew Soloff (Blood, Sweat & Tears), the song will undoubtedly be inducted into the big leagues of other Cahn classics.

Throughout It’s Magic, Tyrell’s whiskey-sour baritone swaggers and brings a modern sound to the quintessential 1960s Rat Pack style. Of all of the Great American Songbook composers, Tyrell points out that it was Cahn, who was the primary voice of that ’60s generation, as he wrote so many classics during that era. “There was a period in American pop culture where the old-world thinking ran into the sexual revolution. That’s around 1958. Before that, everybody was ‘goody two-shoes,’ sleeping in twin beds on TV. Then all of sudden, there was the Rat Pack, Las Vegas, James Bond, and Playboy magazine. Things started getting sexy,” Tyrell explains. This is the period most revered by this current generation as witnessed by the success of Mad Men, the remakes of Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen, and this year’s salute to James Bond at the 2013 Oscars. And then there’s Diddy with his Rat Pack Vodka commercials.

“Ain’t That a Kick in the Head” (co-written by Jimmy Van Heusen for Ocean’s 11) is the perfect example of Cahn’s gift of penning verses for that particular time. ‘She’s telling me that we will be wed/she’s picked out a king-sized bed.’ “You ain’t going to find that in a Cole Porter or Irving Berlin song,” Tyrell smilingly states.

Sammy Cahn was nominated 27 times for the Academy Award, winning 4, along with 5 Golden Globes and an Emmy.

In addition to celebrating Cahn’s centennial, Tyrell salutes Van Heusen – one of Cahn’s most frequent collaborators – who was also born 100 years ago. Along with “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head,” It’s Magic includes other Cahn-Van Heusen classics such as the swooning opener “Come Fly with Me,” a classic made famous by Frank Sinatra (who recorded 87 of Cahn’s songs), a dramatic reading of the amorous cautionary tale “The Tender Trap,” which was the soundtrack title song of the 1955 movie starring Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds; a stirring retooling of “All the Way,” another Sinatra-related classic, written for the 1957 drama, The Joker is Wild; the gorgeous, string-laden ballad “The Second Time Around; and the comely “Call Me Irresponsible,” an ambitious five-syllable word ballad that Cahn originally wrote for 1963 movie, Papa’s Delicate Condition, with hopes that the movie’s original star, Fred Astaire would sing it. Instead it sat on the shelf for seven years until the movie was finally made, starring Jackie Gleason, winning Sammy his final Oscar. Tyrell adds, “Sammy was an incredible guy with a great sense of humor. His widow Tita told me “Irresponsible” was the song he was most proud of. He often said it was a 5 syllable song written by a guy from 1 syllable neighborhood!”

It’s Magic also toasts Cahn’s other main songwriting partner, Julie Styne, with the inclusion of the gentle makeover of the title-track, a song made famous by Doris Day; the torch-song classic “I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out the Dry,” written for the obscure 1944 stage production, Glad to See You; a titillating version of “It’s Been a Long, Long Time,” an anthem that celebrated the return of American soldiers from World War II; the snazzy “Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week), a tongue-in-cheek gem written from a hard-working musician’s perspective who’s reveling in spending Saturday night with a paramour; and the disc’s misty closer, “I Fall in Love Too Easily,” written for the 1945 comedy flick, Anchors Aweigh.

Gene De Paul, another Cahn collaborator, is represented on the disc with the sumptuous reading of “Teach Me Tonight,” another chestnut associated with Sinatra.

Even though Tyrell’s a five-decade veteran songwriter and producer, who has worked with an illustrious and diverse array of artists (Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, Aaron Neville, James Ingram, Diana Ross Ray Charles, and more), he’s dedicated his solo recording career solely to the Great American Songbook, starting off with his 1999 recording debut, A New Standard (Atlantic Records) and was the first in a new wave of contemporary artists recording the standards. Of Tyrell’s previous 9 albums, 7 have made the top 5, and 1 the top 10 in Billboard’s Traditional Jazz Chart.

Tyrell says of the Great American Songbook, “What makes these songs so great, and the reason they have lasted 70 and 80 years is that they allow each artist to create their own distinct versions. You can love many different artists singing the same song.”

While putting his own personal stamp on these classics, Tyrell explains that he’s ever respectful of the composer’s original intent. “You can take on the challenge to change them, but the melodies of these songs are classic,” he says, “My philosophy is to sing the melody at least the first time, and then maybe take it someplace creative.”

Tyrell certainly does Cahn’s compositions justice with It’s Magic. “I think Sammy Cahn’s legacy should be celebrated in its 100th year. These songs are a part of American history,” Tyrell enthuses, “As long as people have the opportunity to hear them, they will live forever.”

Steve Tyrell, vocals
Alan Broadbent, piano
Quinn Johnson, piano
Bob Mann, guitar
David Finck, bass
Ed Howard, bass
Kevin Winard, drums
Jim Sapporito, drums
David Mann, tenor saxophone, clarinet
Lew Soloff, trumpet

Steve Tyrell
Grammy Award-winning vocalist Steve Tyrell is truly a renaissance man. In over four decades in the music business, he has achieved great success as an artist, producer, songwriter, music supervisor, and performer.

Steve TyrellWith his breakthrough performances in “Father of the Bride” and “Father of the Bride II,” Steve Tyrell reinvented and re-popularized classic pop standards for a modern-day audience. With the grit and soul of a lifetime of experiences, producing hits for Grammy-winning Artists ranging from Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, to Rod Stewart and Diana Ross, Steve himself has sold hundreds of thousands of albums and gained a passionate following all over the world. His hits “The Way You Look Tonight,” “The Simple Life,” “Crush On You” and “The Sunny Side of The Street,” have launched thousands of weddings and millions of romances. He’s held top positions at Standards, Swing, and Big Band outlets with a devoted following at key Adult Contemporary Radio.

With sold out shows across America and raves from around the world, his following increases day by day. Although Steve tours mainly with his band, he also enjoys playing with some of the most renown orchestras in the land, and has had multiple performances with The Boston Pops, The New York Pops, The Nashville Symphony, Kansas City Cymphony, and The Houston Symphony. Most recently, he has appeared with the New West Symphony performing Joseph Sohms photo symphony “Visions of America” narrated by Clint Eastwood, singing the songs of Roger Kellaway and Alan and Marylin Bergman.

At the request of the Sinatra family and Quincy Jones, Steve was the featured performer with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at their season opening concert in which Frank Sinatra was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. Also at the request of the Sinatra family, he reprised that performance at Carnegie Hall. This is one of the rare times the family has reached into the vault of original Sinatra arrangements to share them with another artist.

In 2005, after the passing of the legendary Bobby Short, Steve was asked by New York City’s Café Carlyle to take over their revered Holiday Season of November and December, which Mr. Short had not missed for 36 years. In 2013 Tyrell’s contract was extended through his 11th season, starting a new Carlyle legacy that now also includes performances in May.

Steve TyrellHis work in the studio as a record producer has included collaborations with such diverse and legendary artists as Rod Stewart, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Linda Ronstadt, Aaron Neville, Bonnie Raitt, Blood Sweat and Tears, Mary J Blidge, Chris Botti, Dave Koz, Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson, Burt Bacharach, Bette Midler, Stevie Wonder and the list goes on and on. He even produced an album with the late Andy Griffith, which won the Grammy in 1995 for Gospel Album of the Year. As an artist, all 9 of his American Standards albums have achieved top 10 status on Billboard’s Jazz charts, 7 of which have achieved top 5, and his first album “A New Standard” was amongst the best selling jazz albums for over 5 years.

His voice has been featured on television and in numerous movies. Most recently, he was asked by Oscar winning Songwriter’s Alan and Marilyn Bergman and the late Marvin Hamlisch to sing the end title to Steven Soderbergh’s film “The Informant”.

As a music supervisor and music producer for film and TV, Tyrell has worked with such distinguished directors as Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Nancy Meyers, Steven Soderbergh, Hugh Wilson, and Charles Shyer.

His songs have been recorded by such revered artists as Ray Charles, Diana Ross, LL Cool J and Elvis Presley, and his song “How Do You Talk To An Angel,” written and produced for Aaron Spelling’s Fox television series “The Heights,” was a No. 1 on Billboards Top 100 Pop Charts.

Aside from being a Grammy Award winner, Tyrell has earned 2 Emmy nominations, received a daytime Emmy, 3 Ace Nominations, 2004 American Society of Young Musician’s “All That Jazz Award”, 2004 The Wellness Community “Human Spirit Award”, 2006 Society of Singers “Lifetime Achievement Award”, and 2008 Los Angeles Jazz Society’s “Jazz Vocalist of the Year”. His productions were nominated have earned over 11 Grammy Awards themselves. The music he produced for the children’s special “Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue” which aired on all three major networks simultaneously was given special recognition by the Emmy’s.

This album contains no booklet.