‘In life, you either choose to sing a rainbow or you don’t, keep singing’:
Kathleen Long
Songs are about emotions and colours are associated with emotions. It is natural that songs have colours in the lyrics or even in the titles. Let’s explore songs which have colours in their titles.
I read a quote which goes as follows: ‘My teacher asked my favourite colour, I said Rainbow…and I was punished to stand out of my class.’ We shall be sympathetic with the child and begin with a song that has ‘Rainbow’ in the title. The memorable, “Over The Rainbow” flashes in the mind. The song was first sung by Judy Garland in the film, "Wizard Of Oz", which is one year younger than this old man who saw it in school screened by Fr. Cosgrove through his 16 mm. projector. Judy plays the part of a small girl who is told by her aunt to “find yourself a place where you won’t get into any trouble”. The girl walks off by herself imagining such a place which will be “far away, behind the moon, beyond the rain”, and starts singing this song. It won the Oscar for best original song in a film and became Judy’s signature song.
Two other popular versions were recorded; one by Louis Armstrong who sings it smoothly without using his usual cracking voice, and, second by a Hawaiian singer, the 500 pounder (because of a disease) Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, with a babyish voice. Both use the ukulele for accompaniment and also sang “What A Wonderful World” with the beautiful lines, ‘The colours of a rainbow, so pretty in the sky, are also on the faces of people passing by.’
On to individual colours of a rainbow through the mnemonic VIBGYOR, taught in school. Starting with Violet, there are not too many songs but there is one with ‘Violet’ as the title itself. It is sung by Courtney Love with an American rock band, ‘Hole’. The song expresses anger of the narrator who has had to abandon a romance. Sadness and anger, I guess that is indicative of the colour violet.
Indigo too is hard to find in a title but a jazz item, ‘Mood Indigo’, was composed by Duke Ellington as far back as 1930.Thereafter it was sung by many old timers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Mood indigo is bluer than blue ever since the singer’s baby said goodbye and she/he feels lonesome and could cry!
We now come to colours which appear in song titles in abundance. ‘Blue’ has various hues: sadness, beautiful eyes, tranquility of nature, to name a few. In songs, Fats Domino came up with “Blue Monday” warbling ‘how I hate Blue Monday, got to work like a slave all day…’cause Monday is a mess!’ But his mood brightens in “My Blue Heaven” where ‘You’ll see a smiling face, a fireplace, a cosy room…just Mollie and me, and baby makes three, we’re happy in my blue heaven.’
A famous song is “Blue Moon” composed by Richard Rogers and Lionel Hart in 1934 and its first version came out in 1936. Then in 1961, a group called The Marcels sang it an unusual, light way and its popularity was revived with many versions to follow. Some of its lines- ‘Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone, without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own… And then there suddenly appeared before me, the only one my arms would ever hold, I heard somebody whisper, ‘Please adore me’, and when I looked, the moon had turned to gold!’
Blue Eyes are considered to be very attractive and Elton John sings about loving them in the song with that as the title. The country singer Willie Nelson gives them a sad touch in “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain” where he laments for his loved one. My top favourite is the captivating “Blue Spanish Eyes” originally sung by Al Martino but even more romantically by Englebert Humperdinck.
For nature’s beauty, there is “Blue Hawaii” by Elvis Presley, while on material possessions, he warns 'you can burn my house, steal my car, drink my liquor from an old fruit jar, do anything that you wanna do, but uh-uh baby, lay off my “My Blue Suede Shoes.”
I come to the end of my blue titles with the haunting instrumental “L’amour Est Bleu” by Paul Mauriat. A great hit globally, it has a distinguishing harpsichord riff which is simply delightful and unforgettable. Incidentally, in the English vocal version "Love Is Blue", the lyrics include the colours blue, grey, red, green and black and the line, 'When we met, how the bright sun shone, then love died, and the rainbow is gone.'
Green is the colour of nature- grass, trees, leaves and spring. The song that comes instantly to mind is what first made Tom Jones famous, “Green Green Grass Of Home”. Sad and nostalgic, it is about a man who returns to his home for the first time after childhood. On stepping down from the train, he is welcomed by his parents and beloved Mary who has ‘hair of gold and lips like cherry.’ He is happy to see the ‘old oak tree’ which he used to play on and feels good to touch ‘the green green grass of home.' Then he realizes he was only dreaming and is actually in prison awaiting execution but feels content that he would be laid ‘’neath the green green grass of home.’
An older song is “Green Fields” by various artistes such as The Brothers Four. It goes ‘Once there were green fields, kissed by the sun, once there were valleys, where rivers used to run…., we were the lovers who strolled through green fields….Green fields are gone now, parched by the sun, gone from the valleys, where rivers used to run, gone with the lovers, who let their dreams depart, where are the green fields that we used to roam?’
Next, the traditional English folk song “Greensleeves” which dates back to the 16th century. The vocal recordings led to various conjectures about what or who ‘Greensleeves’ was, including a prostitute! For me, I am just happy to sit back and enjoy the calm, soothing instrumental version by Mantovani and his Orchestra.
Yellow, a colour signifying happiness and sunshine, is quite popular in song titles. My earliest memories are of Vinnie Mama coming home from his first leave after joining the Navy and singing ‘And in her hair, she wore a yellow ribbon, she wore a yellow ribbon in the merry month of May. Hey, hey, and if you ask, oh, why the hell she wore it, she wore it for a sailor who is far far away.’ The song comes from a 1949 John Wayne movie, “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon” and the lyrics say ‘lover’ instead of ‘sailor’ but we were happier with the substitution!
Wearing a yellow ribbon in the hair was believed to be a 19th century practice for women to signify their devotion to a husband or sweetheart serving in the U.S. Cavalry. Later in the 1970s, it became a symbol of displaying a lover’s welcome to an absent military man or prisoner on his return. So the group Dawn sang “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree” about a man coming back in a bus after serving a three year term asking his love to tie the yellow ribbon, for, if he didn’t see it, he would stay on the bus and go away. Soon he hears the whole bus cheering because they see ‘a hundred yellow ribbons round the ole oak tree.’
Briefly, two more ‘yellow’ song titles. “The Yellow Rose Of Texas” from whom the singer regrettably parted but wishes to find her and then ‘we never more will part.’ Lastly, the delightful Bryan Hyland number “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” that ‘she wore for the first time today’. She was then afraid to come out in the open and covered herself with a blanket, from the locker to the water, where she wanted to stay!
From ‘Yellow’ to ‘Orange’ where the choice is limited, surprisingly, since the colour represents joy and fun. Anyway, Nat King Cole sang “Orange Coloured Sky” under which the narrator was hit by love. Glenn Miller sang and played “Orange Blossom Lane” where the singer had kissed his love and was waiting there for her return so he could kiss her again.
The final colour of the rainbow, Red, the colour of love, passion and intensity but also anger and danger. We’ll stick to love and recall Jim Reeves’ “Roses Are Red, My Love”, ‘violets are blue, sugar is sweet, my love, but not as sweet as you!’
An old favourite was Bing Crosby singing “When The Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin’ along.” It’s a song to chase you out of your blues-
‘Cheer up, cheer up, the sun is red, live, laugh and be happy,
What if I’ve been blue, now I’m walking through fields of flowers,
I’m just a kid again, doing what I did again, singing a song,
When the red red robin comes bob bob bobbin’ along.”
There is the Christmas song everyone knows, “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.” And to wind up, let’s drink a toast with UB 40’s “Red Red Wine.”
Let’s do a few non-rainbow colours now. Starting with Brown, an old one is “Beautiful Beautiful Brown Eyes” sung by Rosemary Clooney in which she ditches blue eyes for brown ones promising ‘I’ll never love blue eyes again.’ Harry Belafonte gave us the calypso number, “Brown Skin Girl” which may not go well with my female readers as it says-
‘Ah de brown skin girl, stay home and mind baby….
I’m goin’ away in a sailing boat and if I don’t come back
Stay home and mind baby.’
Worse, the baby is probably a produce of American sailors!
No such issue with Boney M’s “Brown Girl In The Ring” ‘tra la la la la….she looks like a sugar in a plum.’ Oh, the happy dancing days of Wellington in the late ‘70s when this number was played and sung in every party...
Some do not consider black and white to be colours but shades. However, there are so many good songs with these as titles that let us stay on the side of colours. Black though is used at times for rhyme only as in “Black Is Black” first popularised by the Spanish group, Los Bravos: ‘Black is black, I want my baby back.’ Doris Day’s “Black Hills Of Dakota” makes more sense as does Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” mesmerizing us with its beat. Michael Jackson makes a plea for racial tolerance with “Black Or White”, ‘but, if you’re thinkin’ about my baby, it don’t matter if you’re black or white.’
Mix the basic colours and you get White, a neutral shade and easy on the eye. In songs, flash back to the days of World War II when, to cheer up the English armed forces personnel, Vera Lynn sang, ‘There’ll be bluebirds over “The White Cliffs Of Dover”, tomorrow just you wait and see. There’ll be love and laughter and peace thereafter….’ I took the ferry from Dover to Calais 45 years later and, yes, the cliffs were white, bluebirds were flying over them, and there was plenty of love and laughter and peace.
There is, of course, Bing Crosby’s evergreen “White Christmas”, the stuff of which dreams are made. I also love “Nights In White Satin” sung by The Moody Blues, a touching tale of a yearning for love from afar.
Finally, a complex song with a mix of hues, “A Whiter Shade Of Pale”. Performed by the British group Procol Harum, its lyrics are difficult to interpret. Never mind the words, just listen to its brilliant Hammond organ accompaniment inspired by Bach’s “Air On The G String” which is fascinating and haunting.
Life is a song, enjoy its colours.
