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Keeping You In Mind
Mary Margaret O’Hara“Producer David Piltch introduced this to me. It’s from Miss America, an album O’Hara recorded about 20 years ago, which David played on. He thought I’d love the lyrics, and I do; the wordplay is amazing. As David says, this is for all those ‘commit-a-phobes’ out there.”
With Every Breath I Take
Cy Coleman & David Zippel“This song was also new to me. ‘There’s not a morning that I open up my eyes and find I didn’t dream of you.’ Now that’s intense. It’s from a show called City Of Angels, and it sounded like a typical show tune with a big finish. We backed way off from that, and I tried to sing it very straight, very flat. It took on a whole new intimacy.”
Invitation To A Dance
Rebecca Keefe“This is an original tune. The demo that Rebecca had done was very country, which was great, but David heard this other arrangement underneath it. I just love this piece, particularly now that it has that hypnotic, Celtic rhythm supporting it. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album.”
He Was Too Good To Me
Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart“This has an almost ethereal quality to it, with the electric guitar and the sparse arrangement. There are a lot of spaces in it, which, to me, make the song even sadder.”
Rainbow Sleeves
Tom Waits“Somewhere on the web, Tom Waits says he wrote this for Better Midler, although I don’t believe she ever recorded it. I first heard it on a Rickie Lee Jones album. Our version feels very tender, almost like a calypso lullaby. Patrick Warren’s fills on the piano remind me of Patsy Cline.”
Get Happy
Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler“This is an old Judy Garland standard I’ve always wanted to try. What really inspired us was the gospel-style ‘hallelujah’ introduction, which we used as a chorus, and I think we ended up with something that sounds almost like an old-style spiritual. It’s fairly appropriate, when you think about it, for a song that has ‘judgment day’ as a key lyric. The clap track was Patrick’s brilliant brainchild.”
Walk On By
Burt Bacharach & Hal David“We had tried a different Bacharach tune, but it just didn’t gel. David suggested this one instead, and it seemed to fit with the melancholy, bittersweet theme the album was developing. I love the way it came out.”
Taking A Chance On Love
Vernon Duke, Ted Fetter & John Latouche“This track makes me smile every time I hear it. The instruments sort of plod along in this cheerful way, with Jay Bellerose’s great, vaguely Latin percussion line dragging the vocal reluctantly behind. Kind of like how it feels when you know you’re headed straight to relationship disaster but you can’t stop. But who cares—it’s so much fun getting there.”
Goodbye Again
Mary Chapin Carpenter“I love the way Rob Piltch layered the guitar tracks so that they all weave together and draw you in.”
Azure
Duke Ellington & Irving Mills“This was one of the last songs to make the cut. We got into the studio and thought, ‘Where is it going to go?’ It went sort of India meets New Age.”
You Wake Me Up
David Piltch“When David sent this to me he didn’t tell me he wrote it! Greg Leisz’s guitar solo seems to almost come to life. As I sang it, I felt like that beautiful guitar line literally took me by the hand to ‘climb the stairs,’ just like the song says.”
Executive Producer: Mark Nydam
Produced By: Emily Saxe and David Piltch