“IF YOU ARE BUT A DREAM”
By Mahnuel Muñoz
On May 8, 1945, Frank Sinatra attended a session in which he recorded the two songs that would appear in the short film “The House I Live In“, in which he starred as himself and in which he transmitted a message of respect for diversity. at a time when hatred of those who were different was really normalized.
Today I want to tell you about the song that plays at the beginning of the movie, “If You Are But A Dream.” Frank appears on screen recording it in a studio accompanied by an orchestra led by Axel Stordahl.
The melody is based on the Romance from “6 soirées à Saint-Petersburg, Op. 44” by Anton Rubinstein, published in 1859. The lyrics belong to Jack Fulton, Moe Jaffe and Nat Bonx.
The first recording, dated 1942, corresponds to the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra, with the voice of Bob Eberly, who offers a languid performance, with muted falsettos in the high notes.
Frank Sinatra offers a more dramatic performance, powerfully attacking the high notes and masterfully using the dynamics of the song. The extraordinary string arrangement by Axel Stordahl gives the song a presence that did not exist in the original reading.
The orchestral introduction alludes to dreamlike landscapes and the singer begins to intone softly, as if he were expressing to himself the doubt that his loved one could be just a dream.
If so, “I hope I don’t wake up,” he pleads.
“Seeing myself abandoned is more than I could bear.” As that idea becomes more real in his mind, his anguish grows, the performance becomes torn and the orchestral background almost becomes tragic. After reaching the climax, the piece concludes in a beautiful diminuendo that restores calm.
Frank re-recorded it in 1957 with a beautiful arrangement by Nelson Riddle, and there are some moving live recordings from the early ’90s.
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