Afternoons that I used to dedicate to Weekly Tunes are now taken up by a regular gig so I have been a long time delinquent.  Am going to remedy that with another take from the Rich Santucci Trio sessions that we did last spring with Rich Santucci on drums and Robert Campbell, my partner at the Four Seasons on Saturdays, on bass.  Since I just got an e-mail from a friend who saw his daughter in a production of Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate, it seems an apt moment to choose From This Moment On from that same show.

     Well, actually, Porter wrote From This Moment On for Out of This World (1950), but the song was dropped from that show during the Boston tryouts.  The song was published nonetheless and had a certain popularity.  It was then added to the 1953 film version of Kiss Me Kate which assured its longevity.  (Interestingly, Wikipedia notes that the comma was intentionally dropped from the film version’s title but remains in the title of any stage production.)  A 1999 Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate included From This Moment On, so I suspect the tune has found a permanent home in its second show.

     In any case, From This Moment On has had a robust life outside the theater. Frank Sinatra, Diane Krall and many other singers and jazz players have recorded the tune.  I had written out a lead sheet and brought it to the recording session and so we tried it for fun and it seemed to work.  For me, this is a sort of show piece, slightly tongue-in-cheek, in which I am playing in what I fancy to be my Johnny Costa mode: lots of notes, little tiny two-beat chords on the upbeat, melody occasionally in the left hand, a general surface showiness with a swing interlude in the middle.  [A technical note for players here: Costa himself showed me the ending. (I suspect it’s cribbed from a classical piece since George Bernard Shaw describes it in one of his musical columns.) It starts on the tonic major chord and ascends with major chords based on the roots of a diminished seventh.  So (in A flat here): A flat major, B major, D major F major, repeat ever upward to a final A flat major.  Try it, it’s fun!] 

     Anyway, here it is, an unabashed 50’s era pop piano style that is no longer in favor.  It’s too jazzy for the songbook crowd, not jazzy enough for the jazzers, but I get a kick out of it.  Click above to hear it.  The song’s lyrics are below and, by the way, for you piano bar afficianados, note that it’s “no more blue songs”, not “blue skies”, a common, perhaps alcohol-induced error that reverses the intended meaning.

From This Moment On 

From this moment on,

You for me, dear,

Only two for tea, dear

From this moment on.

From this happy day,

No more blue songs,

Only whoop-dee-doo songs,

From this moment on.

Bridge:

For you’ve got the love I need so much

Got the skin I love to touch

Got the arms to hold me tight

Got the sweet lips to kiss me goodnight.

From this moment on,

You and I, babe,

We’ll be ridin’ high, babe

Ev’ry care is gone

From this moment on.