A couple of weeks ago, Greg Cantwell sent in a request for the song A Second Chance, which was written by Andre Previn for the 1962 film Two For the Seesaw starring Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine.

I didn’t know the song but was able to track it down at the library.  Pretty much anything Andre Previn does is all right with me.  Broadly knowledgeable and articulate, Previn has always impressed me with his unabashed and intelligent musical catholicism, his ability, like Bernstein, to be at ease in classical, jazz and Hollywood musical worlds.

And, unlike Bernstein, Previn can actually play jazz.  I used to listen to him a lot and, as I have mentioned elsewhere, must have been the only freshman in my college in 1969 with his trio recording of Pal Joey.

A Second Chance sounds like a classic sort of film noir song with its languid opening pick-up to a long held note, the chromatic bop-like chord changes,  I felt I had to dial up the super tenor on this, and pretend it was raining.  A pretty brooding tune.  Thanks for getting me on to it, Gregory.  Click above to hear it.  The lyrics are by Dory Langdon, who would one day become, albeit briefly, Dory Previn.

Can’t I have a second chance?

I won’t ask for any more.

Can’t you give a second chance

When you’ve had three or four?

Perhaps you couldn’t tell it was love,

Well, it was love with me.

But now it’s turn about

I’m out.

Does it have to be?

Can’t I have a second chance?

It’s so little to demand.

Won’t you take a second glance,

Then you might understand

You’re more than just an end of the road,

Friend of the road with me.

You’re my first my one romance,

Can’t I have a second chance?