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Monday, October 7, 2002
Interview by Dan Kimpel
Produced by Denise Bradley
@14 Below 1348 14th St
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 451-5040
6:30pm-8pm Open Mic (Open to all writers)
8pm- 9:15pm The Songwriter's Studio w/Ray Evans, Dan Kimpel and guests…Q & A to follow
9:30pm-10:30pm SGA Writer's-In-The-Round w/Jennifer Appelquist and Gary Alexander...
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Ray Evans and his recently departed songwriting partner of 61 years, Jay Livingston, together penned some of Hollywood's most beloved songs, making theirs the longest such collaboration in history. Together, they penned many catchy tunes for stage, screen and television. Some of these songs, such as "Tammy," and "Silver Bells" have become American standards. They won Oscars in 1948 for "Buttons and Bows" (from Paleface), "Mona Lisa" (from Captain Carey USA, 1950) and "Que Sera Sera" (from The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956). With over 40 hits, 7 Academy Award nominations, and their TV theme songs for "Mr. Ed" and "Bonanza, the duo has sold over 400 million records. Their indelible mark in history earned them a star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame in 1995. As a tribute to this prolific songwriting pair, the "Michael Feinstein Sings the Livingston and Evans Songbook" was released.
Their partnership began at Penn, where they played together at fraternity dances in a band called The Continentals. Evans was preparing for a career in banking but breaks spent performing on steamship cruises around the globe soon gave him other ideas. "Life on the ships was so exciting and so glamorous; we were living like millionaires," Evans said. "One day on our last cruise we were coming up the Hudson River and I said to Jay, 'Let's stay in New York and write songs.' Eight years later it paid off."
After graduation, Evans worked as an accountant. Evans and Livingston wrote songs in their spare time. The 1940s to the 1960s began their heyday. Their first hit, G'Bye Now, came in 1941. They were awarded a contract with the Paramount music department in 1945 and wrote the title song to the film, To Each His Own, which has sold more than a million copies of sheet music. Some of their most popular songs had rather dubious beginnings: The Oscar-winning Mona Lisa, for instance, started out as 'Prima Donna,' according to Evans. "That sounded so banal and uninteresting. Luckily, my wife was [familiar with] the art world. She said, 'Why don't you call it Mona Lisa instead? Make it a metaphor or allegory about a woman who is very mysterious to her lovers.'" Evans says it remains his favorite. "It's got a tinge of class to it." Silver Bells, a Christmas carol which by now has sold 150 million copies, started out as the questionable 'Tinkle Bells.' Said Evans, "We never thought that 'tinkle' had a double meaning until Jay went home and his [first] wife said, 'Are you out of your mind? Do you know what the word tinkle is?'"
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www.emericana.com
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Dan Kimpel, one of the media's foremost authorities on pop music and songwriters, contributes to a variety of print and electronic mediums, including LA's Music Connection. 14 million monthly passengers hear Kimpel's interviews with songwriters and recording artists on United Airlines flights. Author of the best-selling book, Networking in the Music Business, Dan has taught a course based on this text at Sir Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts since 1998 Dan has produced concerts and events with Sheryl Crow, Sting, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Quincy Jones, Tom Petty, Burt Bacharach, Kenneth Babyface Edmonds, Glen Ballard and Diane Warren.
www.dankimpel.com
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