Something's Coming - Vic Damone

Something's Coming - Vic Damone

2:28

On the Street Where You Live, 1964

Written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim

This song is from West Side Story.  I haven't heard the original, so I can't compare it.  I like Damone's suave baritone, which makes the song sound confident and brisk rather than uneasily hopeful, as the lyrics might suggest.  I like the sprightly tempo and how it quickens and slows between verses.  It's got a classy, warm vibe, a showcase big band song.  It's akin to Sinatra's "Luck Be a Lady," in that the narrator's desperate manufactured optimism ("I got a feeling there′s a miracle due / Gonna come true, coming to me") seems to be a thin veneer under which lies high anxiety.

On the Street Where You Live - Vic Damone

On the Street Where You Live - Vic Damone

2:39

single, 1956

Written by Frederick Loewe & Alan Jay Lerner

Listen for the silent E!

Although this song appeared on a 1964 album of the same name, it was actually released as a single eight years earlier, the same year it was written for the musical "My Fair Lady."  Songwriting legends Loewe and Lerner pepper this song with all the show tune hallmarks and sly multi-word rhymes that Cole Porter was probably the best at: "Are there lilac trees in the heart of town? / Can you hear a lark in any other part of town?"  I love that line.  Pretty much every big band or traditional popular singer took a turn recording this song, but Damone's sweeping, note-bending baritone gives his version some gravitas.