New York's My Home - Sammy Davis Jr.

New York's My Home - Sammy Davis Jr.

3:13

single, 1956

Written by Gordon Jenkins, 1946

Ray Charles did a celebrated version of this song, but as of this post, it's not available on Spotify.  In the song, the narrator puts down all the other places, imploring anyone who will listen that New York is the best place around.  St. Louis, he observes as an example, "has lots of shoes" (I learned today that St. Louis was once one of the greatest shoe manufacturers in the world), "But it hasn't got the opera in The Met / It hasn't got a famous string quartet."  Davis delivers most of the song in a hasty half-spoken patter as one might hear on a musical stage, with a chorus backing him for emphasis. 

Bye Bye Blackbird - Sammy Davis Jr.

Bye Bye Blackbird - Sammy Davis Jr.

2:49

single, 1962

Written by Ray Henderson and Mort Dixon, 1926

Davis singing this one starting out quiet, a capella, with snapping fingers as an accompaniment.  Then, the band kicks in, and it swings, until it slows down again and fades out.  Things are bad for the narrator: "No one here can love and understand me / Ah, what hard luck stories they all hand me."  But he's going to a place where somebody waits for him: "make my bed and light the light."  The tempo change reflects the sad situation and the hopeful future,; but will the narrator make it?  It's ambiguous.  Thus the final slowdown.