‘Moon’ River
Call Carly Simon a romantic. Her new album “Moonlight Serenade” (Columbia), is a collection of standards penned by Cole Porter, George & Ira Gershwin, Glenn Miller, Rodgers & Hart and other great songwriters.
Simon considers new interpretations of time-honored songs to be a vital aspect of her career. She has recorded three other standards albums — 1981’s “Torch” (Warner Bros.), 1990’s “My Romance” (Arista) and 1997’s “Film Noir” (Arista).
“I’ve always been a singer as well as a singer/songwriter, so in a way I wear two hats,” Simon says. “An awful lot of singers have plied their trade in this milieu. I think that there’s a hip value to it in that the younger generation thinks it’s hip to like these songs. The older generation will have a nostalgic feel about them.”
“Moonlight Serenade” — her first album for Columbia — features big band-style renditions of such songs as “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “I Only Have Eyes (For You)” and “In the Still of the Night.” The recording reunited her with producer Richard Perry, who helped Simon craft such 1970s pop hits as “You’re So Vain.”
“He and I picked all of the songs specifically for what would be well-adapted to the girl as the singer in the band as opposed to the lead who is backed up by the orchestra,” Simon says. “I had to restrain myself when I wanted to do rock’n’roll licks and be very careful not to take attention away from the horn players. It was refreshing to me to sing them kind of straight.”
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