Here's to a glorious 2022: Dream

How could 2022 be any worse than 2021? Perhaps the best news of 2021 came right at the end, with the CDC and other “experts” backing off from the ridiculous, grossly incompetent, and Mengele-like COVID policy. But now, let’s get a bit wistful, as I re-publish a piece from 2010 on that wonderful Johnny Mercer song, “Dream.”

“Dream,” with music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, has been covered by dozens of artists. The song was introduced in 1945 by the Pied Pipers, and hit number 1. Not long after, Frank Sinatra released a version. Other well-known covers were done by Roy Orbison, Ella Fitzgerald, The Skylarks, and Michael Bublé.

The first time I heard the song, I was probably five years old, and it was on someone’s AM radio—peppered with plenty of static, no doubt. It was to become one of my all time favorites.

With the advent of easy music downloads, a hobby of mine has been to listen to many versions of a particular piece, evaluate them, and save only the best. Eventually, I would go through this exercise with “Dream.”

Without question, the best performance of this song comes from Susannah McCorkle’s 1986 album called—appropriately enough—”Dream.” Backed by a small group featuring New York heavyweights Ben Aronov (piano) and Frank Wess (tenor sax), Susannah slows it down a bit, and includes the seldom heard verse.

Get in touch with that sundown fellow
As he tiptoes across the sand
He’s got a million kinds of stardust
Pick your fav’rite brand, and…

Now for the chorus, which is even slower, giving plenty of space for tasty piano and sax fills.

Dream, when you’re feeling blue
Dream, that’s the thing to do
Just watch the smoke rings rise in the air
You’ll find your share of memories there

So dream when the day is through
Dream, and they might come true
Things never are as bad as they seem
So dream, dream, dream

Now comes a dreamy sax solo by Wess, setting up Susannah’s reprise

So dream when the day is through
Dream, and they might come true
Things never are as bad as they seem
So dream, dream, dream

Her final “…and they might come true” is wistful as is her “Things never are as bad as they seem.” Perhaps she was trying to convince herself.

Never a big star, McCorkle was doing well enough in 1986, but suffered from depression, and was to finally lose her record deal and her spot at the Oak Room Supper Club. She was apparently off her meds when she leaped to her death from her 16th floor apartment on May 19, 2001. As it happens, her father and an aunt had also committed suicide.

Does suffering make for better art? Not always, but it’s for sure that sincerity does, and even if Susannah did not completely believe the lyrics, she really wanted to.

Give her version a spin some time.

Lyrics © WB Music