Week Four: "Taking a Chance on Love"
Week Four Blog Post
Song Analysis: "Taking a Chance on Love"
Composed by Benny Goodman, performed by Helen Forrest
This weeks song analysis was on the song "Taking a Chance on Love" composed by Benny Goodman and performed by Helen Forrest. This song has become a favorite among many in the jazz community and is considered a standard by quite a significant number. This song is all about the singer is trying to get back out into the life of love, and how she just has to take a chance on it. She makes a lot of analogies about slipping and falling into love after her heart has been healed from the trauma of her last relationship. She sings this with a loving heart and open emotion brought about by falling in love after a long time of being single after a really bad heart break. She's finally accepting that she's healed and ready to fall back in love with somebody. One verse states, "I thought that cards were a frame-up, I never would try. Now I'm taking that game up and the ace of hearts is high. Things are mending now, I see a rainbow blending now. We'll have a happy ending now, takin' a chance on love." Which is a beautiful way of explaining that she thought she was done with love, but now she's healing and she can see the happiness of falling back into it.
This song is such a good one! I really liked how you put into words the 'background story' of the woman singing the song and really shedding light to her feelings about love. I think that the lyrics of this song also do an amazing job at conveying the feelings of girl who is a little skeptical and reluctant about love but is deciding to take a chance.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy how the emphasis of the song isn't the lyrics. The combination of all the instruments in the band and how they flow is definitely something that I can absolutely see as being a standard bearer for the genre. If there was a song to define jazz this could very well be used as an example with the full jazz band with all the brass and bass in the background. As I stated at the start however I would say the emphasis is not the lyrics but the accompaniment to the lyrics. With the little amount of lyrics there are along with so much of the song being just instrumental however I do very much enjoy your lyric analysis.
ReplyDeleteHi Seth! I really enjoyed your analysis of this song. I loved how you took the time to learn the backstory of the lyrics as well. You really got in depth I can tell how much you enjoyed it learning about it. I agree that she sings with an open heart as well, which makes it super vulnerable. Good job!
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