The Fall of Don's Basement: The Autumn Leaves

The lovely song "Autumn Leaves" was written in 1945 by Hungarian-French composer Joseph Kosma with lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert.  The title in French is"Les Feuilles Mortes. Any French speakers out there.

Right.

Dead Leaves.


Since 1945 Autumn Leaves has been covered, dozens of times. In 1955 Roger Williams, the pianist not the founder of Rhode Island, had a number 1 hit on the Billboard 100 Chart  (for 5 weeks--October 29-through November 29) with an instrumental version of the song. 

"Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" by The 
Four Aces preceded "Autumn Leaves" and "Sixteen Tons by Tennesee Ernie Ford followed it on the Chart.

Never covered "Autumn Leaves" 

Don's Basement fans will be interested to know that the song "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" was written as part of the score for 1955 film of the same name. The movie is set and partially filmed in Hong Kong. Don's upcoming book, Hong Kong Blues, is also set in Hong Kong but the film version will not star William Holden or Jennifer Jones because they are dead. 

Jennifer Jones in costume 

Also, the book is finished yet. 
Also, there have been no offers for the movie rights.

Here is a partial list of artists who have recorded "Autumn Leaves": Doris Day, Andy Williams (no known relation to either of the Roger Williams), Harry James, Jimmie Rodgers, Frank Sinatra, Ahmad Jamal, Vince Guaraldi, Bill Evans, The Coasters, Patti Page, The Everly Brothers, Al Hirt, Barney Kessel, Stephane Grappelli, Chet Baker, Grace Jones, Chick Correa, Keith Jarret, Rickie Lee Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Andrea Boccelli (The Dead Leaves version), Iggy Pop, Eric Clapton, Jermaine Jackson. Leslie Odom Jr, and recently Bob Dylan.

I am singling out two versions. The first and to my mind the coolest is performed by Nat King Cole. It is a Japanese version called Kareha (枯葉). 

I believe this youtube commenter gives a proper review to this video.

this is so fucking cool A french Cancion, translated to an english version, which was then translated into Japanese, and then sung by this guy in the 1950's holy fuck that's awesome.

The version that I chose for my video is from Cannonball Adderly's 1958 album, "Something Else." which features Miles Davis, Hank Jones (piano), Sam Jones (bass), and Art Blakey (drums). 

The track is just over 11 minutes. Well worth checking out. Click Here. 

My video is about two minutes and if you've read this far you might as well look at it.

The images were shot on my phone in the last few weeks.

Thanks for checking out Don's Basement.