Someone who'll watch over me...

April 27, 2017 8:00 PM

A Gershwin classic, Willie Nelson, Someone Who'll Watch Over me. A four minute, six second interlude from today's world. enjoy
posted by HuronBob (19 comments total)

Is there any better living interpreter of other people's songs? Even if we discount every classic he wrote himself, Willie puts everything into his covers and makes them his own. Over and over and over.
posted by downtohisturtles at 8:25 PM on April 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

429,157 views
posted by adept256 at 8:52 PM on April 27, 2017

What the hell... here's another classic. Ray Charles, Willie, Seven Spanish Angels
posted by HuronBob at 8:55 PM on April 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Willie has always seemingly had a fascination with the Great American Songbook...
posted by jim in austin at 9:06 PM on April 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

I never, and I mean never, get tired of Red Headed Stranger. It is perhaps the greatest country album ever recorded.
posted by petrilli at 9:15 PM on April 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

I especially like how this song sits right in the sweetest part of Willie's range, which, if anything, has gotten purer over the years.
posted by drlith at 9:28 PM on April 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

So pure, and perfect.
posted by Oyéah at 9:31 PM on April 27, 2017

I remember my grandparents dancing to Willie's Stardust album in their kitchen after dinner when I was a kid. Consequently, Willie Nelson singing standards is the sound of what being in love looks like to me.
posted by KingEdRa at 9:38 PM on April 27, 2017 [15 favorites]

I love Mickey Raphael's harp playing. No one can touch his vibrato.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:58 PM on April 27, 2017

Conversely, Pet Shop Boys did a great cover of Willie's song "Always On My Mind."
posted by infinitewindow at 11:07 PM on April 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Is there any better living interpreter of other people's songs?

living? probably not.
posted by philip-random at 11:48 PM on April 27, 2017

Well, there's Mavis Staples, but Willie Nelson is and always has been remarkable. This is a gorgeous cover. The song, when done well, makes me weep and I lost it the moment he sang that first line.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:35 AM on April 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

I knew exactly how this was going to sound before I played it, and it was still perfection.
posted by threetwentytwo at 1:16 AM on April 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

Is there any better living interpreter of other people's songs?

With Johnny Cash and Ray Charles gone, probably.
posted by octothorpe at 4:20 AM on April 28, 2017

Wonderful. Also look for the "Angel Eyes" album, in which he experiments with more contemporary jazz. It's out of print and not on Spotify. Willie has named it as work of his that he feels is neglected.
posted by texorama at 4:26 AM on April 28, 2017

Following up on KingEdRa's comment, here's Willie's take on Someone to Watch Over Me from Stardust -- recorded nearly 40 years ago. That whole album is gorgeous.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 7:58 AM on April 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

Ooh, that was lovely and immediately improved my day. Thanks for posting. And now as a bonus I'm going to listen to Willie for the rest of the day, so the rest of today is pretty much guaranteed to be good.
posted by aka burlap at 8:44 AM on April 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

Those of us who get our jollies by watching Willie be Willie will often return to his set on Piano Jazz. To the point where some of us, when we greet fellow travelers will lovingly do impressions of all three of the vocal musicians on the show...

M: So I see you are well versed in the American Songbook, will you do this song with me that I learned when the Earth was young?

W: Yup.

J: Ha! Yeah, let's do it boss!

W: one and two and... *makes clouds cry*
posted by 1f2frfbf at 6:34 PM on April 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

Beautiful. Can I tell my Willie Nelson joke?
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:29 PM on April 28, 2017 [1 favorite]