Richard Rogers Lorenz Hart

A Ship Without A Sail

Ella Fitzgerald

Always have had a hard time with Richard Rogers later work, after he stopped working with Lorenz Hart. Even before I found out how badly he treated his best lyricist. But there's no denying the quality of some of the songs they produced together. A Ship Without A Sail is just heartbreaking, considering what Hart went through as a gay man back then. It's pretty obvious he was speaking for himself, you wonder how Rogers saw it.

No one sings it better than Ella Fitzgerald. I doubt anyone else could carry that orchestration, keeping it out of the shoals of gushiness.

And then there's

This Can't Be Love

Mel Torme

[Anthony McCarthy]