Weekend Playlist: Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

When it comes to classic show tunes it's hard to beat George and Ira Gershwin. Let's Call the Whole Thing Off was originally introduced in the 1937 film Shall We Dance starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Noted for the different pronunciations of different words throughout the song, it was meant to highlight class differences between the two singers rather than just a disagreement over how to say "tomato". Like many songs in the Great American Songbook, there are numerous versions of this song. This particular version is my personal favorite as you can hear in the singing how much Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong obviously enjoyed working together on this song.

Weekend Playlist: I've Got the World on a String

Here's another song from the Great American Songbook that has been recorded multiple times by a variety of different artists. When I first heard this version of the song I heard the Frank Sinatra version. I've also heard Michael Buble and others provide their own take on the song. But it's hard to do much better than Ella Fitzgerald in the video below. Enjoy!

Weekend Playlist - Isn't This a Lovely Day

I've mentioned it before but it's worth repeating: one of the most ingenious pairings in music history has to be that of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Never before had two singers with such different styles been paired together with such tremendous success.

It's a Lovely Day is not necessarily their best known duet. But thanks in part to wonderful writing by Irving Berlin (what else would you expect?) this is quite a gem of a song. This is just another example of what a wonderful pair Fitzgerald and Armstrong made. Enjoy.

Weekend Playlist: The Nearness of You

One of the most inspired musical pairings had to be Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Although they only recorded three albums together each one was a thing of beauty. Perhaps no better song captures the contrast in their voices that this beautiful ballad The Nearness of You. This has to be one of the most romantic songs I have ever heard. Enjoy.

Friday Tweet Recap

During the week I'm usually tweeting out articles via Twitter so here are a few things that you might have missed that caught my attention this week:

Seven marks of false teachers. This is especially good advice if you're either looking for a church or evaluating what pastors to listen to .

I am really bad at remembering someone's name so this article provided some pretty helpful tips.

I didn't realize John Piper had retired from the pulpit earlier this spring. He's spending a year in Knoxville which is a lovely city not far from where I live. The most striking thing he said in this article is that he intentionally left Minneapolis behind to give his successor at Bethlehem Baptist Church some breathing room.

It was Father's Day last Sunday and Joel Miller has some thoughts on what every child needs to hear from their dad.

My daughter pointed this one out to me. I think it has to do with the fact she wants to major in theatre. 10 Ways Being a Theatre Major Prepared Me For Success.

John Stonestreet has some thoughts about what to say to our daughters about the morning after pill.

It's a little bit of a shock but longtime Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play announcer Vin Scully almost signed with the New York Yankees. And demonstrating that he is a true Renaissance man, he took to Twitter earlier this week during the Dodgers-Yankees series. It was as beautiful as you could have imagined.

More baseball: Grantland's Jonah Keri examines the flawed importance of the closer. I have always wondered whether too much emphasis is placed on the 9th inning. Now I'm sure of it. This also made me think of this piece from Joe Posnanski.

This article got me thinking: 9 Qualities of Truly Confident People. It's an interesting read. On a related note, the four questions great leaders ask.

Some of these vintage rules for conversation (from 1875!) are really remarkable. It would be interesting to see how different our conversations would be if we applied these rules.

Life Magazine has been posting photos from their vast library online. The latest installment is unpublished color photos of the ruins of Normandy following D-Day. These pictures are amazing.

Also from the Life Magazine archives, color portraits from the 1950s of Ella Fitzgerald and other jazz legends.

Here's a list of 8 things you shouldn't do every day. I confess that I am guilty of quite of few of these mistakes.

Some tips on how to read a book. I will admit I hadn't thought about some of these strategies before and they look like they are worth a try. This article also has some tips on how to read more books including some interesting ways to keep track of books on your reading list.

That's it. Have a great weekend.