I Will Wait For You

The Story Behind The Song

So, I have always loved this song. I mean, really loved this song. If you read my piece about Soundtracks, you will recall I have a thing for Italian and French composers. Michele LeGrand wrote this song for the movie The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg), which was released in 1964. It was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including best score and best song. This version of the song made its way to the record shops and airwaves in 1966 as Track 4 on the album Look to The Rainbow. The arrangement was by Gil Evans and Al Cohn.

I did not stumble upon this gem until I was in my 20s. The 80s was tough for me musically. As a child of 70s I was, candidly, shocked by what was going on with music. The 80s was the start of everything, everywhere, all at once musically and it was jarring for me. I should note, I have always been an “old soul” musically. So, in my 20s, I started going back and listening to music from the 40s, 50s and 60s as a kind of rebellion against the emergence of synth pop, punk, etc. That foray led me to all the great “vocal” music of bygone days. And in that musical sojourn, I found influences that still shape my musical preferences today. It’s when I found this gem. The arrangement is sublime and that voice, oh that voice. I was hooked. Became a huge Astrud Gilberto fan.

Fast forward a few decades, I start getting serious about music again. I start going to piano and voice lessons. Suddenly, I have to find things to play and sing, that I will actually practice. I brought this to my voice teacher, and of course, I fell in love with the song all over again. Long story short, she knew I was just starting to record some of my original songs and she said “you should do a cover of this song, it will be good for you.”

Enter the panic. Me? Cover this song? That is crazy! This song has been covered dozens of times! By giants like Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Connie Francis, Brenda Lee, Laura Fygi, etc. So I start listening to all these other covers. Most of them depart from the original Astrud version by pumping up the swing. Connie’s version was pretty much a straight cover, Brenda’s version mixed up the arrangement a little. So, still I am panicking. “I CANNOT COVER THIS!” Then, a little musical gremlin whispered in my ear, in the form of Chris Stapleton’s cover of Tennessee Whiskey. “That is the right kind of swing for I Will Wait for You,” I thought to myself. Feeling emboldened by my flash of arrangement insight, I grew more intrigued. I started singing the arrangement I was hearing to Todd Wright, my best producing bud and he said “that’s cool.” Then he proceeded to needle me for a while as we built up the track. Why the needling? 6/8 time signature. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some 6/8, but that’s the dancer in me. Side note, “that’s cool” is high praise from Todd.

The next bit of panic? I had only worked through the phrasing in 6/8 for the verse. Oops..what about the bridge. A little more noodling. Insert soulful electric guitar of Ethan Mentzer.

Is this my best vocal? No. We intentionally left in some of the rasp that was in my voice that day because we felt it suited the arrangement. My favorite part? The very end where Ethan pulls off a bit of guitar accompaniment to my vocal that I feel just wraps around it perfectly. I will let you be the judge of the final product.

This was my first foray into arranging. No, it wasn’t a huge departure but I came up with it all on my own, and I am still proud of that. I found a novel way to approach something I loved, which somehow made it OK to cover it.

Hope you enjoyed the story behind the song. I don’t do a lot of covers. Only of songs I truly love. This was the first. There are only two others so far, one released (Desperado) and one pending (More). The vast majority of the songwriting I do is actually sync inspired. Many of those I don’t sing on, at least not lead vocals. Ironically, those are my best work, but I am not sure they will ever see the light of day. Sync saved me as a songwriter. I am trying to figure out a way to share these one of these days. Substack is giving me ideas.

Stay tuned for more confessions and stories behind the songs. And thanks to

David Levine

for answering my question about what my next post should be about.

All the best,

Taz

Credits: Arrangement - Tamara Casey and Todd Wright, Music - Michele LeGrand, English Lyrics - Norman Gimbel, Electric Guitar - Ethan Mentzer, Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Bass andDrums - Todd Wright, Mix Ethan Mentzer, Cover Art - Daisy Tong.