It's All in the Game

Infobox Single
Name = It's All in the Game


Artist = Tommy Edwards
from Album =
B-side = "Please Love Me Forever"
Released = 1958
Format =
Recorded =
Genre =
Length = 2:36
Label = MGM
Writer = Carl Sigman, Charles Dawes
Producer =
Certification =
Chart position =

#1 (U.S. Pop, UK)

Last single =
This single = "It's All in the Game"
(1958)
Next single = "Love Is All We Need"
(1958)Infobox Song
Name = It's All in the Game


Caption =
Type =
Artist = Van Morrison
alt Artist =
Album = Into the Music
Published =
Released = August 1979
track_no =
Recorded = Spring 1979
Genre = Celtic
Folk rock
Pop rock
Length = 4:39
Writer = Carl Sigman, Charles Dawes
Composer =
Label = Warner Bros. Records
Producer = Van Morrison
Chart position =
Tracks =
#"Bright Side of the Road"
#"Full Force Gale"
#"Stepping Out Queen"
#"Troubadours"
#"Rolling Hills"
#"You Make Me Feel So Free"
#"Angeliou"
#"And the Healing Has Begun"
#"It's All in the Game" (Dawes/Sigman)
#"You Know What They're Writing About"
"It's All in the Game" was a 1958 hit for Tommy Edwards. Carl Sigman composed the lyrics in 1951 to a wordless 1911 composition entitled "Melody in A Major," written by Charles Dawes, later Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge. It is the only #1 pop single to have been cowritten by a U.S. Vice President.

The song has become a pop standard, with cover versions by dozens of artists, some of which have been minor hit singles.

Edward's song peaked at #38 on "Billboard's All Time Top 100." [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-titles-40.shtml]

Melody in A Major

Dawes, a Chicago bank president and amateur pianist and flautist, composed the tune in 1911 [Publication date is 1912.] in a single sitting at his lakeshore home in Evanston. He played it for a friend, the violinist Francis MacMillan, who took Dawes's sheet music to a publisher. Dawes, known for his federal appointments and a Senate candidacy, was surprised to find a portrait of himself in a State Street shop window with copies of the tune for sale. Dawes quipped, "I know that I will be the target of my punster friends. They will say that if all the notes in my bank are as bad as my musical ones, they are not worth the paper they were written on."

The tune, often dubbed "Dawes's Melody", followed him into politics, and he grew to detest hearing it wherever he appeared. [cite news
url=http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.18020/article_detail.asp
author=Bill Kauffman
title=The Melodious Veep
date=June 2004
publisher=The American Enterprise
accessdate=2006-08-10] It was a favorite of violinist Fritz Kreisler, who used it as his closing number, and in the 1940s it was picked up by musicians such as Tommy Dorsey.cite news
url=http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859474,00.html
title=Veep's Waltz
date=December 17, 1951
publisher=TIME Magazine
accessdate=2006-08-21]

It's All in the Game

In summer 1951, the songwriter Carl Sigman had an idea for a song, and Dawes's "Melody" struck him as for his sentimental lyrics. Dawes had died in April of that year. It was recorded that year by Dinah Shore, Sammy Kaye, Carmen Cavallaro and Edwards. The Edwards version had most success, reaching #18 on the Billboard Best Sellers In Stores survey..cite book
title=The Billboard Book of Number One Hits
author=Fred Bronson
publisher=Billboard Books
year=2003 (3rd ed.)] The range of the melody would have been "difficult to sing", so required rearrangement. [cite web
url=http://www.majorsongs.com/news07.htm
title=Carl Sigman's Legacy... (interview with his son)
publisher=Pianoforte Magazine
accessdate=2006-08-21] A jazz arrangement was recorded by Louis Armstrong (vocals) and arranger Gordon Jenkins, with "some of Armstrong's most honey-tinged singing". Jenkins would in 1956 produce a version with Nat King Cole along the same lines.cite news
url=http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0123,jzfriedwald,25328,22.html
title=The Old Songster
author=Will Friedwald
publisher=The Village Voice
date=June 6, 2001
accessdate=2006-08-21]

In 1958, Edwards had only one session left on his MGM contract. Stereo recording was becoming viable and it was decided to cut a stereo version of "Game" with a rock and roll arrangement. The single was a hit, reaching #1 for six weeks beginning September 29, 1958. In November, the song hit #1 in Britain. Its success encouraged other artists to create rock-tinged cover versions of pop hits. The single helped Edwards revive his career for another two years.

In 1999, the Charles Dawes version featured in the movie October Sky, based on the book "Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickam Jr. Hickam said it was his favorite song in high school and insisted it be used in the picture.

Recordings

"It's All in the Game" has been recorded by different artists. Notable versions include:

*Tommy Edwards topped the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart in 1958.
*Andy Williams recorded it for his 1959 album "Lonely Street".
*Robert Goulet released his version on his 1961 album "Always You".
*Cliff Richard had a number-two hit in the United Kingdom in 1963 and a number-25 hit on the Hot 100 in 1964.
*Also in 1964, The Lettermen included a version on their album "She Cried".
*Jackie DeShannon recorded a version for her 1968 album "What the World Needs Now Is Love".
*The Four Tops had a number-five hit in the United Kingdom and a number-24 Hot 100 hit with their version in 1970.
*Van Morrison included his version in the Side 2 song cycle from his 1979 album "Into the Music". Morrison's cover of the song was voted #813 on Dave Marsh's list of 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, B-side to the Morrison song Cleaning Windows. It became a concert favorite with Morrison's fans over the years. His 2006 Limited edition album, "Live at Austin City Limits Festival", the 1994 double live album "A Night in San Francisco" and the 1984 live album "Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast" all included this song. [ [http://www.control.lth.se/~anton/personal/music/1001_number.html The 1001 Greatest Singles] ]
*Neil Sedaka recorded a version for his 1984 album "Come See About Me".
*Keith Jarrett performed a solo jazz piano arrangement of it in 2001 at the State Opera House in Munich, later released on his 2004 live album "The Out-of-Towners".
*Barry Manilow covered the song for his 2006 album "The Greatest Songs of the Fifties"

Notes