Tony Bennett has always been overshadowed by Sinatra throughout his career. A typical case of a persona overshadowing the skills of a man who lived his life mostly in a shadow of a far more personable icon. The thing is Tony had a much better voice than ole blue eyes and many times he sang such deeper-heartfelt ballads. This song in particular always strikes a chord in my heart and I believe it always will, maybe enough so that when, like Tony, I have a daughter I might name her Joanna in hopes she will cause such dread and delight in the heart of a young man of her age.
Written by Robert Wells and Jack Segal, covered by Sinatra and Desmond as well as our man here it alludes back to a time when there was so very much more romance in the world. Possibly clouded by the nostalgia of old times, more likely a product of perfect arrangement and lyrics, "When Joanna Loved Me" is a song every person can feel if they possess the prerequisite knowledge and love of life. I am sure there are those that know this feeling but don't understand it in the way Tony does, the way I do.
That particular way is sitting on a rainy fall day in the battery watching the ships float in on the Hudson in an old Burberry and tweed pants, an umbrella...no, without a woman there is no need for a man to have one. After a few hours of introspection he'll take the R back uptown to the apartment they used to share and look out the window dreaming of Paris in the spring and that ride down to south and over to the Italian coast. How she looked in the passenger seat of the Alfa with the Hermes scarf knotted around her dirty blond hair, black horn-rimmed oval sunglasses in a white dress, blue sash cinched around her waist. The way she looked at him on the cobblestone street in the Med sun, how white her teeth looked surrounded by beet red lips, her tan legs crossed over each other in navy blue subtle heels. And how later on pure white sheets she laughed and giggled, spilling the silver tray on the floor, the espresso splashing on the Chesterfield sitting on stone carpet in the corner.
Then again when she walked out of the door on that spring day and somehow leaves turned brown and fell off of the branches...
A beautiful song and only one that can be truly known to those who have fallen and fallen off time and time again, in the dead of winter or the blossom of spring. The world can shut down around you when the right person comes along, often times it is frightening to see the world again without those rose colored glasses. There's a Joanna walking to streets for everyone out there, I only wish I knew the one whom this song is directed towards. If I did maybe sitting in the battery thinking of her would not be such a bad option.
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