Montez-Mendes CONNECTION?

[Aqua do Brasil]

dear Mendes fans,

Through the years i wondering about the song;
THE MORE I SEE YOU by CHRIS MONTEZ.

The piano in the song reminds me of Sergio Mendes in a way or
was it Pete Jolly? I wondering and i'm curious about it.

Maybe Sergio was helpful in a way with some studio support for
the young A&M label at the time, who knows?

Maybe someone in the FORUM can help me too find out.

all the best
Aqua do Brasil

 

[Mr Bill]

The way A&M shared musicians across projects in those early days, I'd say anything is possible. It is clear on songs like "Because Of You" that members of the TJB were playing. But on "The More I See You" I would place better odds on it being Jolly rather than Mendes. It may even be Lou Pagani or frequent A&M session keyboardist Leon Russell...

--Mr Bill

 

[Brasil_Nut]

I would assume it's Pete Jolly. Doesn't sound like Mendes to me -- not his style. Sergio has a distinctive touch. I listened to "The More I See You," but don't hear his style at all. Maybe it's just me, but I'm with Mr. Bill. It could be anyone (probably Jolly, Lou or Russell), but I don't think it's Sergio.

Jon

BTW: I think "The More I See You" would have been a great song for Brasil '66!!

 

[walterphil]

i have a friend named tom
his dad was an amateur songwriter/musician
who said he wrote the tune for
"the more i see you."
the guy that wrote the lyrics stole it
and never gave tom's dad any credit.

i'll have to ask tom about this again
but i can't see why he'd lie
about such a (semi) obscure song.

so the song always makes me a little sad

walt

 

[JMK]

I think your friend's father is either pulling your leg or slightly deluded. "The More I See You" is one of the great classics of American songwriting with many, many hit versions from the time it was written in the 1940s by one of the all-time great songwriting teams, Harry Warren and Mack Gordon. There's simply no way this song was plagiarized. Harry Warren is an equal of Gershwin, Rodgers, etc., with more hits than you shake a stick at.

 

[Brasil_Nut]

Believe me, Walt...Jeff knows of what he speaks. He's a professional musician. I agree with him. Your friend's father must be pulling his leg. Glenn Miller scored the first Gold Record with Warren's rendition of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" in the early '40s. As a matter of fact, Jeff is correct -- Warren is right up there with Gershwin and others.

One of my favorite versions of a Warren tune is "Lullaby Of Broadway" as performed by Doris Day. As for his musical scores and hits, the list is pretty much endless. As a sideline, he also wrote "The Christmas Song". Quite an accomplished musician, really. Sadly, he passed away in 1981 following a long and successful career.

Jon

 

[JMK]

While Harry did write a song called "The Christmas Song," he didn't write the one you're probably thinking of--"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire." That one belongs to the inimitable Mel Torme and Robert Wells. And finally we're back to a Sergio connection!

 

[Brasil_Nut]

I'm well aware that Mel Torme wrote "The Christmas Song". He was a regular Guest of mine at Walt Disney World, along with Jack Jones. They would stay in Condos at the Disney Institute. Their stories about Garland, Sinatra, Sammy Davis and many others would keep us enthralled for hours. Harry wrote a different "Christmas Song", of which I am also aware.

Jon

 

[JMK]

Here's a little trivia question for you--can you name the interesting connection between Harry Warren and Burt Bacharach? (Hint--there's a famous, very funny Bette Midler quote about the Bacharach side of this equation).

I'll post my answer later if anyone's interested.

 

[walterphil]

hey guys
i sent my original posting
along with your 2 replies
to my buddy Tom.
here's what he wrote:

Hi Walty,

I'm surprised you remember "The More I see You". I never really cared
for the song but, the story goes as such: My father claimed that he
submitted sheet music he wrote to a contest. By sending the music to the contest you automatically surrender right to anything you send. It was part of the contract. Anyway, the verse of his song went exactly like the verse of The More I See You. The chorus was replaced by something someone else wrote.
Also, I should mention, my father would have been ninety two if he
were still alive. I think it's very possible he did send his song and it got pilfered. He was a contemporary to that generation, but never famous. He had sent several songs to publishers in the 1930s to '50s. Several of his songs were published but had never been recorded by anyone famous. I still have some of his printed sheet music from 1949. One song was called "I miss you So". The cover is a hoot. It's 3 guys with accordians and buddy holly
glasses. I should frame one of those. The song that was stolen was
way before anything else of his was published. After that disaster with the More I See You, my father never entered anything into a contest again and always read the contract the published gave him. My father never dwelled on it. He always said he used to throw away better songs than that.

Your friend seemed a little condescending though. As if only a few famous people could be song writers. My father was a superb musican with excellent writing ability.He played trumpet for a big band during the depression and later learned piano. My uncle played trumpet and drums. I could be a little prejudiced, but, I 've always felt my father's style was similar to some of Gershwin's better tunes.

There's no proof of that song being my father's, but I truley believe
it's possible. I don't even consider The More I See You to be so wonderful that it should have been that successful. My father wrote much better tunes, especially as he matured.

Well... that's the scoop on that one. Everyone's entitled to their
opinion. I would love to find out what really happened.
Unfortunately, everyone in my dad's band and all his siblings who would have remembered, are long gone.

Tom

 

[Mr Bill]

While I never openly criticized the post or speculated on whether it was true, I must remind those that did that show business is a field where ideas are stolen like corporate secrets. It is entirely possible that some publishing company had a contest and handed over two potentially winning songs to two of their staff writers who merged them into their own composition under thier own name.

Nowadays production companies and publishers won't even open unsolicited manuscripts for fear of plaigarism lawsuits. Can you say Geoirge Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"??? Or ET vs Lokey of Maldemar? or Harlan Ellison vs James Cameron's Terminator. The estate of A.E. van Vogt vs ALIEN? Yes, there are plenty of cases to allow for the possibility!

--Mr Bill
who doesn't claim to have been ripped off but has seen all of his USC student films materialize on the big screen in one form or another...

 

[JMK]

I certainly did not criticize nor mean to be condescending--I simply stated the facts as I saw them. Harry Warren is/was in a class by himself and having known many people who worked with him over the decades, I personally find it impossible to believe he would have knowingly plagiarized or, indeed, ever participated in any publisher's attempt to do so (and, BTW, Harry had his own publishing company, much like many of the great songwriters of that era, so that's another twist).

I never said that only a few great people could be songwriters--what I said was that Harry was one of the great American songwriters, in a class with Gershwin and Rodgers. The two statements are obviously quite different. I would say that many people can be songwriters, but only a few are truly great, and Harry was definitely one of those. Go to HarryWarren.com and peruse the literally hundreds of standards this genius wrote and you'll get some idea of why I find it hard to believe.

And I should say I have experienced theft myself--an instrumental of mine released on a CD was sampled and used on the soundtrack of an independent Italian film, which I didn't find out about until years afterward. There was little, if anything, my attorneys told me I could do about it, since the film had never been picked up by a major distributor.

 

[Brasil_Nut]

And I should say I have experienced theft myself--an instrumental of mine released on a CD was sampled and used on the soundtrack of an independent Italian film, which I didn't find out about until years afterward. There was little, if anything, my attorneys told me I could do about it, since the film had never been picked up by a major distributor.

Jeff -- that's awful! And Bill, your films being used on the big screen? It's obvious that plagiarism is hard at work in the entertainment industry. What a shame. Indeed, I do remember the George Harrison "My Sweet Lord" debacle -- what a mess! However, I'm still in agreement with Jeff in regard to Harry Warren. My Father was a tremendous fan of Harry, and had nothing but the utmost respect for his magical ability. I also didn't mean to criticize, although, like Jeff, I strongly doubt that Harry Warren would have need to purposely plagiarize -- his body of work is beyond compare.

Jon