The NY song

A brief confession.  When I walk around New York lately, there is a tune that runs through my head, and I cannot get rid of it.  I first heard it in 1970, and it imprinted on me as surely as Underdog's Super Energy Pill, or Mary Tyler Moore's wardrobe:

It spoke to me.  It still speaks to me.

Neal Hefti wrote the theme for the movie, but of course the TV version is the one I heard first and sticks in my head now.  They did a couple of different ones for the show, both wonderful.





When I first came to New York in the the 1970s I frankly didn't see the place depicted in the show, the dreamy Wodehousian paradise inhabited by Felix and Oscar.

If there had been Maypole dancing I think I would have remembered it

When I returned in the early 1980s, driving a dodgy Chrysler with an Alaska drivers license in one hand and a can of Foster's in the other, the city seemed to have metastasized into a collective dystopian death wish (Exhibit A, Exhibit B).  When GTA brought out a game based on the New York of this era I had no interest because who wants to do that shit again. The ratings badge for the game is all you need to know about that moment in time:

Eventually the Blood and Gore opened a hedge fund in London, and the Intense Violence was moved to New Jersey.  The other activities continued, mainly for benefit of the tourists. 

But the magic promised in that tune from 50 years ago continued to elude me.

Yesterday, after a Nor'easter had blown through overnight, New York woke up to a cool morning with clear skies.  Fortified with cappuccino I walked out of my little hotel and strolled in the general direction of my appointment uptown.  A beautiful girl rushed by carrying her cello, and a couple of little kids ran by, their mother pursuing, on their way to school I imagine.  The wind pricked my face a little.  And that dumb Hefti tune started in my head, and for the first time in my life I was...happy in New York.  Not drunk, not partying, not chasing some girl or mad about having to meet some jerk.  Just happy, happy to be here.

• Here is the main theme from the 1968 movie (link)
• Billy May did a really nice spare version with harpsichord (link)
• Bob Merrill did a clean cover in 2002, with a couple of good solos from his sidemen (link)