Ravinia 2026 Issue 2

song on October and for his third album, e Times ey Are a-Changin’ . Columbia Stu- dios released the title song as a single in Britain, where it peaked at on the UK Singles Chart. ere was no comparable single release in the U.S., but the album eventually reached on the Billboard and in the UK on the O - cial Albums Chart. e album has been certi ed gold in the USA (Recording Industry Associa- tion of America) and UK (British Phonographic Industry) for , and , copies sold, respectively. Sam Cooke ( - ), born in Clarksdale, MS, and raised in Chicago’s vibrant Bronzeville neighborhood, grew up in a religiously devout, musically gi ed family whose children sang in church and eventually formed the gospel group, the Singing Children. e background set Cooke on a path that led him from e High- way Q.C.’s to national acclaim as lead singer of the Soul Stirrers. His shi into popular music a er the runaway success of “You Send Me” in —marked symbolically by adding an “e” to his name—launched one of the most in uential crossover careers in American music that pro- duced more than Top hits and earned him the title “King of Soul.” Cooke believed great songwriting came from close observation of the world. In the turmoil of —shaken by Presi- dent John F. Kennedy’s assassination, racial vio- lence, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act— he concentrated both sorrow and hope into “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Cooke recording this sweeping musical meditation, inspired partly by Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” just months before his death. Released posthumously, the song became an enduring anthem of hope and inspiration, invoked memorably by Barack Obama on election night in and honored in Cooke’s hometown with the naming of “Sam Cooke Way,” a testament to the lasting cultural and civic impact of his music. Paul Simon (b. ) rose to fame with Art Garfunkel in the s, creating enduring hits such as “ e Sound of Silence,” “Bridge over Troubled Water,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Scarbor- ough Fair,” and “Homeward Bound.” A er the duo split, Simon built a successful solo career, incorporating gospel, reggae, soul, and South African styles into a string of acclaimed albums, including Paul Simon ( ), Still Crazy a er All ese Years ( ), and Graceland ( ). His has continued recording and touring into the st century; notable releases include So Beautiful or So What ( ), Into the Light ( ), and Sev- en Psalms ( ). His major honors include Grammy Awards, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice (Simon & Garfunkel and as a solo artist), Kennedy Center Honors ( ), and the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song ( rst recipient, ). e Library of Congress added the Graceland and e Sound of Silence albums to the National Recording Registry of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically signi cant” recordings in and . Simon spent ve months in the stu- dio recording his third solo album, ere Goes Rhymin’ Simon , released by Columbia Records on May , . e album produced six sin- gles, including “Kodachrome,” “Loves Me like a Rock,” and “American Tune.” “American Tune” is a re ective meditation on the American expe- rience in the early- s, shadowed by the coun- try’s involvement in the VietnamWar, the ongo- ing struggles of the civil rights movement, and broad political distrust. Written a er Richard Nixon’s presidential election, “American Tune” captures a national mood of disillusion- ment, confusion, weariness, and uncertainty over life in America, suggesting the country has lost its way and “can’t be forever blessed.” e repeated phrase “It’s alright,” meant to provide reassurance, also conveys a faint undercurrent of doubt. Simon bases much of his melody on the Passion Chorale (“O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” or “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”), a th-century hymn built on a melody by Hans Leo Hassler and text by Johann Crüger. Its in- clusion is metaphorical: the choral evokes Je- sus’s profound su ering and humiliation on the cross, yet it also o ers consolation, hope, and the promise of life. e Hollywood lm giant Metro-Gold- win-Meyer, acting primarily on the recom- mendation of associate producer Arthur Freed, contracted Harold Arlen ( - ) and Yip Harburg ( - ) to write the score for their lm adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s fantastical series of Wizard of Oz books ( - ). e production timeline allowed only two months to create the soundtrack, an impossibly short period even for the experienced songwriting team. Arlen and Harburg started by writing the “lemon drop” songs, those memorable, childlike tunes such as “Ding-Dong! e WickedWitch Is Dead” and “We’re O to See the Wizard.” Arlen soon felt the need to introduce a more serious ballad. Inspiration came literally as Harold and his wife Anya drove down Sunset Boulevard on their way to a movie at Grauman’s Chinese eater. Pulling jotting paper from his pocket, Harold wrote down a melodic opening. e rest of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” fell into place the next day. Before releasing its -mil- lion picture, MGM executives attempted several times to remove “Over the Rainbow” from the lm. ey objected—as had Yarburg on rst hearing the tune—to its sophisticated, di cult melodic line, which seemed inappropriately grand for a young girl from Kansas. Freed and Arlen objected vehemently each time, and the song remained. Fortunately so, for “Over the Rainbow” received the Academy Award for Best Song in , and it remained Judy Garland’s theme song for the remainder of her career. Ac- colades have continued to collect as this “picture song” was named Number One Song of the th Century ( ) and the Number One Song in the American Film Institute’s Years . . . TED SPERLING bio RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 101