Nuages vs You're My Greatest Love

Elliot · December 2009

We know Django wouldn't mind re-working a tune and using the French for the title - I'm not sure how many people even know who Jackie Gleason was at this point, but in between a 6 pack a day habit he was Ralph Cramden from The Honeymooner's series. He also was big into Lounge Music.

Anyway, Gleasons's signature tune above was the theme song to The Honeymooner's and boy does it sound a LOT like Nuages. They must have been both written within a few years of each other, but here it seems like Nuages came first...

Has anyone else noticed how similar they are? I wonder if there isn't an untold story here....

Jack · December 2009

Is this the tune you mean?

I don't really hear a connection--maybe a longer version makes it more obvious?

best,
Jack

Soref · December 2009

I haven't gotten a chance to listen to the youtube clip, stuck at work right now...
I haven't heard the Gleason tune myself, but I have had a number of friends and musicians make that connection with Nuages. A quick search for the Gleason tune's copyright shows this information:

The Honeymooners segment theme: "You're My Greatest Love"
Composer: music by Jackie Gleason (ASCAP), with
[professional name of Herman John Gleason, Jr.]
lyric added by Bill Templeton (ASCAP)
Original Publisher: Songsmiths, Inc. (ASCAP)
1997 Publisher: Songsmiths Company (ASCAP)
Copyright Date: Oct. 24, 1955; EP 93 814.
Renewal Date: Jan. 11, 1983; RE-166-357.

That puts the copyright date well after Nuages was composed. Although I suppose Gleason might have written his tune 15 years before it was published. I think you're right Elliot that 'Nuages' predates 'You're My Greatest Love'. I wish I had more to contribute but I'm not enough of a Gleason scholar to know if he advertantly, or inadvertantly copped, anything from Django...

Best,
Jack

Elliot · December 2009

I'm pretty sure that clip was the end of the song, and didn't flesh out the whole melody.

Thanks, Jack I was curious if I wasn't the only one who heard a similarity.

scot · December 2009

The tune that sounds like Nuages isn't the theme from the Honeymooners - that's the wrong Jackie Gleason show. The tune in question here is called "Melancholy Serenade" and was the intro music for Jackie Gleason's variety show in the 60s. It was written by by the Great One himself (a talented piano player and composer who could not read music) and it does bear a passing resemblance to "Nuages" but is also clearly not the same tune. The show started out with a camera mounted low on a speedboat speeding across a glassy Biscayne Bay towards Miami Beach. Then the theme starts, and it does sound a bit like a "swinging bachelor" version of Nuages. It was a great show, too. I'm certain that there are sample to hear on amazon, there is plenty of interest in that kind of music - those swingin' rat pack 60s!

Jack · December 2009

Here it is--great show, by the way!

Tele295 · December 2009

Not Gypsy Jazz, but guitarist Danny Gatton used to do a great version of Melancholy Serenade. There is a studio recording on his CD "Unfinished Business" and a live version on his CD "Funhouse" (although it's mistakenly titled Harlem Nocturne on the CD case).