Blog

Julia Greenberg & Dianna Dilworth 

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To celebrate the recent World Premiere of our documentary Dory Previn: On My Way to Where at SXSW FIlm & TV Festival, we’ve put together a Youtube Playlist. You can find it here. 

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Below is the list of songs in the Playlist with some notes from us on why each is an amazing piece of work. The first 13 songs are from her solo albums. The last seven are co-writes with Andre Previn and others from her time as a contract writer with MGM. Most of them are covers by people ranging from Scott Walker to Doris Day! One of them is from her wonderful and rare solo jazz album, The Leprechauns are Upon Me, put out by Verve in 1958 under her maiden name Dory Langdon.

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Enjoy and let us know what you think!

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Julia & Dianna

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1. Lady with the Braid-Dory at the pinnacle of her writing—with a delicious performance by members of the Wrecking Crew

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2. Lemon Haired Ladies-Dory unafraid to sing about being the older woman in a relationship (in this case, the story goes, with her record producer, Nik Venet)

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3. With My Daddy in the Attic-A chilling story from Dory’s childhood, as always presented with wit and clarity. Google it and you will find lots of opinions about who the song influenced!

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4. The Talkative Woman and the Two Star General-An antiwar song as only Dory Previn could write it

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5. Mr. Whisper-Dory’s early exploration of the voices she heard in her head, which she later embraced as part of her whole self

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6. Mythical Kings and Iguanas-A classic of seventies self-exploration. We all sometimes need to go “down, down, down where the iguanas play”

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7. Esther’s First Communion-Dory writing unflinchingly and hilariously about the hypocrisies of her catholic upbringing. It’s in your face and some of the language would not fly today.

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8. 20 Mile Zone-An influential one about Dory’s home-grown scream therapy. Try it in your car!

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9. Left Hand Lost-Dory relearned how to write with her left hand after the nuns broke her of the habit. She writes about that here.

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10. Don’t Put Him Down-Dory once said of this song, “It’s the story of a man who does not quite come through”

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11. New Enzyme Detergent Demise of Ali MacGraw-Best song title in history and a song that lives up to it.

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12. Did Jesus Have a Baby Sister?-Listen to the song and find out. And don’t miss the line that coins the world “Savior-ette”

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13. Children of Coincidence-From her last solo major label album, exploring coincidence and fate, preoccupations that lasted Dory’s lifetime

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14. Yes-Sung by Judy Garland, written by Dory and Andre. Swoon.

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15. Your Gonna Hear from Me-written by Dory and Andre for the weird and wonderful film Inside Daisy Clover-here sung by Scott Walker (a cult hero of the Dory kind)

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16. Just For Now-In our film you’ll hear demos of Dory and Andre pitching this gem for a musical version of “Goodbye Mr. Chips”. Their vision for the music for this movie never came to be, but it’s sung beautifully here by Eileen Farrell

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17. (Theme From) Valley of the Dolls-Where we get a taste of what would become the genius of Dory’s future lyrics and also get a unforgettable classic sung by Dionne Warwick

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18. Can’t We Be Enemies?-From the Leprechauns are Upon Me-Andre on keys, Kenny Burrell on guitar. Dig it.

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19. Come Saturday Morning-From Judy to Liza! This hit (which you may have heard in an elevator in the 80s) was written by Dory and Fred Karlin for the Sterile Cuckoo in which Liza wears an amazing pair of glasses.

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20. Control Yourself-Dory said “well look I wrote, Control yourself, Contain Yourself, in 1959 and 20 Mile Zone in 1969 in which I say, let it all out. If you want to look at those two songs, you will see the difference in what happened to women"