How Strange the Change

Let me be clear: Annie Lennox's iconic cover of Cole Porter's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" has nothing to answer for in terms of its effectiveness—it is searing, heart-rending, a faultless tearjerker, an ideal match of her bitter-honey voice to the song's piercing, valedictory sentiment. She makes a few departures from the Porter original, which is notable for how long it distends the opening lyric, "Ev'ry time we say goodbye" (over 3 measures), then slightly hurries "I die a little" (just one measure). Lennox quite reasonably and intuitively re-sorts that phrasing, spreading those lines more evenly over four measures, and does other similar rephrasing throughout.

That's not the departure that gets under my skin (ahem). It's a note she changes I wish she hadn't, and it's an important one. I thought it was Alec Wilder's book that tipped me to it, but I just checked, and no—I might have found this on my own? In any case, it's not like it's hiding, it's right there in the sheet music. The first time through the song's opening statement, it goes like this (this is the original Porter phrasing, and in a different key):

I direct your attention to that last accidental, the G-flat under "why," one of the saddest sounds in the literature (Wilder does at least point this out). But when this form returns after the bridge, watch what happens:

"Sing about it" indeed! The brightening to major at that moment is everything, not least because it's a fleeting splash of sunshine that will be snatched away in just a few lines, and even named musically: "But how strange the change from major to minor." That change is less a lot less strange if you don't let the lark sing in a major key first.

Lennox is hardly alone in this: From what I can tell it's a commonplace of pop renditions, from Carly Simon's to Simply Red's. I would guess that pop singers love that dark minor turn so much they are just drawn back to it; it's a sad song about loss, why not milk the sad chord? I'm reminded of the way Emma Stone sang "Mein Herr" in Cabaret on Broadway some years ago; she didn't seem to understand, or quite know how to sing clearly, the subtle minor-major switch on "mein."

I know Lennox can tell the difference, of course, so I was overjoyed to find this live rendition with Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter. Improvise and reharmonize though they might, jazz players and singers don't usually mess with the bones of a song. Accordingly she rises to the occasion, phrasing it all closer to the original, hitting the right note on "sing," and even adding some melisma in the bargain. A win for all, and vindication for Cole.