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| (Image from AllMusic) |
'Round Midnight
What's New, My Old Flame?
Little Girl Blue, It Never Entered My Mind
that I would be Falling In Love Again!
But You Took Advantage Of Me, Sophisticated Lady.
And the Lush Life is Mean To Me, because
You Go To My Head close to 'Round Midnight.
For, When Your Lover Has Gone, Goodbye is all you have!
Am I Blue?
I Get Along Without You Very Well, My Funny Valentine,
but, then, (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons.
Therefore, I'm A Fool To Want You!
You see, When I Fall In Love,
I want Someone To Watch Over Me.
And that is why I've Got A Crush On You!
Thus, When You Wish Upon A Star,
you are just so Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered.
But I Don't Stand A Ghost Of A Chance With You.
So, Can't We Be Friends?
You say, "Crazy He Calls Me...But Not For Me!"
You say, "Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)?"
Then you say, "Skylark, Straighten Up And Fly Right!"
What'll I Do?
Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry...
-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., Small All White in the Forest)
"I am no barrier to its sun; the light and I are as one!"
My Poetic Notes:
The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: This poem is an homage to Linda Ronstadt's compilation album of her first three albums of standard songs titled, "'Round Midnight." ("In music, a standard is a musical composition of established popularity, considered part of the 'standard repertoire' of one or several genres.") Ms. Ronstadt's first three albums of standard songs were titled, "What's New," "Lush Life" and "For Sentimental Reasons," respectively. And in this poem, I used each title of every song from the compilation album "'Round Midnight" as a part of the poem! (Please see the hyperlink below for the videos.)
By the way, there are two other poems that are inspired by Linda Ronstadt on my blogs. One poem is based upon her last album of standard songs titled, "Hummin' To Myself." The other poem is based upon all of the songs from Ms. Ronstadt's standard albums which include the words "fool, foolish or fooled" in the song—for April Fools' Day! Both poems are published on this blog. (Please see "Singer Linda Ronstadt-Inspired Poem" in labels for the poems.)
Just so you know, I revised this poem, as I often do with my writing! And I changed how this poem was written when I was editing it on my "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" and "Small All White in the Forest" blogs. So, I wanted to show you how this poem used to be written, before I revised it as above.
And it used to be written like this:
What's New, My Old Flame? Little Girl Blue, It Never Entered My Mind, I would be Falling In Love Again! But You Took Advantage Of Me, Sophisticated Lady. The Lush Life is Mean To Me, since You Go To My Head just 'Round Midnight. For, When Your Lover Has Gone, Goodbye is all you have! Am I Blue? I Get Along Without You Very Well, My Funny Valentine, but (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons. So, I'm A Fool To Want You! For, When I Fall In Love, I want Someone To Watch Over Me. And that is why I've Got A Crush On You! For, When You Wish Upon A Star, you are just so Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered. But I Don't Stand A Ghost Of A Chance With You. So, Can't We Be Friends? You say, "Crazy He Calls Me," But Not For Me! You say, "Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)?," But Not For Me! And then you say, "Skylark, Straighten Up And Fly Right!" What'll I Do? Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry...
Thus, I revised this poem to be written as it is above.
And this poem was also published on my "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" blog (please see the hyperlink below for the blog), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message that I am trying to convey through "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer."
This poem was written in Portland, Oregon.
-Paulee
https://paulwhitingwriting.blogspot.com
Watch "'Round Midnight by Linda Ronstadt with The Nelson Riddle Orchestra" on YouTube:
[Blogger's Note: It's October 29th, 2025, and I just checked the link above for the album 'Round Midnight to see of it was still working, but it's not! You see, I recently happened to notice that a playlist that I created on YouTube Music—in which I listed all of the 'Round Midnight album's tracks in reverse order—was no longer there either. So, I thought to check this link too, which is why I placed the strike through on the link! -Paulee]
[Blogger's Note: It's October 30th, 2025, and in response to checking the link above for the album 'Round Midnight and finding that it wasn't working, please find the following YouTube links to Linda Ronstadt's albums What's New, Lush Life and For Sentimental Reasons, which are the albums that the compilation album 'Round Midnight is based upon! -Paulee]
Watch "What's New by Linda Ronstadt" on YouTube:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n-a8UnXIJbSEcdA0SU41IivUHZ9ZTtAAA&si=_Upz77dNnV6BuMK3
Watch "Lush Life by Linda Ronstadt" on YouTube:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mNMl6HqR_WwU7yYNZJYJvyEiSYkLXBs0Y&si=1u66ucFskueWs6X1
Watch "For Sentimental Reasons by Linda Ronstadt" on YouTube:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k3H3cZqG4q3N4HgPwHaj1PHhyq1owLRfM&si=dxKlh3x-zHWOojss
Track Listing for "'Round Midnight" by Linda Ronstadt:
1. What's New?
2. I've Got a Crush on You
3. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry
4. Crazy He Calls Me
5. Someone to Watch Over Me
6. I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You
7. What'll I Do
8. Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?)
9. Goodbye
10. When I Fall in Love
11. Skylark
12. It Never Entered My Mind
13. Mean to Me
14. When Your Lover Has Gone
15. I'm a Fool to Want You
16. You Took Advantage of Me
17. Sophisticated Lady
18. Can't We Be Friends?
19. My Old Flame
20. Falling in Love Again
21. Lush Life
22. When You Wish Upon a Star
23. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
24. You Go to My Head
25. But Not for Me
26. My Funny Valentine
27. I Get Along Without You Very Well
28. Am I Blue?
29. (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
30. Straighten Up and Fly Right
31. Little Girl Blue
32. 'Round Midnight
This "Small All White in the Forest" Post No. 128 was edited on November 5th, 2025.
"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]
