Nonprofit, independent journalism. Supported by readers.

Donate
Topics

Seven September songs to fall for

Welcome to our first weekly offbeat list.

None of our marvelous months is featured in more songs than the 30 days of September, although April makes a strong song showing, too, with the musical promise of a new spring.

But just about everybody ought to be able to relate to the mood (admittedly often decidedly melancholic) and/or music of at least one of these September Seven:

7. Natalie Imbruglia’s “Come September” (2002): Amid all the painful images, her song from the album “White Lilies Island” offers one ray of hope:

“Everything wrong
Gonna be all right
Come September.”

Article continues after advertisement

6. Neil Diamond’s “September Morn” (1979): Neil offers more heartache, more regret and more memories but also some nice images.

5. Carole King’s “It Might As Well Rain Until September” (1962):
A longtime hit songwriter, King the singer first hit the Top 40 with this pop piece of melancholy, which proved to be a far bigger hit in the United Kingdom. It would take her nine years to make it back on the Top 40 charts here, arriving big time with a two-sided monster hit, “It’s Too Late” and “I Feel the Earth Move.”

4. The Tempos’ “See You in September” (1959): Here’s your classic “summer of heartbreak” love song – the original version that, in keeping with the song’s mood, is slower-paced than the Happenings’ up-tempo 1966 remake.

3. Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” (1978): By a long shot, the legendary R&B group offers the most upbeat song of the bunch, and you can’t go wrong when a song opens with a strong horn section.


Tough choice
It’s a toss-up for the top spot between two songs that express universal feelings of loss (in this instance, time vs. love). As a certified softie, I opted for lost love:

2. Frank Sinatra’s “September Song” (1965): This pop standard was first introduced on Broadway in 1938 by Walter Huston in the short-lived “Knickerbocker Holiday,” a “fascism allegory” by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson. Sinatra’s is one of many great versions of this song, which includes one of my all-time favorite musical couplets:

“When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame,
one hasn’t got time for the waiting game.”

1. Dinah Washington’s “September in the Rain” (1961): The incomparable Queen of the Blues succinctly sums up the end of a love affair with a vivid parallel image:

“The sun went out just like a dying ember
That September in the rain.”

Did I miss any worthy nominees? Tell me below.