The Palace of Nostalgia

He wrote a small but strong body of works, was a singer for connoisseurs and Frank Sinatra was his biggest fan. At 20.00 CET we pay attention to Matt Dennis (1914-2002), composer, lounge singer and pianist. He has never had a taste of fame like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin or Johnny Mercer but nevertheless Matt Dennis was the creator of one of the strongest saloon songs of all time: ‘Angel Eyes’ and also of durable songs such as ‘Everything happens to me’, ‘Violets for your furs’, ‘Will you still be mine?’, and ‘The night we called it a day’. Many of them were created in collaboration with lyrical poet Tom Adair who worked at the telephone complaint service of the waterworks of Los Angeles. Through the telephone line these beautiful songs took shape and it wasn’t long before the duo was incorporated by band leader Tommy Dorsey. Sinatra called himself ‘President, Hoboken Local, Matt Dennis Fan Club’, jazz artists spoke very highly of Dennis’ compositions – Major Holly even finished his recording of ‘Angel Eyes’ with the sentence ‘Thank you Matt Dennis!”. Except as a composer, Matt Dennis was also loved as a singer/pianist in the better nightclubs of Los Angeles. He had a wonderfully loud voice but he was also a great scatter. He only made a handful of records and these are still worth listening to. As you will hear during this hour that also includes Frank Sinatra, Chet Baker, Doris Day, Connie Francis, and the Pied Pipers. And who still hasn’t had enough, can always buy his workbooks and CDs titled ‘You can teach yourself piano’.