Sans Souci

Peggy Lee sings Sans Souci-- a recording that begs to be the soundtrack of an awesome claymation:

This was the B-Side of a 45 produced in 1952.  (The A-Side was River River.). The Sonny Burke tune with lyrics by Lee was arranged by Gordon Jenkins, whose stamp on mid-20th Century American popular music is a bit more etched than his name recognition might indicate.  Among other highlights of a long career, he wrote Crescent City Blues, unmistakably the source material for Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.  

It's a beautiful iconic tune, but it's the over-the-top exoticism of his arrangements such as the above that really gets under the skin.  For instance, dig Jenkins' unhinged 1960 exotica arrangement of Duke Ellington's Caravan featuring Marshall Royal on alto sax (a recording memorably used in a first season episode of Mad Men):

 

Jenkin's arrangement for Frank Sinatra of  It was a very good year, a sweet tune first recorded by the pop folk group the Kingston Trio transformed it into a transcendent epic of a particularly American longing.  Amazingly footage of the actual recording with an audience in attendance and Gordon Jenkins conducting one Los Angeles evening in late April 1965 is available, providing a glimpse into the casual way that Sinatra and his collaborators tossed together an essential of  American music.