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[0:00] Tim Rice: Hello, this is Tim Rice, and this is episode 70 of my podcast, Get Onto My Cloud. I'm recording this edition of Get Onto My Cloud, which to my amazement is the 70th episode, precisely three weeks before I embark upon a nationwide tour of the UK, entitled Circle of Words. Actually, it would be more accurate to describe it as a nation thin tour, as it only consists of four dates in one week in February 2023. So it's more than likely that most of you listening to this podcast will have already missed the entire thing. But in case you haven't, the bookings are Monday, February the 6th, Theatre Royal and Durngate, Northampton. Thursday, February the 9th, The Grand in Wolverhampton, Friday, February the 10th, The Forum in Malvern, and the Grand Finale, Sunday, February the 13th at Newcastle Theatre Royal.

If the shows go well, and I suppose if I enjoy doing them, then the cunning plan is to book further dates later in the year. What I hear you cry is the format of the show. Well, basically, it's me telling the stories behind some of the songs for which I've written the lyrics over the past yikes, 59 years. I'm supported by four wonderful singers, two guys, two gals, if you're allowed to use that expression these days, plus a great group of musicians under the masterful direction of Duncan Waugh. Duncan is a key player in my cricket team, Heart Ache CC. He's a fine, medium pace right arm bowler. It's vital that I have his services on the cricket field next summer, which is why he's got the job as musical director for this tour.

Fortunately, he's also a very talented musical director and keyboard player, and has worked on several of my shows in the past, including The Lion King and recent productions of Joseph. But you should see him bowl. You won't, I'm afraid, see Duncan bowling on the Circle of Words tour. What you will get is around 20 of my songs, music by some of the truly great composers of our time. I immodestly reckon you'll know most of the numbers, but there will be probably one or two songs that you won't. In between the performances, I will attempt to remember the circumstances in which they were written, where we wrote them and why, which we wrote easily, which ones were a struggle, those we thought had a great chance of success, and those we thought hadn't a hope of being a chart hit, such as Don't Cry for Me, Argentina.

I've done this show quite a few times over the years, often in aid of worthy causes, both at home in the UK and abroad. And in between, on Seaborne Cruises, where I have a truly captive audience. The show was inspired in part by one of my great lyricist heroes, Sammy Cahn. Sammy wrote the words for some of the greatest songs of the 20th century, including many for Frank Sinatra, such as Three Coins in the Fountain, All the Way, and High Hopes, all Oscar winners, by Mir Bistouchon, To Me You're Beautiful. Sammy wrote that for the Andrews Sisters, The Tender Trap, Sinatra Again, and one of the all-time top Christmas songs, cunningly not actually mentioning Christmas, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.

Sammy, who was a very funny man, who could easily have made a career as a stand-up comedian. As hilarious as many who are in that job, Sammy used to tour a marvelous show in which he wittily introduced his hits, which were then sung by performers who could actually sing. Sammy won four Oscars in an era when the competition for best film song was intense. Oscars are a rare example of an award that is beautifully designed. And when any of my friends have spotted one lurking in my home, that is the item they'd like a selfie with. Unless, like Tom Black, they've already got one. Here's one of Sammy's greatest lyrics: music by Jimmy Van Heusen.

[4:10] ♪ Musical number: "Come Fly with Me" — performed by Frank Sinatra ♪

[7:38] Tim Rice: Frank Sinatra sings Sammy Cahn. I've been lucky enough to have several of the greatest popular singers of our time wrap their tonsils around my lyrics, but sad to say, not Frank Sinatra. Andrew Lloyd Webber and I did send him our song Christmas Dream, which we wrote for Ronald Neame's 1974 movie The Odessa File, based on Freddie Forsyth's marvelous novel. Christmas Dream had already been recorded for the movie by Perry Como, which was a great honor. But we wondered the following year whether Frank had a Christmas album in mind, and if so, would he contemplate covering our to date only Yuletide effort? We never heard back. When Sammy died in 1993, his wife Tita invited me to say a few words at his memorial, which invitation, of course, I was thrilled to accept.

I spent a lot of time working on my speech, which zeroed in on the great partnership of Frank Sinatra and Sammy Cahn. I didn't actually say that without Sammy Cahn's lyrics, Frank Sinatra might not have had such a distinguished career. But an impartial listener might have felt that I'd drawn that conclusion. But hey, this was a tribute to Sammy, not to Frank. And a little bias in the lyricist's direction was understandable on that particular afternoon. But as I walked up to the podium to deliver, I noticed for the first time sitting in the front row, Mr. Frank Sinatra. I cannot believe I did not think he'd be there. I had to do a little bit of judicious editing on the spot. At the star-studded reception afterwards, I was not approached by an angry Frank in the first ten minutes, so I reckoned I must have got the balance between these two great artists about right.

I try not to pester megastars. On the few occasions I'm in the same postal code as they are. But here I was, in the same room as Frank Sinatra. I could not let this opportunity slip by. And of course, I genuinely was, and I genuinely am, one of his countless huge admirers. I saw him across the other side of the canapés, and decided that when I'd finished chewing the fat with Gregory Peck and Sidney Poitier, I'd saunter over to Frank and introduce myself. I could break the ice by asking what he thought of Christmas Dream. Unfortunately, by the time I did saunter over, he'd scarpered, and I never got to meet the great man. Oh well, I'd met both the Everly Brothers, and they never recorded one of my songs either. Although they did record a track for Andrew's show, Whistle Down the Wind, which Andrew wrote with the late Jim Steinman. Just to show I'm not jealous, here is that Lloyd Webber Steinman track, Cold.

[10:16] ♪ Musical number: "Cold" — performed by The Everly Brothers ♪

[12:54] Tim Rice: There's nothing on the trees, there's nothing for me here. I gotta find salvation and some thermal underwear. It's cold, and it's getting colder. They're vaccinating Satan shaking all over pneumonia. It's cold like an endless winter. The moose on the run, and even the sun is cold. The stars are all gone, and even the sun is cold. The world is too old, and even the sun is cold.

[13:54] Tim Rice: I'll admit it, I'm jealous. Jim Steinman was a marvelous lyricist whose song titles alone must have been a major factor in quite a few of his big hits with Meatloaf. Two out of three ain't bad, and I'll do anything for love, but I won't do that. We're particularly intriguing. Titles are very important. Potential attention grabbers. However good a new song entitled I Love You might be, it's not a title to make you think, I've got to hear that. Whereas Don't Cry for Me Argentina makes you think, what's that all about? Before you even hear a word. Whistle Down the Wind had one particularly eye-catching title, A Kiss is a Terrible Thing to Waste. I did suggest to Jim and Andrew that a waste is a terrible thing to kiss might have been even more fascinating, but my suggestion fell on stony ground.

[14:44] Tim Rice: Incidentally, my son Donald won a karaoke competition in Albania in 2002, singing, I'll do anything for love, but I won't do that, with a faulty lyric sheet that retitled the song, I'll Don Anything for Love, but I won't don that, which, if anything, is an even more arousing title than Jim Steinman's original. But I digress. Back to my show, Circle of Words, which means Circle of Life is a good bet to be in the evening's lineup. In fact, the Lion King's pretty well represented with Hakuna Matata and Can You Feel the Love Tonight also jostling for a spot. Elton and I only wrote five songs for the original animated film, which for my money is the movie version to see. Brilliant, though the Julie Tamor stage show is that original cartoon, a word we're not really encouraged to use by the Disney organization, is still the version that means most to me, principally because that was the one I worked on from day one, when it was little more than one drawing of a lion and one page of storyline, which read like Hamlet with fur, with an incorrect working title, King of the Jungle.

[15:55] Tim Rice: There's no jungle in the part of Africa where the story takes place. King of the Jungle became the Lion King. But I don't think anyone working on that movie back in the early 90s dreamt that it would become as outrageously successful as it did in so many formats. In fact, one or two of the earlier reviews were not particularly good, and it took us a week or two to realize we were in with a chance of a smash. Well, it took me a week or two anyway. I'm sure the Disney Bean Counters worked out what was coming pretty quickly. Lion King songs picked up some great cover versions. Neil Dahmen did a terrific version of Can You Feel the Love Tonight? Which I played in Get Onto My Cloud episode 36. Jimmy Cliff recorded Hakuna Matata and Brian Wilson, yes, the Brian Wilson, recorded both Can You Feel the Love Tonight and I Just Can't Wait to Be King.

[17:13] Tim Rice: The plain peach scheduled to be my D-might. Gonna be the ruler of everything around from the grandness of the mountains to the humble common ground. Oh, I just can't wait to be king. I'm gonna be a novel king. Scrupulously bear. I only need a little time, perhaps a little head. I'm gonna be the main event, like no king what people I'm brushing up on looking down, I'm working on my rope. Wanna end the floor come swim? Oh, I just can't wait to be king. Don't say to this, don't say be there, don't say stop, don't say here. Free to run around all day. I'll be free to do it my way.

[18:51] Tim Rice: Don't say do this, don't say be there, don't say stop, don't say here. I'll be free to do it my way. The time has come as someone said to talk of many things. This may be true, but I would rather stick to talking key. It's easy to be right if you're mighty leaning. It isn't just my right, even my left would be device. The monarchy is waiting to move it. For I just can't wait to be king.

[19:38] Tim Rice: Just can't wait to wait to be king. Just can't wait. Just can't wait to wait to be king. Just can't wait. I'll save Jimmy Cliff's Hakuna Matata, which is wonderful for an upcoming podcast. I'm looking forward very much to presenting a few of the blasts from my past from the stages in Northampton, Wolverhampton, Malvern, and Newcastle. The first song I ever wrote that escaped into the public domain was entitled That's My Story, for which I wrote the tune as well as the words in 1964. I played that one in my very first Get Onto My Cloud podcast, and that's still out there in cyberspace, waiting for you to listen to.

[21:08] Tim Rice: Once I met Andrew, I realized that I was not the greatest tunesmith on my block. I've written lyrics for something like 15 or 16 shows or film scores in my time. And with luck, Duncan War, the West End singers and the band will be able to get through hits and the odd flop representing most of them. I leave you with a medley of some of what the audiences in Northampton, Wolverhampton, Morganhampton, and Newcastle Hampton are in for during the week of February the 6th.

[21:38] Tim Rice: I close my eyes.

[22:01] Tim Rice: But the world was sleeping.

[22:43] Tim Rice: Oh, what a circus or wonder show. Argentina has gone to town over the death of an actress called Ava Peron. We've all gone crazy mourning all day and mourning all night, falling over ourselves to get all the misery right.

[23:10] Tim Rice: A whole new A new fantastic point of view. No one to tell us no where to go or see where only dreaming. A whole new world a dazzling place I never knew. But when I wake up here, it's crystal clear that now I'm in a whole new world with you.

[23:43] Tim Rice: Wasn't it good? So cool, wasn't he fine? So it madness he can't be mine. But in me, and he needs a little bit more than me.

[25:20] Tim Rice: That was episode seventy of my podcast, Get Onto My Cloud, written and presented by me, Tim Rice, and produced by the one and only Peter Hobbes.