Love the David Benoit version of "Here, There and Everywhere". Tunes listed by Chas and Ian show that, in large part, any worthwhile tune is what you, the player makes of it. Think of "Masquerade"; written by Leon Russell (possibly my favorite pop writer) and first charted by Leon and by the Carpenters in the early 70's.

Then, Benson interpreted it and the rest is history. He had lost his recording contract and was going to dig foundations in Hawaii. He took a lot of flack for "selling out", but said in an interview, with 8 million copies of the "Breezin" album sold, he was too rich to really give a damn.

The secret, I think, is to play what fulfills you, interpret fundamentally good tunes, giving them your personal imprint, and figure out how to be satisfied with the results (read that money, recognition, personal satisfaction, sense of progress/accomplishment....whatever).

What a complex/satisfying/frustrating field we work in!


Wouldn't have it any other way.

Russ