Hi floyd,

I've just had a listen to Johnny Mathis singing "Accustomed To Her Face". It's excellent!

This might sound strange but even though I'm a huge Mathis fan, I've never once bothered to hear him sing this song. If I knew how to kick myself effectively, I would because I'm definitely the loser with that decision! After listening to the Mathis version, I've actually discovered that I like the song!

I'd better explain...

When I was somewhere around 20 years old, I had a non-singing role in a local amateur production of "My Fair Lady" and the person who was Higgins discovered new (and I think he thought "exciting") ways to interpret this song. The memory of that interpretation has stayed with me for a few decades and coloured my appreciation of the music and the lyrics. The consequence is that whenever I stumbled across it on Youtube, etc., I never bothered clicking on it.

Thank you for enlightening me! I can definitely hear the Mathis/Faith influence in "Half".

Also, after I read Tom's comment above about the Brill Building, it occurred to me that Diamond came to popularity via the Brill Building. That could partly explain why I hear the Diamond influence.


Originally Posted By: floyd jane
Using a word over in subsequent lines can be a great writing device - I do it often... I wanted to see how far I could take it...

This is the first time that I have read or heard this songwriting tip. After reading it, it was like a hallway full of doors opened into new and unexplored rooms. I can't believe that, after all your lyrics that I've worked my way through, I didn't pick this up. Thank you for today's lesson. I appreciate this little device and have added it to my lyric-writing toolbox.

Regards,
Noel

P.S. I've just listened again. It's probably about the dozenth time. The more I listen, the more I'm convinced that one of this song's arrangement strengths is the lack of drums. Without them, my brain finds it a challenge to isolate the exact tempo: I hear some sections in a slow 4/4 and other sections at twice the speed. For example, when I first heard the song, I heard a 2-bar intro but now I hear a 4-bar intro sometimes and a 2-bar intro sometimes. I suspect that this tempo-variation effect is a great mood enhancer.



MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2026