The Glory of Love

Well, it’s not for nothing that we’ve come to be called “West Virginia’s most eclectic string band.” In addition to the folk songs and the fiddle tunes, the jug band numbers and the blues, The Flood has an abiding love for those standards that come from the pages of the great American songbook. One of the ways you know a song has become a “standard” is this: it is so finely constructed melodically and lyrically that it can be performed in many different styles and moods and still maintain its uniqueness. A case in point is Billy Hill’s classic “The Glory of Love.” Now, many folks may have heard it first in their parents’ jazz collection, especially if they were Benny Goodman fans, because Benny took the tune all the way to the top of the charts in 1936. But a later generation also knew “Glory of Love” 30 years later as a cover tune by Otis Redding on his great “Dock of the Bay” album in 1967, or the version that folksinger Tom Rush did the next year on his “Circle Game” album. Then 20 years after that, Bette Midler was singing it in her movie, “Beaches.”  Well, here’s The Flood’s take on the tune from a recent rehearsal.