" For Every Man There I s A Woman " Is that Really True ? There is a third Arlen//Leo Robin song from the movie Casbah. " For Every Man There Is A Woman" was described by Alec Wilder as a " moaner" in a minor key and many juicy harmonic changes.".Arlen himself described, as a "tapeworm" , any of his songs that exceeded the standard 32 bar format so entrenched in the popular song tradition. Wilder also felt that that "The song must be a singer's delight and surely an orchestrators."
In the 1948 film, while dancing with a lissome woman, Tony Martin provides a sensual interpretation of the song which is accompanied by an insinuating rhythmic pulse in the orchestration. This is quite fitting since the story is set in the exotic Casbah. Martin has a rich tenor voice unlike many of the current male Broadway leading men with their thin and reedy vocalizing. When you compare such current performers with leading theatre and movie singers like Howard Keele, John Raitt, Gordon McRae and Alfred Drake, somehow robust masculinity has gone missing and replaced by the new," sensitive" type male singer.
It's always interesting to see the dramatic context of a film or theatre song and, as you watch Martin , he is pitching some serious woo and actress Marta Toren is obviously seduced by Martin's persuasive interpretation and the romantic atmosphere of the nightclub.
Note: An earlier post described " It was Written In The Stars" as a song that pronounced the inevitability of fate in determining the human condition. " For Every Man There Is A Woman"
continues this theme of inevitability. However, we know that, as desirable as it would be for everyone to find that perfect mate, human experience does not guarantee such an optimistic outlook.
LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43dqbN_IVN4
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