Name That Tune… . I recently found how difficult it can be to identify a song if you don’t know its name. For weeks I hummed and whistled a tune that I could not name. During this time, I sang and/or whistled the tune to a number of musicians, friends, and work-colleagues. Additionally, I searched extensively online for 1960’s movie instrumentals and lists of favorite 1960’s instrumental movie themes appearing in for-sale, recorded collections. Although the tune sounded familiar to nearly all of the persons I bombarded with my version, none of them could “name that tune.” One person confided that he didn’t think he had ever heard the tune—but, liked my whistled rendition…
Initially, I thought that the tune might be a composition of Antonio Carlos Jobim (composer of “The Girl From Ipanema”) or Henry Mancini (composer of “Moon River,” “The Pink Panther,” and scores of other well-known songs).
An at-work friend and I whistled the song into one of his Android phone’s “apps” that is usually able to recognize music from recordings. Evidently, our whistling was not up to the caliber needed to recognize the song. The “app” insulted our whistling (not really); and, was unable to identify the tune from our amateurish puckering,
Still looking for the song, I thumbed through a printed song-book (The New York Times, “Great Songs of the Sixties”) I borrowed many years ago from my musical mentor, John Von Spreckelsen, and never returned. As I approached the half-way point through the collection, I found the song I’d been seeking: “A Man And A Woman,” (Un Homme et Une Femme) from a French (1966) movie with the same name. What a relief!
The movie is about a man and a woman, both whose spouses had previously died, who find each other and love, again. Very romantic. The movie is available from Netflix, even though the movie is in French with English subtitles.
The music was composed by Francis Lai who was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for this movie score. While researching, I was surprised to learn that he also wrote the musical score for the 1970 movie, “Love Story,” which is another favorite of mine.
I transcribed the Percy Faith Orchestra arrangement I found on my subscription Rhapsody music-service. The instrumental sounds I used are from my Kurzweil PC3K8 and Synful Orchestra. I hope you enjoy my version of this illusive tune, A Man And A Woman and the bespoke art-work by my artist-friend, Sally Atkins for this post.
I remember my parents agreeing that for most children (they believed that) before seven (7) years-old was “too early” to begin musical instruction. I vaguely recollect being about three (3) years old—and, banging, i.e., exuberantly-playing (i.e. having fun) on our piano when we lived on Oakwood Ave. (Huntsville, AL) and having been kindly corrected (i.e., stopped from banging) by Mother or Daddy. I don’t remember touching the piano or its keys again until (then, already having moved to Green Mountain (Huntsville, AL, USA) in 1959) when I was seven (7), my father had a fatherly discussion with me during which, he convinced me that I now had a wonderful opportunity to learn to play the piano from my 
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