She is the only person to have received Grammy nominations in the jazz, popular and classical music awards.
Laine was born in a London suburb to a Jamaican father and English mother who sent her to singing and dancing lessons at an early age. She did not take up singing seriously until her mid-twenties, however. She auditioned successfully for a band led by musician John Dankworth, with which she performed until 1958, when she and Dankworth married.
She then began her career as a singer and actress. She played the lead in a new play at London's famous Royal Court Theatre, home of the new wave of playwrights of the 1950s: Harold Pinter and the like. This led to other stage performances such as the musical Valmouth in 1959, the play A Time to Laugh (with Robert Morley and Ruth Gordon) in 1962, and eventually to her show stopping Julie in the Wendy Toye production of Showboat at the Adelphi Theatre in London in 1971.
During this period she had two major recording successes. You'll Answer to Me reached the British Top 10 while Laine was 'prima donna' in the 1961 Edinburgh Festival production of Kurt Weill's opera/ballet The Seven Deadly Sins. In 1964 her Shakespeare and All that Jazz album with Dankworth received widespread critical acclaim, and to this day remains an important milestone in her identification with the more unusual aspects of a singer's repertoire.
1972 marked the start of Laine's international activities, with a successful first tour of Australia. Shortly afterwards, her career in the United States was launched with a concert at New York's Lincoln Center, followed in 1973 by the first of many Carnegie Hall appearances. Coast-to-coast tours of the U.S. and Canada soon followed, and with them a succession of record albums and television appearances. This led, after several nominations, to Cleo's first Grammy award, in recognition of the live recording of her 1983 Carnegie concert.
Laine colaborated with many great classical musicians including James Galway, Nigel Kennedy, Julian Lloyd Webber and John Williams.
Other important recordings during that time were duet albums with Ray Charles (Porgy and Bess) and Mel Tormé (see Nothing Without You), as well as Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire which won Laine a classical Grammy nomination.
Laine's relationship with the musical theatre, started in Britain, continued in the United States with starring performances in Sondheim's A Little Night Music and The Merry Widow (Michigan Opera). In 1985 she originated the role of Princess Puffer in the Broadway hit musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, for which she received a Tony nomination, and in 1989 she received the Los Angeles critics' acclaim for her portrayal of the Witch in Sondheim's Into the Woods.
In the 2006 New Years Honours list, her husband John Dankworth was made a knight bachelor, becoming Sir John Dankworth. As his wife, she is entitled to be known as "Lady Dankworth," however, she uses her own professional name.
Just The Way You Are
Cleo Laine Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You never let me down before
Don't imagine you're too familiar
And I don't see you anymore
I wouldn't leave you in times of trouble
We never could have come this far
I took the good times, I'll take the bad times
I'll take you just the way you are
Don't go trying some new fashion
Don't change the color of your hair
You always have my unspoken passion
Although I might not seem to care
I don't want clover conversation
I never want to work that hard
I just want someone that I can talk to
I want you just the way you are.
I need to know that you will always be
The same old someone that I knew
What will it take till you believe in me
The way that I believe in you.
I said I love you and that's forever
And this I promise from the heart
I could not love you any better
I love you just the way you are.
In Cleo Laine's "Just the Way You Are," she sings about accepting someone exactly as they are, flaws and all. In the first verse, she pleads with her partner not to change in order to please her. She assures him that he has never let her down before and that she wouldn't leave him in times of trouble. She is happy to take the good times with the bad, as long as he remains himself.
In the second verse, she continues to implore him not to change. She tells him that she doesn't want him to try new fashion or change his hair color because she loves him just the way he is. She doesn't want to put in too much effort to understand or converse with him; she simply wants someone to talk to, and that someone is him.
In the final verse, Laine emphasizes the importance of the consistency of their relationship. She needs to know that he will always be the same person she fell in love with. She also expresses her unwavering love for him, promising that she couldn't love him any better than she already does.
Overall, "Just the Way You Are" is a testament to the power of unconditional love and acceptance. Laine sings passionately about the beauty of loving someone exactly as they are, without trying to change them.
Line by Line Meaning
Don't go changing, to try and please me
I don't want you to change to make me happy
You never let me down before
I have always been able to count on you
Don't imagine you're too familiar
Don't assume you know everything about me
And I don't see you anymore
I don't see you as often as I would like
I wouldn't leave you in times of trouble
I will always be there for you when things get tough
We never could have come this far
Our relationship has lasted this long because we accept each other as we are
I took the good times, I'll take the bad times
I love you no matter what happens in our lives
I'll take you just the way you are
I love you for who you are, not who you could be
Don't go trying some new fashion
You don't have to change your style to impress me
Don't change the color of your hair
I love your hair color just the way it is
You always have my unspoken passion
I have a deep love for you that I may not always express
Although I might not seem to care
Just because I don't always show it, doesn't mean I don't care
I don't want clover conversation
I want to have meaningful conversations with you
I never want to work that hard
I don't want our conversations to be a struggle
I just want someone that I can talk to
I want you to be the person I can always confide in
I want you just the way you are.
I love you for exactly who you are
I need to know that you will always be
I need to know that you will always be there for me
The same old someone that I knew
I love the person you are and don't want you to change
What will it take till you believe in me
I want you to trust me and my love for you
The way that I believe in you.
I wholeheartedly believe in your love and trust for me
I said I love you and that's forever
My love for you will never fade
And this I promise from the heart
I promise you this from the deepest part of my being
I could not love you any better
I love you with all that I have and nothing could be better than that
I love you just the way you are.
I love you for who you are and wouldn't want you to change a thing
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Capitol CMG Publishing
Written by: Billy Joel
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
John Jagger
on Sunday
Those lyrics above bear no relation to the song ‘Sunday’ on the album ‘Born on a Friday’
John
on Born on a Friday
No lyrics for the song Born on a Friday? These lyrics are very hard to find. It would be nice to see because of a British expression that's used in the song that I'm not sure what the meaning is.