Char, here is an interesting twist on "Beautiful"
My wife Merry and I have been married for 25 years. When we were dating, we both loved Gordon Lightfoot, and Beautiful was "our song". We wished, along with two wedding standards - "Always", and "I'll Be in Love With You", for Beautiful to be played in our wedding.
Moreover, Merry wanted to sing "Always", and "Beautiful" herself. While it seems on initial listening to be written from a man's point of view, upon closer inspection it can be sung by a woman.. - Beautfully. Also, my singing was not a viable option, as I sound like a bullfrog with adenoids ( I hope those are the things in the throat...). So it was to be.
But we were young - 23/20 me/her, and more subject to suggestion from our elders. Well, Merry's mom told her unfortunately that she was worried that Merry would forget the words, and freeze up.... and well Merry was still at the age and state of mind of minding her mother and she reluctantly gave in.
We (Merry the most) have always regretted it, and instead let the Minister's daughter (lovely voice) sing the 2 non GL songs, she got them backwards from the order planned by ..us.. and the organist..,. oops, and ..well c'est la vie. It was recovered and was forgiven on the spot as she was young and, who would get mad over such a human error at such an occassion anyway ?.
Well,after all these years, and the pages start to yellow, I am still in love with her. And we still listen to Gordon Lightfoot together religiously (her more so Johhny Cash at times), and often recall how music played a part in our falling in love.
We'd drive around our little mountain town of Estes Park where we both went to High School, and go for drives in Rocky Mtn. Nat'l Park listening to:
1. Gord
2. Roger Whittaker
3. (don't laugh) - Henry Mancini Orchestra and his Greatest Hits, because there were several old standards that we loved - Days of wine and Roses, Moon River, etc., AND.. for raging hormones... a song that sounded like jungle drums with a distant orchestra beckoning one to a sunset in Africa, on safari, and it all spoke of..well.. what we all think of as we get to the stage of "madly/crazy in love". nuff said
Oops well got off track there. Point being is that having the song Beautiful associated with you is a very nice compliment. The song absolutely makes my wife melt to this day.
Hats off to ya
Geo Steve