Editor's Note: Maxing Your Joy

Nothing makes me happier than giving you joy. Six days a week, I post on my passion, music, and many of you love what I write about and listening to the clips I include. This isn’t a traditional blog. It’s a relationship, a shared journey, an education and a line of communication designed to get you through the week by starting your days on an upbeat note. [Photo above of Belvedere Castle in Central Park by Marc Myers; photos of the park below by Marc Myers as well]

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Normally, my weekend post is exclusively for my paid subscribers, but I made an exception this weekend. If you find JazzWax rewarding, please let me know by upgrading. If not, you’re more than welcome to enjoy the two posts you receive. I just wish you were able to enjoy what you’re missing as well as all that the JazzWax site has to offer.

New York’s in love. After a chilly early spring, with temperatures as late as last week requiring a heavy sweater, New York is finally in the clear. The weather this weekend will be in the 70s and 80s, and the temperature is supposed to remain locked into spring/summer rolling forward next week. Which means the streets, restaurants and the parks this weekend will be jammed. Everyone here is in such a marvelous mood. Until the first heat wave, that is. For now, we’ll take it. To celebrate with you, I took a bunch of photos last week while crossing Central Park on an overcast day [Photo above of my favorite tree in Central Park, which stands along the Ellipsis that surrounds the Great Lawn]

Recommended streaming: Here’s what I watched and loved last week: Stranger Things (five seasons; Netflix), The Proposal (rom-com film; Netflix) and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (rom-com film; Netflix)

They say it’s spring. When true spring arrives in New York, I think of singers and songs.

Here’s Tony Bennett singing Don Costa’s arrangement of Spring in Manhattan, in 1963…

Here’s Ella Fitzgerald singing I Got the Spring Fever Blues with Chick Webb in 1936, arranged by Van Alexander (to read my interview with Van, go here)…

Here’s June Christy singing Suddenly It’s Spring in 1963, with Al Viola on guitar and Bud Shank on flute…

Here’s Chris Connor singing Spring Is Here with the Ellis Larkin Trio in 1954…

Here’s Billy Eckstine in 1958 singing Younger Than Springtime, with a Nelson Riddle orchestration…

Here’s Sammy Davis Jr. and Julie Andrews singing a medley of spring songs on TV in 1973…

And here are the Beach Boys in 1966 singing And Their Hearts Were Full of Spring, a tribute of sorts to the Four Freshmen…

Another by the Beach Boys in tribute to spring and the Four Freshmen? Here’s Graduation Day in 1965; on guitars were Carl Wilson and members of the Wrecking Crew session musicians…

Lastly, when seasons lock in, I traditionally post the old WNEW-AM jingle that matches that time of year. Here’s the spring theme…