Capital City
- You may also mean the subject of the song, Capital City
"Capital City"
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Song Information
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"Capital City" is a song sung by Tony Bennett.
Lyrics
- Homer:
- Well, kids, there it is! Capital City!
- Tony Bennett:
- There's a swingin' town I know called... Capital City.
- People stop and scream hello in... Capital City.
- It's the kind of place that makes a bum feel like a king.
- And it makes a king feel like some nutty, cuckoo, super-king.
- Marge:
- Look, it's Tony Bennett!
- Tony Bennett:
- Hey, good to see you.
- It's against the law to frown in... Capital City.
- You'll caper like a stupid clown when you chance to see...
- Fourth Street and 'D'! Yeah!
- Once you get a whiff of it, you'll never want to roam.
- From Capital City, my home sweet, yeah!
- Capital City, that happy-tal city,
- It's Capital City,
- My home sweet swingin' home!
- The Simpsons:
- Capital City! Yeah!
Behind the Laughter
Production
Tony Bennett was struggling in the current climate of music and his son, Danny, believed that getting him to appear in front of contemporary audiences would get his records selling once again, while Tony's appearance, musical style and songbook were to remain the same. Danny got Tony onto shows such as The Muppets, MTV Unplugged and on various alternative rock radio stations, as well as The Simpsons to achieve this.
Bennett recorded the song with his regular accompanists, the Ralph Sharon Trio, consisting of Ralph Sharon on piano, Doug Richeson on bass and Clayton Cameron on drums, in early June 1990. Unlike many sessions for the show's early years there were no technical problems making the editing a lot easier. The orchestral score was recorded November 2, with the rest of "Dancin' Homer"'s score, replacing the Trio's instrumental.
Chris Ledesma, music editor, was tasked with matching the singing with the orchestra, starting soon after the session ended. Simple as it sounded, matching up the start of the orchestral track with the start of the video and "lock" it in place with a timecode synchronizer. However upon hitting play Ledesma found the orchestra lagging behind Bennett's vocals. By advancing the start of the orchestra he hoped to solve the problem, but to no avail. Listening to both tracks separately Chris realized the singing was faster then the orchestra. The reason being is that (unbeknownst to Chris), once complete with animation, the scene was sped up by 7% so not to drag. Due to not scoring to or playing back with the animated scene, the orchestral score was still the original speed of Bennett's singing.
With the session long finished and no chance to redo it (the episode due to air in six days), Chris resorted to a "very dicey solution" - speeding up the orchestra by 7%. Although solving the tempo problem two more evolved from this - the music wouldn't lock to the video using timecode with the tape running 7% faster and the orchestra sounded like it was being played by Alvin and the Chipmunks, with a 7% higher pitch than Bennett's singing. Pitch wasn't a problem for the Laser Edit, Inc., the post production facility, as they have a multi-thousand dollar digital device that could speed up a scene without affecting the pitch, leaving Bennett's singing in the same key.
Unfortunately Chris didn't have this technology, not did he have the technology to "lock" the video and music, leaving manual trail and error the only way to line up video and music. This fixed the first problem but still left the pitch dilemma. The next morning he called Jim Fitzpatrick, music mixer, who ran the orchestra track through a harmonizer and put the pitch back into the original key. It worked, though, according to Ledesma "the orchestra track sounds a little “wobbly” in the show due to the harmonizer".
This scenario lead to two new production practices, which remain with the show to this day. Ledesma had to be notified of all changes in scene speed and the orchestra would always record and playback with the animated scene.
The difference in the songs can be heard by comparing the track from the episode with the track on Songs in the Key of Springfield. The latter features both the original vocals and orchestral tracks in full length and the correct pitch, taken from the original master tapes, specially produced for the CD.[1]
The song is a parody of the theme from the movie New York, New York. The music was written by Alf Clausen and the lyrics by Jeff Martin. It is the third track on the album Songs in the Key of Springfield.
Appearances
Episode – "Dancin' Homer"
