Susie Drage
Music, Art & Cookery
The Music of Joe Peters
Since 2013, I had the great pleasure and privilege of working in close association with a very talented pianist and musician, Joe Peters, who, very sadly passed away in September 2015.
Joe has had a formidable career with music and playing with top bands. We originally met on the world of music forums back in 2007 and have remained friends and my admiration for the way he arranges his music knows no bounds.
Joe had a truly exceptional gift for orchestrating his music to the highest standard by using his Yamaha S950 and also Cubase on his computer. His arrangements are both complex, exciting and his use of harmonies and musical structure within his music resulting in beautiful and imaginative performances.
Joe and I embarked on a wonderful musical project which continues to be work in progress. The tracks that we have done together will feature on my forthcoming album, probably in the Spring of 2016.
I feel both proud and privileged to have enjoyed such a special friendship with Joe and I have loved singing to his arrangements. I hope that everyone will enjoy the music and I know that Joe will be sorely missed by all his musical friends and colleagues.
The following vocal tracks, which are featured at the bottom of this page, will be featured on my forthcoming album, information about which can be found on an adjoining page under this section. In time, there will be more added to those posted up already.
I have also included below forty two of Joe's superb arrangements, which are in themselves a testimony to his extraordinary gift as an orchestrator of outstanding arrangements. These arrangements are solely the property of Joe Peters and his family.
My new album will be dedicated to Joe Peters with my love and sincere thanks for sharing his music with me, and I would also like to express my very good wishes and condolences to his family.
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"ALL I ASK OF YOU" is another musical collaboration with the very talented Joe Peters who arranged this gorgeous music on his PSR S950.
"All I Ask of You" is a song from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical version of The Phantom of the Opera. It was released as a single by Cliff Richard and Sarah Brightman in 1986. In the UK it reached No. 3 on the Singles Chart and was certified Silver. It reached No. 1 in both Ireland and South Africa.
"EMBRACEABLE YOU" is another musical collaboration with the very talented Joe Peters who arranged this gorgeous music on his PSR S950.
"Embraceable You" is a popular song, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song was originally written in 1928 for an unpublished operetta named East is West. It was eventually published in 1930 and included in the Broadway musical Girl Crazy. where it was performed by Ginger Rogers in a song and dance routine choreographed by Fred Astaire. Billie Holiday's 1944 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2005
"EVERGREEN" was arranged and orchestrated by Joe Peters on Yamaha S950, with vocals by Susie Drage in February 2016
"Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)" is the theme song from the 1976 film A Star Is Born. It was composed and performed by Barbra Streisand with lyrics by Paul Williams, and arranged by Ian Freebairn-Smith. The song was released on the soundtrack album to A Star Is Born.
"IF EVER I WOULD LEAVE YOU" - I am tremendously proud to present my first collaboration with Joe Peters arranged on his PSR S950.. Joe is a superbly talented musician.
I have known Joe for some years and have long been an admirer of his exceptional skills at orchestrating very complex and imaginative arrangements of music from many different genres from Big Band to Musicals etc.
“Camelot “is a musical by Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music). It is based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from the T. H. White tetralogy novel The Once and Future King. In 1959, Alan Jay Lerner and Moss Hart decided to adapt T. H. White's The Once and Future King as their next project. As discussed in Lerner's 1978 book, The Street Where I Live, Frederick Loewe, who had no interest in the project, agreed to write music, with the understanding that if things went badly, it would be his last score
"SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME" is a song composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin from the musical Oh, Kay! (1926), where it was introduced by Gertrude Lawrence. Gershwin originally approached the song as an uptempo jazz tune, but his brother Ira suggested that it might work much better as a ballad, and George ultimately agreed. It has been performed by numerous artists since its debut and is a jazz standard as well as a key work in the Great American Songbook.
This is Joe's and my third song for the new album and Joe arranged this music on his Yamaha PSR 950..
"SUMMERTIME" Arranged and orchestrated by Joe Peters on Yamaha S950, with vocals by Susie Drage
"Summertime" is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, although the song is also co-credited to Ira Gershwin by ASCAP.
The song soon became a popular and much recorded jazz standard, described as "without doubt ... one of the finest songs the composer ever wrote ... Gershwin's highly evocative writing brilliantly mixes elements of jazz and the song styles of blacks in the southeast United States from the early twentieth century”.
"YOUNG AT HEART" was arranged and orchestrated by Joe Peters on Yamaha S950, with vocals by Susie Drage in June 2015
"Young at Heart" is a pop standard, a ballad with music by Johnny Richards and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh.[1] The song was written and published in 1953, with Leigh contributing the lyrics to what was originally a Richards instrumental called "Moonbeam". Frank Sinatra was the first performer to record the song, which became a million-selling hit in 1953 (and spilling over with popularity into 1954). The song was such a hit that a movie that Sinatra was filming at the same time with Doris Day was renamed to the song title, and the song was included in the opening and closing credits of the movie, which was released as Young at Heart. The song has also been used on the soundtracks of other films, including It Could Happen to You, The Front, Sweet Dreams, and Space Cowboys (in a rendition by Willie Nelson).
"I'VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN" This is a fabulous track created by the very talented Joe Peters and it feels very special to be able to introduce our version with Joe. Joe produced all of his music on his PSR950 and the results, in my opinion, are nothing short of astonishing.
The vocals were recorded in January 2022 .
"I've Got You Under My Skin" is a song written by Cole Porter in 1936. It was introduced that year in the Eleanor Powell musical film Born to Dance in which it was performed by Virginia Bruce. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year, but lost out to The Way You Look Tonight. Popular recordings in 1936 were by Ray Noble and his Orchestra (vocal by Al Bowlly) and by Hal Kemp and his Orchestra (vocal by Skinnay Ennis).
The song has subsequently been recorded by hundreds of artists.
It became a signature song for Frank Sinatra, and, in 1966, became a top 10 hit for the Four Seasons.