The Midnight Sun Will Never Set (1958) – Sarah Vaughan (Dorcas Cochran/Quincy Jones/Henri Salvador)

For anyone who has wandered the night contemplating a past love, or at least has imagined doing so, this beautiful composition speaks directly to the heart. Quincy Jones’ arrangement is masterful. Vibes gently reverberate in silvery ripples to a plaintive rhythm plucked out on double bass. A piano softly sprinkles stardust along a desolate pathway. Clarinets and flutes join the lament. Strings slowly rise to cushion each lonely footstep. And then, there is the voice. Sassy. The Divine One. Miss Sarah Vaughan. Her smooth voice wafts in to console and comfort, if only by re-living the birth of a romance long ago, confessing that its embers still illuminate her heart. The glow of a midnight sun; a torch still carried; a summer love extinguished–we need not be given much detail to understand the sentiment which haunts her. She effortlessly glides from note to note as if traversing the moonlit cityscape in search of an explanation why she “can’t eclipse / the lips I still desire.” As is often the case, the reward is in the pining.

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