MUSIC : For Singer Feinstein, Preserving Classic Tunes Is a ‘Picnic’

Michael Feinstein, the singer who has dedicated his career to perpetuating classic American popular music, reports that recently his fans are requesting one song more than any other. Something from Gershwin, or Cole Porter or Jule Styne perhaps? Guess again. It’s “The Teddy Bear’s Picnic.”

It’s been in demand since the release in April of his children’s music collection entitled “Pure Imagination,” Feinstein said by phone from a tour stop in Chicago earlier this week. The tour brings him to the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa on Sunday.

The Jimmy Kennedy-John Bratton tune, composed in 1907 with lyrics added in 1933, “is being requested by a wide spectrum of generations,” he said, “probably because it’s been recorded by everyone from Henry Hall to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.”

Feinstein, 36, says that while growing up in Columbus, Ohio, he was aware of about half of the numbers he recorded for “Pure Imagination,” a collection that ranges from such familiar tunes as “When You Wish Upon a Star” to such obscure titles as “The Jitterbug,” a number cut from the movie score of “The Wizard of Oz.”

It’s the discovery of such musical history that keeps Feinstein going. “Certainly the aspect of preservation is important to me,” he explained. “I love the material, and I love sharing things with people. It’s very exciting to find something fresh about an old song or to preserve some little aspect of it. That’s more fulfilling, more exciting for me to preserve something like that than perhaps (it is to) perform.”

Feinstein says he was surrounded by music as a child. “It constantly permeated our home. As a family we would watch ‘The Lawrence Welk Show’ and ‘Sing Along With Mitch’ and all those musical programs. We had family gatherings on the weekend, and a lot of the relatives were singers. Everybody in the household just loved to sing.”

And there was plenty of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and others on the phonograph. “When I heard this music as a kid, these great songs, they touched me in a way that was a new experience. Just as when some people hear classical music, they know they’ve found their language, or some people are attracted to jazz at a very early age, I knew this was the music for me.

“I did hear some (rock ‘n’ roll) growing up because my brother and sister listened to it on the radio, and there were a few things that I liked. But generally speaking, that music was not as interesting or as attractive emotionally as the material I had already discovered.” Feinstein, who spent six years as Ira Gershwin’s assistant and archivist before pursuing his own career as a performer, says he’ll unearth new treasures at his Orange County appearance, presenting lyrics Johnny Mercer wrote for “Too Marvelous for Words” that were never published. The music also will appear on his upcoming album, “Forever,” set to be released on Valentine’s Day.

“It’s a sequel to (his previous album) ‘Isn’t It Romantic’ and features eight or nine different arrangers,” he said. Also, volume two of his collaboration with Burton Lane, “The Burton Lane Songbook” is set for release later this month, and other “Songbook” recordings, including one with Jerry Herman, are in the works.

And what about his budding film career, which included a role in Paul Bartel’s 1989 film “Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills”?

“There have been a number of opportunities, but I haven’t been able to take advantage of them. I can’t lose the focus on the music right now. Sometimes it’s a question of priorities.”