I wrote If You Leave from a place of unknowing, groping in the dark for a story. What carried me were settings--Washington, DC, and rural North Carolina--with their textures of sounds, tastes, and sights that I collaged into a character-driven novel. Music was a pull in many scenes; some 20 pieces are referenced. Dancing a jitterbug is mentioned, and several composers are named. Many other tracks are specified, and listening to this playlist now feels like a turn through the scrapbook of Audrey’s and Lucille’s 28 years of friendship—which also happens to be the span of Lake’s life heretofore. While this list hews closely to the plot, I’ve avoided any spoilers.

Cow-Cow Boogie –  Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots
This bluesy number is playing on the piano at the party where Audrey first meets Ben in 1944. That’s how parties were back then—folks didn’t just stand around, talking and drinking. They sang! Someone could always play a tune, and everyone knew the words. The first line references Santa Fe, which, coincidentally, is where their daughter runs off to almost 20 years later.

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered – Vivienne Segal/Hart and Rodger
Hi De Ho Man – Cab Calloway
That Old Black Magic – Glenn Miller
In the Mood – Glenn Miller
In a poolside scene, Audrey taps her foot to “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” barely audible from indoors. The words must resonate with her as she’s falling for Ben, who soon “spun her so that she skimmed across the water, like a ship circling the globe, which made him the world.” In the dancing scene that follows, some three or four numbers play, including a Cab Calloway tune. They’re all recognizable, even to my Gen-X ears, making me want learn, once and for all, how to jitterbug.

G.I. Jive – Louis Jordan & His Tyranny Five
Don’t Fence Me In – Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters
Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition – Kay Kyser & His Orchestra
Song of the Seabees – US Navy Band
All four are tunes that Daniel can play on the piano. He and the other tenants of Ben’s house entertain themselves, singing and dancing, when an ice storm brings down the power. 

Don’t Sit In the Apple Tree – The Andrews Sisters
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing – Sufijan Stevens
Lucille relocates to another house, where her “roommates” oscillate from those parallel longings, sex and religion. I chose Sufijan Stevens’ soulful version of the hymn because, well, he’s my cousin’s favorite artist, and my cousin encouraged me to make this playlist. It also happens to be my favorite, selected from a dozen I heard.

I’ll Be Seeing You – Frank Sinatra
On V-E Day, Lucille hears Daniel and Audrey celebrate by singing. This seems the perfect song to convey that wistful moment, the awareness that everything is about to change. Is Audrey thinking of Ben’s impending return, and is Daniel already pining for the familiar ways he’ll miss the woman he’s fallen in love with?

His Eye Is On the Sparrow –  Ethel Waters
Soon Prudy enters their lives, bringing a voice that might put “her name in lights” one day. This spiritual floats as gently and softly as birdsong throughout the house.

In the Garden – Johnny Cash
When Lucille returns home to a funeral, “the singsong lilt and six-eight time of [this hymn] cradle[s] her like a swing.” Hearing Johnny Cash’s voice feels right. Arthur, who’s also singing the hymn, has a mite of Cash in him.

Wade in the Water – Sweet Honey in the Rock
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child –  Odetta
Learning about the Washington Conservatory School of Music in DC was such a pleasure. This school for Black musicians was a fixture from 1903 through 1960, and Prudy sings in this choir in the Lincoln Congregational Church where Audrey attends a concert. Listening to the music, she feels “something had been rinsed out of her.” The music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Twenty‑Four Negro Melodies, Op. 59, usually had words attached to it, but I couldn’t find a libretto of “The Stones Are Very Hard.” The all-female a cappella group, Sweet Honey in the Rock, formed in DC in 1973. It might be Prudy’s next act after the novel ends, so I chose its gorgeous version of “Wade in the Water.”

Blue and Sentimental – Count Basie
On Audrey and Daniel’s last night together, they watch fireflies and drink rum, listening to Count Basie. This instrumental hits all the right notes of misgiving and words unspoken.

Begin the Beguine – Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw’s works are clarinet-led in the swing-era of horn-fronted bands, and his wooden instrument sounds as big as any brass. In early drafts Ben plays a clarinet, so Shaw’s appearance feels natural. And it’s fitting that Audrey and Ben reconcile over a song with “begin” in the title. Many of their rows resolve when “the horns, like a long sigh, start up on the record player” and they dance.

Brahms’ Lullaby – Dean Martin
Writing the scene where Lucille approaches the adult Lake while she’s sleeping, I consulted sheet music in my piano bench. It contained the English version of Brahms’ Cradle Song. When I played the melody, the phrasing around “morning doth break” made my heart ache, and I attached right away to that version. Fast-forwarding past many that are blandly saccharine, I landed on Martin’s. 

Guys and Dolls – Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin
I was part of a junior-high school production of Guys and Dolls, so it was easy to imagine Lake acting in one. Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin sing about “what’s happening all over” in the title song. Like Prudy says: “Who’s in charge of love? It’s loose in the world, nobody steering it.” 

In the Pines – Loretta Lynn
Lucille comes up on Arthur singing while he’s working outdoors. Makes me wonder if he’s yearning for his freight-train-jumping days, wishing he was still hopping down the Georgia line. Earlier versions, including Dock Walsh’s from 1926, mention “the prettiest young girl,” and “now, darling, now darling, don’t tell me no lie. Where did you stay last night?” Loretta Lynn’s brushes even closer to Lucille and Arthur’s story.

The Motorcycle Song – Arlo Guthrie
Ray, Lake’s boyfriend, has a “peaceful Arlo Guthrie” way about him—until he doesn’t. Ray also has a motorcycle that he and Lake ride around on, to the dismay of her parents. When I found this song in Guthrie’s discography, I knew it was a winner. One of the lines is: “Thought I’d go up and see Ray… ”  someone else who only wants to ride a motorcycle. I love these lyrics… pickle and death in the same song. Doesn’t get any better than that.

Our Town – Iris DeMent
One of the plays that Lake acts in is Our Town, and “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds” is sung at key times. But when I went digging around for related songs, Iris DeMent’s poignant tune, which I had almost forgotten, wouldn’t let me go. DeMent has denied any connection to the play, so I extend apologies here for strengthening one. Try as I might, I can’t really make a further case for how it links to If You Leave, unless it’s what my niece said after reading it: “What lingers for me is that change is the only constant.” Well said, Iris DeMent.

If You Leave – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Here’s another ear worm that I’ve chosen only because its title matches mine. I graduated from high school in 1986, a few months after Pretty in Pink was released, and this song topped the charts. Wrong era completely, but my book cover happens to be streaked with pink. And some readers have told me it’s “pretty.”

Lifeforms – Daughter
This is what I’d call a bonus track, from an album entitled If You Leave. I found it long after I finished writing and used it to promote the novel’s release. I love the wrought tempo, and the lyrics could have been written about Lake and Lucille. Elena Tonra’s vocals… sublime.

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST