The song of the day for Friday, August 1, 2014 is “Because of You.”
About This Song
“Because of You” was written in 1940 by Dudley Wilkinson and Arthur Hammerstein (uncle to Oscar Hammerstein II). The song got its big start with the recording in 1951 by Tony Bennett. Other recordings that same year include those by Gloria DeHaven, Louis Armstrong and Johnny Desmond.
About This Version
This song was recorded at a major turning point in Tony Bennett’s early career. A year into his contract with Columbia Records, he was in danger in being cut from the label if he didn’t come up with a big, major hit and soon. Before the recording session on April 4, 1951, he met with his arranger Percy Faith. They needed a third song to round out a four-song effort. Faith pulled “Because of You” off of the pile and so it was recorded. Percy Faith gave Tony Bennett a great piece of advice: “Just relax. Use natural voice and sing the song.”
The song was not an instant hit and didn’t get a lot of radio play. But it was being played a lot on jukeboxes throughout America, and people began calling up their local radio stations asking for it to be played. On June 23, 1951, it reached #1 on Billboard’s pop chart and stayed on the chart for thirty-two weeks, ten of those weeks at #1.
http://open.spotify.com/track/4DTO96EvOW9JT6OIUNFpZW
“Because of You,” as well as all of the singles on The Columbia Singles, Vol. 1, is available from iTunes.
I have loved this song since 1951. It was great then; and its great now!