The song of the day for Tuesday, December 9, 2014 is “More Than You Know.”
About This Song
Today’s song was composed by Vincent Youmans with lyrics by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu. It was written in 1929 for the Broadway musical Great Day, which only ran for 36 performances. In spite of its poor run on Broadway, the score was considered very good and so it got sold to Hollywood, where it was to be a starring vehicle for Joan Crawford. Eight weeks into production, the film was shut down and was never released. Thankfully, this song remained popular, in many ways thanks to Fanny Brice, who was married to Billy Rose, and sang the song in her performances with the Ziegfeld Follies. It has been widely recorded by jazz and popular artists since it was written.
About This Version
Tony Bennett recorded “More Than You Know” in 1961 for his album My Heart Sings. It was arranged and conducted by Ralph Burns; the album was produced by Ernie Altschuler. One of the many reasons that I love the music of Tony Bennett is because he often sings the verse to his songs. Sometimes you’ll be listening to a song and think “this sounds familiar, but what is it?” and then the verse has ended and there’s the chorus we know so well. I love those moments.
“More Than You Know,” as well as My Heart Sings, is available from iTunes.
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