The song of the day for Sunday, October 19, 2014 is “I Wanna Be Around.”
About This Song
“I Wanna Be Around” has a wonderful show business story. A woman from Youngstown, Ohio named Sadie Vimmerstedt was a big Johnny Mercer fan. One day in February 1957, the words “I wanna be around, to pick up the pieces, when somebody breaks your heart” came to her and she knew immediately that it was Johnny Mercer lyric. So, she wrote Mercer a letter, addressed to Johnny Mercer, Songwriter, Los Angeles, CA” and thanks to an alert post office employee the letter was delivered to Mercer. He agreed with Ms. Vimmerstedt and in 1962 decided to write the music for the song himself, as well as finishing out the lyrics. He split the royalties with Ms. Vimmerstedt 50-50, enabling her to travel and retire in great style. Besides … it’s a really great song.
About This Version
In finishing the song “I Wanna Be Around,” Mercer felt that it was a good song for Tony Bennett, and thus Bennett made the first recording of “I Wanna Be Around,” which was released as single in 1962 and was the title song for the album I Wanna Be Around, released in 1963. Your author has heard Bennett mention in concerts, where he regularly sings this song, that Ms. Vimmerstedt used to send him post cards of her world travels.
About Today
On October 19, 1962, 52 years ago today, Tony Bennett entered the CBS 30th Street Studio with arranger and conductor Marty Manning and recorded seven (!) songs for the album I Wanna Be Around, including today’s song. You can click the date to read more about this recording session at our sister site The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography.
[…] Aunque la canción «I Wanna Be Around» fue grabada por algunos cantantes, fue la versión de Tony Bennett de 1963 la que la catapultó a las listas de éxitos. Se quedó en el Cartelera listas durante 16 semanas y alcanzó el puesto número 5. La canción también tiene una historia de fondo interesante. En 1957, a una mujer de Ohio llamada Sadie Vimmerstedt se le ocurrió la frase: «Quiero estar presente, para recoger los pedazos, cuando alguien te rompa el corazón». Ella era una gran admiradora del letrista Johnny Mercer y decidió enviárselo con la esperanza de que pueda convertirlo en una canción. En 1962, Mercer terminó la composición e incluso acreditó a Vimmerstedt como coautora y le dio el 50% de las ganancias (vía Blogs Tony Bennett). […]