The Song of the Day for April 19, 2013 is I Wanna Be Around.
About I Wanna Be Around
The story behind this song is legendary. A woman from Ohio named Sadie Vimmerstedt was a fan of Johnny Mercer. She came up with the first two lines of the song and thought they sounded like a Mercer lyric. She famously mailed a letter with those two lines to “Johnny Mercer, Songwriter, Los Angeles, California.”
Mercer agreed, and went on to write the melody and remaining lyrics for I Wanna Be Around. He asked Tony Bennett to record the song, which Bennett did in October, 1962. It was the foundation for his 1963 album of the same name.
Johnny Mercer gave 50 percent of the royalties from the song to Ms. Vimmerstedt, which allowed her to retire and travel the world.
About This Version
This version is from Bennett’s great album of the same name: I Wanna Be Around.
[…] Tony Bennett fans, the story of “I Wanna Be Around” is a classic. You read about that here. In 1964, Ella Fitzgerald recorded a volume of his music for her Verve songbook series, the only […]