The song of the day for Tuesday, January 10, 2017 is “Just Friends.”
About This Song
Today’s song, “Just Friends,” was written in 1931 by John Klenner and Sam M. Lewis. “Just Friends” has been a popular jazz standard , including vocal versions by Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Charlie Parker and Chet Baker. The song, both the music as well as the lyrics, seem more modern than most songs written in the early 1930s and for that reason has received interesting jazz treatments and found itself quite at home with bebop stylings.
About This Version
Tony Bennett recorded “Just Friends” on October 28, 1959 with Ralph Sharon. On that day, Bennett and Sharon walked into the CBS 30th Street Studio with a briefcase full of sheet music, with no preconceived list of songs they were going to record. A song was suggested, worked on a bit by both Bennett and Sharon, and then recorded. The two recorded seventeen songs in one day, which resulted in one of Bennett’s greatest albums: Tony Sings For Two, which was released in early 1961. Just piano and voice and some of the greatest songs from the American songbook. I love this album more than I can say.
“Just Friends,” as well as Tony Sings For Two, is available from iTunes.
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