Song of the Day: Just Friends

The song of the day for Tuesday, September 17, 2024, is “Just Friends.”

About Today

Ralph Sharon was born in London, England on September 17, 1923, to an English father and an American mother, who was a professional pianist.

Mr. Sharon found success quite early in life. By the age of 20, he was playing for Ted Heath in England, all the time playing additional jazz gigs and recording for the BBC. In the early 1950s, he emigrated to New York. He worked with prominent musicians, recording albums with noted jazz musicians, including Charles Mingus, Jo Jones, and others.

Ralph Sharon is a seminal figure in the early recording history of Tony Bennett. A noted jazz pianist, he encouraged Tony to explore his love of jazz at the same time the studio was attempting to guide Mr. Bennett into the role of popular singer. Sharon auditioned for Tony Bennett in 1957, as described by Mr. Bennett in his autobiography, The Good Life:

The first guy that showed up was okay, but the second guy, Ralph Sharon, just had to hit a few notes for me to know that he was the piano player for me.

At about the same time that Ralph Sharon began to play for Bennett, Columbia began to phase Mitch Miller out and Bennett began to work with other producers. Due to his enormous success, Bennett could stand up to the producers who wanted to keep him solely in the popular music hit factory. Tony Bennett had already recorded his first jazz album, Cloud 7, in 1955. Working with Sharon, they began to plan his next jazz album, The Beat of My Heart. They assembled great percussionists to play the great standards, with exceptional arrangements by Mr. Sharon. In addition to great American drummers (including Nat Adderley, Chico Hamilton, Jo Jones, and Eddie Costa) they also brought in two important Latin American percussionists: Sabu and Candido. The album was one of Tony Bennett’s finest albums to date and was well-received by jazz fans.

In 1962, Bennett and Sharon released one of my favorite albums, Tony Sings For Two. At a time when so much popular music was over-produced with enormous string sections, this album with just Ralph Sharon on piano and Tony Bennett singing was quite revolutionary.

In 1966, Ralph Sharon and Tony Bennett parted ways. Mr. Sharon lived on the West Coast and wanted to spend less time on the road. They reunited in 1979 and continued to play with Mr. Bennett until 2002. They did wonderful work together on albums Bennett released in that period: Art of Excellence, Bennett/Berlin, Perfectly Frank, and the MTV Unplugged concert, among others.

About This Song

“Just Friends” was written in 1931 by John Klenner and Sam M. Lewis. The song 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, for his album with Ralph Sharon, Tony Sings For Two, which wasn’t released until 1961.

For this session, Bennett and Ralph Sharon booked studio time to record an album with just themselves. Bennett recalled in his autobiography, Getting Started:

We booked time at the studio and pored through music books, trying one tune after another. The arrangements were spontaneous, and we finished each song in one or two takes. In one afternoon we laid down sixteen tunes—which must be some kind of record—twelve of which made it onto the album, which became 1961’s Tony Sings For Two. Mitch Miller showed up at the start of these sessions, furious that I was really going through with it. When he saw that there was no dissuading me, he turned to Frank Laico and said, “I’m leaving. I can’t support this.” Tony Sings For Two turned out to be one of my finest records ever.

“Just Friends,” as well as Tony Sings For Two, is available at Apple Music.