The song of the day for Wednesday, February 18, 2015 is “Sweet Lorraine.”
About This Song
Written in 1928 by Cliff Burwell, with lyrics by Mitchell Parish, “Sweet Lorraine” was originally a vaudeville song; the Rudy Valle recording made the song quite popular and a nice, up-tempo jazz number. Nat King Cole had a major hit with this song in 1940.
About This Version
In his autobiography, The Good Life, Tony Bennett included this story about today’s song and our album of the month:
That album also included a song that’s always been very special to me: “Sweet Lorraine.” I dedicated it to Nat Cole, who had died a month earlier in April 1965. I was heartbroken when I heard that Nat had passed away. Bobby Hackett and I were working at the Palmer House in Chicago, and it seemed appropriate to pay tribute by recording Nat’s signature tune while we were in his hometown. (Bobby, whose instrument is normally cornet, surprised us all by playing ukulele on this record; his buddy Joe Marsala played clarinet.)
The results are wonderful.
“Sweet Lorraine,” as well as If I Ruled The World: Songs for the Jet Set, is available from iTunes.
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