The song of the day for Thursday, February 6, 2025, is “The Man That Got Away.”
About Today
Today’s song is from Tony Sings For Two, which was released 64 years ago today on February 6, 1961.
About This Song
“The Man That Got Away” was written by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin for Judy Garland for the 1954 version of A Star Is Born, with James Mason. Her performance of the song is legendary in film history, with 27 takes in three days, three separate sessions, and two different directors. The filmed scene is brilliant and made the song a huge hit for Garland, who sang it in most of her concerts.
About This Version
Tony Bennett recorded “The Man That Got Away” on October 28, 1959, for his album with Ralph Sharon, Tony Sings For Two, released on February 6, 1961. Bennett told the story of this album in his autobiography, The Good Life.
I always wanted to be unpredictable, and so for my next project, I decided to go in the opposite direction from the big orchestral albums I’d been doing lately and cut an intimate piano-vocal album with Ralph Sharon. 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.
“The Man That Got Away,” as well as Tony Sings For Two, is available on Apple Music.
Here’s the scene from A Star Is Born. Judy Garland was 32 years old:
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