The song of the day for Thursday, September 3, 2015 is “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”

About This Song

Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams” in 1933 for the movie Moulin Rouge, where it was sung by Constance Bennett. Although numerous artists have recorded “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (including Bing Crosby 1944), this song is very strongly identified with Tony Bennett.

About This Version

Today’s recording is the first recording that Tony Bennett made for Columbia Records: CO 43129 on April 17, 1950. It was conducted and arranged by Marty Manning and produced by Mitch Miller. In October 1949, Bennett had made demo disk with this song and “Crazy Rhythm,” both arranged by Tony Tamburello. In fact, this demo record of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” was heard by Mitch Miller and got Bennett his recording contract with Columbia Records.

“The Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” as well as all of the songs on The Columbia Singles, Vol. 1, is available from iTunes.