The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

By Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: So Long, Big Time!

The song of the day for is “So Long, Big Time!”

About This Song

“So Long, Big Time!” was written in 1963 by Harold Arlen and Dory Langdon Previn. One of Arlen’s later songs, “So Long, Big Time!” is about the “player” who’s run out of luck and is giving up the fast life and knows when it’s time to walk away. The Bill Evans Trio and Monica Zetterlund recorded this song in 1964 for the album Waltz For Debby.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “So Long, Big Time!” on September 17, 1963, for The Many Moods of Tony. Marty Manning wrote the arrangement and Harold Arlen conducted the orchestra.

“So Long, Big Time!” as well as The Many Moods of Tony, is available on Apple Music.

By Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Over The Rainbow

The song of the day for Tuesday, April 8, 2025, is “Over The Rainbow.”

About Today

The Year of Tony Bennett remembers Edgar Yipsel (Yip) Harburg on the anniversary of his birth in New York City on April 8, 1896. We’ve provided a link to biographical information about Yip Harburg. But I do want to add a little factoid: Yip and Ira Gershwin attended high school together and worked together on the school newspaper. They were lifelong friends.

About This Song

“Over the Rainbow” was written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. During studio previews, the producers wanted to cut the song from the film, as they felt it slowed down the movie. Thankfully, the preview audiences preferred the movie with the song. “Over the Rainbow” ranked as the #1 song of the 20th century per the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The song has always been closely associated with Judy Garland. In a letter to Harold Arlen, Judy Garland wrote that the song “has become part of my life. It’s so symbolic of everybody’s dreams and wishes that I’m sure that’s why some people get tears in their eyes when they hear it. I’ve sung it thousands of times and it’s still the song that’s closest to my heart.”

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Over the Rainbow” in July 1995 for Here’s To The Ladies. In this album, Bennett recorded songs associated with prominent 20th-century female singers. “Over the Rainbow” was included in tribute to Judy Garland.

Here’s To The Ladies won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance.

“Over The Rainbow,” as well as Here’s To The Ladies, is available on Apple Music.

We’ve got a couple of great videos today.

First up, here’s Judy Garland singing this song from The Wizard of Oz:

And here is Yip Harburg talking about this song on a 1979 television program featuring popular ong lyricists:

By Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Out of This World

The song of the day for Friday, April 4, 2025, is “Out of This World.”

About This Song

“Out of This World” was written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer for the 1945 movie of the same name. Out Of This World starred Eddie Bracken; however Bing Crosby dubbed the vocals for Bracken and introduced the song. Alec Wilder was a fan of “Out of This World”, praising its ethereal quality and the excellent lyrics by Mercer.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Out of This World” on October 15, 1964, with an outstanding jazz quartet: Herbie Hancock (piano), Stan Getz (tenor sax), Ron Carter (bass) and Elvin Jones (drums).

“Out of This World,” as well as Rarities, Outtakes & Other Delights, Vol. 1, is available on Apple Music.

By Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Blues in the Night

The song of the day for Sunday, March 30, 2025, is “Blues in the Night.”

About This Song

“Blues in the Night” was written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer for the 1941 movie of the same name. Arlen wrote the music first and wrote a true blues song. Johnny Mercer, who later wrote the lyrics, drew on his southern heritage to write the exceptional blues lyrics. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to “The Last Time I Saw Paris” by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein.

Arlen recalled the writing process of the song:

The whole thing just poured out. And I knew in my guts, without even thinking what Johnny would write for a lyric, that this was strong, strong, strong! When Mercer wrote “Blues in the Night”, I went over his lyric and I started to hum it over his desk. It sounded marvelous once I got to the second stanza but that first twelve was weak tea. On the third or fourth page of his work sheets I saw some lines—one of them was “My momma done tol’ me, when I was in knee pants.” I said, “Why don’t you try that?” It was one of the very few times I’ve ever suggested anything like that to John.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Blues in the Night” in May 2001 for his album Playin’ With My Friends: Bennett Sings The Blues. Rob Mathes wrote the vocal arrangements.

Playin’ With My Friends: Bennett Sings The Blues won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Album.

“Blues in the Night,” as well as Playin’ With My Friends: Bennett Sings The Blues, is available on Apple Music.

Many thanks to YouTube for having the scene in Blues in the Night when the song was sung.

By Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)

The song of the day for Saturday, March 29, 2025, is “One For My Baby (And One More For The Road).”

Johnny Mercer

We’re continuing our look at lyricists with one of America’s greatest: John Herndon Mercer. Johnny Mercer was born on November 18, 1909, to a prominent family in Savannah, Georgia. He developed a love of music at a young age. He was meant to matriculate at Princeton University, but the family lost most of their money in the 1929 crash. He moved to New York and started his career as a lyricist; one of his first major collaborations was with Hoagy Carmichael. He moved to Hollywood in 1938 and worked with several notable composers, including Richard Whiting and Harry Warren. He began working with Harold Arlen in the 1940s; their collaborations were quite notable.

Although he continued to write lyrics for many years, he also pursued other interests, notably founding Capital Records in 1941. New studio signed many notable artists, including Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, Peggy Lee, Kay Starr, Mel Torme, and many other artists. Frank Sinatra was the first artist to record at the newly built Capitol Records building in Los Angeles.

Johnny Mercer died in Los Angeles from a brain tumor on June 25, 1976. He is buried at the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah.

About This Song

“One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)” was written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer for the 1943 film The Sky’s The Limit, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire. Harold Arlen called this song one of his “tapeworms” as, at 48 bars, it was longer than the standard 32-bar popular song. Alec Wilder, in American Popular Song, says that “the honors must go to the lyric. Just imagine having the acuity and courage to start a song, as Mercer does, with ‘It’s a quarter to three’!

It has been said (though this may be apocryphal) that Mercer wrote the lyric on a cocktail napkin at P. J. Clarke’s when. Tommy Joyce was the bartender. The next day Mercer called Joyce to apologize for the line “So, set ’em up, Joe,” explaining, “I couldn’t get your name to rhyme.”

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)” in June 1992 for his album Perfectly Frank. Ralph Sharon wrote the arrangement.

“One For My Baby (And One More For The Road),” as well as Perfectly Frank, is available on Apple Music.