The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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On the Sixth Day of a Tony Bennett Christmas

On the sixth day of a Tony Bennett Christmas, Tony sings us a great, jazzy version of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.”

Written by the songwriting team of J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, “Santa Claus is Coming To Town” had a spectacular debut. The song was first sung on Eddie Cantor’s radio show in November, 1934. On the day after the broadcast, there were 100,000 orders for the sheet music; by Christmas, over 400,000 copies of the sheet music had been sold.

Tony Bennett has recorded this song twice: first for the 1968 album Snowfall and again in 2004 for A Swingin’ Christmas. The arrangement is by Bill Holman and features Andy Snitzer on tenor sax.

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (feat. Count Basie Big Band)

Listen to Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (feat. Count Basie Big Band) on Spotify. Song · Tony Bennett, Count Basie Big Band · 2008


“Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” as well as A Swinging’ Christmas is available from iTunes.

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What We’re Listening To

As is our habit, we were listening to the local Portland jazz station, KHMD, during dinner. At one point, we both stopped as one of the most beautiful songs we’d heard in a long time started to play.

It was Rosemary Clooney singing “For All We Know” from her 1991 album For The Duration. This album consists of songs that were popular during World War II. The song selection is terrific and the arrangements are lovely. Most feature a small combo with Scott Hamilton on tenor sax and Warren Vaché on cornet, though some tracks use strings. Her musical director is John Oddo.

Back to “For All We Know.” This song was written by J. Fred Coots (“You Go To My Head” and “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”) with lyrics by Sam M. Lewis. It’s a really wonderful song sung by one of America’s great female vocalists.

For All We Know

Listen to For All We Know on Spotify. Song · Rosemary Clooney · 1991

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Song of the Day: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

On the fifth day of a Tony Bennett Christmas, Wednesday, December 18, 2013, the song of the day is “Santa Claus is Coming To Town.”

About This Song

Written by the songwriting team of J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, “Santa Claus is Coming To Town” had a spectacular debut. The song was first sung on Eddie Cantor’s radio show in November, 1934. On the day after the broadcast, there were 100,000 orders for the sheet music; by Christmas, over 400,000 copies of the sheet music had been sold.

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About This Version

Today’s version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” is from Tony Bennett’s 2008 album A Swingin’ Christmas, featuring The Count Basie Big Band. This album is a favorite of ours, as it not only contains a number of great swinging Christmas songs, there are also some very nice ballad-type Christmas songs as well.

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“Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” as well as the album A Swinging’ Christmas, is available from iTunes and Amazon.

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Song of the Day: You Go To My Head

The song of the day for Wednesday, December 5, 2012, is You Go To My Head.

About You Go To My Head

This song was written in 1938, with music by J. Fred Coots and lyrics by Haven Gillespie. In that year, it was recorded by both Teddy Wilson and Billie Holiday. The song has been a popular and jazz standard since it was written. Judy Garland performed it at her legendary 1961 Judy at Carnegie Hall concert. Other artists who have recorded the song include Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald.

About This Version

Today’s version is from Tony Bennett’s remarkable 1957 album The Beat Of My Heart. The album conceived and devised by Mr. Bennett and Ralph Sharon, who also arranged and conducted the album. Mr. Bennett was pulled together the finest drummers and percussionists from all over the world and featured them on each song on the album. You Go To My Head features Art Blakey, who was instrumental in defining the bebop style of drumming. Mr. Blakey founded the Jazz Messengers group, which he kept active for many years. He used this group to give young jazz musicians to perform and learn; graduates of The Jazz Messengers include Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard.

You Got To My Head, as well as the full album The Beat Of My Heart, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: You Go To My Head

The Song of the Day for September 29, 2012 is You Go To My Head.

About You Go To My Head

You Go To My Head was written in 1938 by J. Fred Coots (music) and Haven Gillespie (lyrics). It was popular from the start and was recorded by Teddy Wilson and Billie Holiday the same year. It’s been recorded by many jazz and popular artists, including Judy Garland, Dizzy Gillespie, Bing Crosby, Chet Baker, Art Tatum, and many, many more.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded this version in 1957 for The Beat Of My Heart, featuring Chico Hamilton. He also recorded a lovely version for Perfectly Frank in 1992.