The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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.

By Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: I Thought About You

The song of the day for Monday, March 24, 2025, is “I Thought About You.”

About This Song

“I Thought About You” was written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Mercer in 1939. In his biography Portrait of Johnny: The Life of John Herndon Mercer, author Gene Lees quotes Mercer about this song: ‘I can remember the afternoon that we wrote it. He [Van Heusen] played me the melody. I didn’t have any idea, but I had to go to Chicago that night. I think I was on the Benny Goodman program. And I got to thinking about it on the train. I was awake, I couldn’t sleep. The tune was running through my mind, and that’s when I wrote the song. On the train, really going to Chicago.’ “I Thought About You” proved quite popular and has been recorded many times by jazz performers including Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Hartman, Shirley Horn, Dinah Washington, and Mel Tormé.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “I Thought About You” in June 1922 for his tribute album to Frank Sinatra: Perfectly Frank.
For this album, Bennett was accompanied by The Ralph Sharon Trio, featuring Sharon on piano, Paul Langosch on bass, and Joe LaBarbera on drums.

“I Thought About You,” as well as Perfectly Frank, is available on Apple Music.

Frank Sinatra recorded “I Thought About You” for his 1956 album Songs for Swingin’ Lovers.

By Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Twilight World

The song of the day for Thursday, March 20, 2025, is “Twilight World.”

About Today

The Year of Tony Bennett is happy and proud to honor the great Marian McPartland on the anniversary of her birth on March 20, 1918. She did it all: jazz pianist, composer, author, and radio presenter. Her Piano Jazz program on NPR was the catalyst that made me a jazz fan.

About This Song

“Twilight World” was composed by Marian McPartland in 1957, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The tune itself is a lovely mid-tempo ballad, often played in a bossa nova style. The Mercer lyrics are quite good, and the combination makes for a nearly perfect jazz song. Tony Bennett said “Well, that song will last forever. It’s a beautiful song.”

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Twilight World” on October 1, 1971, for his album With Love, released in 1972. Robert Farnon wrote the arrangement and conducted the orchestra.

“Twilight World,” as well as With Love, is available on Apple Music.

Tony Bennett was McPartland’s guest on Piano Jazz in 1990. We’re very pleased to be able to include that episode in the post.

By Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: That Old Black Magic

The song of the day for Saturday, March 15, 2025, is “That Old Black Magic.”

About This Song

“That Old Black Magic” was written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer for the 1942 film Star Spangled Rhythm. Glenn Miller made the first recording of the song, also in 1942. “That Old Black Magic” has been recorded many times and used in several films, including the 1956 film Bus Stop, where it was sung by Marilyn Monroe.

About This Version

On August 28, 1962, Tony Bennett (with his trio) and The Dave Brubeck Quartet gave a concert at the request of President John F. Kennedy, honoring that year’s group of Presidential Scholars. Bennett and Brubeck each performed sets of their music. After both had played, they joined for an impromptu. improvised set, featuring Tony Bennett, Dave Brubeck (piano), Joe Morello (drums), and Eugene Wright (bass). At the time of the concert, both Brubeck and Bennett were at the height of their careers. Bennett had entered the Billboard charts with his hit “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” and Brubeck’s “Take Five” had become an instant jazz classic. The concert was originally to be held in the White House Rose Garden, but there was so much interest that it was moved to the Mall near the Washington Monument. Frank Laico, one of Columbia’s top recording engineers, taped the concert.

Unfortunately, the tape of the concert was long thought to be lost. It was only discovered in 2012 in the Classical music archives at Columbia/Song. The album Bennett/Brubeck: The White House Sessions Live 1962 was released in 2013.

According to jazz writer Ted Gioia, both had arrived at stardom but were seemingly stars from different galaxies. Yet these two beloved musicians also had much in common.” He points out that both men served in the Second World War and participated in the Battle of the Bulge, as well as having been active in the Civil Rights movement. (Brubeck cancelled 23 concerts rather than replace his black bassist, Eugene Wright, and Bennett marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Ala.)

But these two artists were musically simpatico as well. They shared a devotion to the great American songbook, and knew how to straddle the worlds of jazz and popular music without compromises or crass commercialism, yet still reach millions of people, many of whom would never step inside a jazz club or read a copy of Down Beat.

So what a blessing to have these tracks from the past, a true meeting of musical masters, come to us more than a half-century after they were made, but still sounding as fresh and alive as they did to those present back in 1962. And after hiding out in a dark archive for so many decades, the music of two of the best and brightest to ever interpret the American popular song is shining for us once more.

“That Old Black Magic,” as well as Bennett/Brubeck: The White House Sessions Live 1962, is available on Apple Music.

After their 1962 performance, Tony Bennett and Dave Brubeck didn’t work together again until 2009 the Newport Jazz Festival. The video is shaky. obviously hand-held by someone in the audience, the audio is quite good.

As one of the commenters of the video said: “If you look up cool in the dictionary, this video should be there.”