The song of the day for Wednesday, November 12, 2014 is “Just One Of Those Things.”

About This Song

Cole Porter wrote “Just One of Those Things” for the 1935 musical Jubilee. It’s one of Porter’s most popular songs and has been recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra. Alec Wilder in American Popular Song spoke of the lyric as ‘a trip to the moon on gossamer wings’ and “that it seems impossible that it wasn’t sitting on his piano, waiting for Porter even before he wrote the lyric.” It has a certain literary fame as well: Holden Caulfield, in Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” likes the song and notes that even the “stinking band” in the hotel lounge “couldn’t ruin it entirely.”

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Just One Of Those Things” in 1957 for his third album The Beat of My Heart, which featured jazz drummers and percussionists on each song. This song featured Art Blakey.

About Today

I’ve been in Cole Porter mood for the last few days and The Beat of My Heart was the one album I wanted to listen to today. So there you go.

“Just One Of Those Things,” as well as The Beat of My Heart, is available from iTunes.