The song of the day for Monday, July 28, 2025, is “A Cottage For Sale.”

About This Song

“A Cottage For Sale” was written by Willard Robison and Larry Conley in the 1920s. This song is a rather sweet and sad ballad about the lovely cottage for sale after the relationship breaks up. This song was first recorded by the composer Robison with his orchestra, The Deep River Orchestra. Other early recordings include those by The Revelers and Bernie Cummins with the New Yorker Orchestra. In later years, the recordings by Frank Sinatra and Billy Eckstine were very popular.

Other well-known songs written by Willard Robison include “Don’t Smoke in Bed” and “Old Folks.” In his book American Popular Song, Alec Wilder wrote:

Everybody loved him, and many tried to help him, among them John Mercer. Mildred Bailey revered him and sang every song of his she could lay her hands on. I became aware of him in the late twenties when he recorded for Perfect Records. He did manage, during his almost euphoric life, to write a few successful songs … but generally his songs were known only to a few singers and lovers of the off-beat and the non-urban song. He had a special flair for gentleness and childhood, the lost and the religious. I suppose it’s not part of the growth of popular music, nor perhaps were any of Robison’s songs. But if they could so much bolster John Mercer’s conviction that there was more to write lyrics about than city life, that the world of memory, of remembered sayings and scenes, was as evocative as the whispered words of lovers, then he did make a contribution.

Jazz guitarist Matt Munisteri has recorded several Willard Robison songs on his album Still Runnin’ Round in the Wilderness, available on Spotify.

Willard Robison worked with Jack Teagarden, who released an album with many Robinson songs in 1962: Think Well Of Me.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “A Cottage For Sale” on April 9, 1958, for 4th album, Long Ago and Far Away, released 67 years ago on July 28, 1958. Frank DeVol wrote the arrangement and conducted the orchestra.

Bennett recorded another Willard Robison song, “Revolvin’ Jones,” for the album On The Glory Road, which was not released but was included in the 2011 Complete Collection box set. Click on the song title to hear that recording.

“A Cottage For Sale,” as well as Long Ago and Far Away, is available on Apple Music.

I like Diana Krall’s recording of “Don’t Sleep In Bed.”