The song of the day for Monday, February 24, 2025, is “Revolvin’ Jones.”
About This Song
“Revolvin’ Jones” was written by Willard Robison in 1940. Other well-known Robison songs include “A Cottage For Sale” and “Don’t Smoke in Bed.” Alec Wilder wrote about Robison in American Popular Song:
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.
About This Version
Tony Bennett recorded “Revolvin’ Jones” on March 16, 1962, for On The Glory Road. Just days before it was to be released, Columbia Records canceled the album. Ralph Sharon wrote the arrangement.
Thankfully, Bennett’s 2011 Complete Collection box set included a CD of On The Glory Road.
“Revolvin’ Jones,” as well as On The Glory Road, is available on Apple Music.
Jazz guitarist Matt Munisteri is a strong supporter of the music of Willard Robison. He released an album of Robison’s music in 2012 called Still Runnin’ Round In The Wilderness. Here is his recording of “Revolvin’ Jones” from that album.