The song of the day for Thursday, January 29, 2026, is “The Last Time I Saw Paris.”
About This Song
“The Last Time I Saw Paris” was written in 1940 by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein. It was the only stand-alone song they wrote, though it was used in the 1941 film Lady Be Good, where it was sung by Ann Sothern; the song won the Academy Award for best song that year. Kern was dismayed that a song not specifically written for a film could win the Oscar; the Academy listened and changed the rule for future best song nominees. “The Last Time I Saw Paris” inspired the 1954 film The Last Time I Saw Paris, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson.
Oscar Hammerstein, like many Americans, was devastated when Germany and the Nazis occupied Paris during World War II. He had visited Paris many times and loved the city. He wrote the lyrics for “The Last Time I Saw Paris” and sent them off to Kern.
Time Magazine included this article in their December 23, 1940, edition.
Tin Pan Alley always keeps only a jump behind the international situation. The preoccupation of songwriters with U.S. patriotism put three flag-waving songs on Variety’s best-selling list. The assault on England has boosted “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” to No. 3 on the list. But the fall of France has inspired the best tune: “The Last Time I Saw Paris” by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. Not yet a bestseller, this song was well on its way last week. Kate Smith had had exclusive radio rights to it for six weeks. There were half a dozen records of it, of which silky-voiced Hildegarde’s (Decca) best captured its nostalgia for the boulevard:
“The last time I saw Paris, Her trees were dressed for spring, And lovers walked beneath those trees, And birds found songs to sing. . . . The last time I saw Paris, Her heart was warm and gay. No matter how they change her I’ll remember her that way”
For years, Lyricist Hammerstein has written show songs with Composer Kern (Show Boat, Sunny, Music in the Air). “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” he said last week, is the only song he ever wrote that was not written to order. It is also the first Kern-Hammerstein piece whose words were written before the music. It is a hit, said Mr. Hammerstein, because “everyone feels that way about Paris, even the people who’ve never been there.”
About This Version
Tony Bennett, with Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes, recorded “The Last Time I Saw Paris” in 2015 for The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern.
“The Last Time I Saw Paris,” as well as The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, is available on Apple Music.
We have a clip of Tony Bennett and Bill Charlap performing “The Last Time I Saw Paris” on CBS Saturday morning: