The song of the day for Thursday, January 9, 2020, is “But Beautiful.”

About This Song

“But Beautiful” was written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke for Bing Crosby to sing in the 1947 movie The Road to Rio. The song has been widely recorded, including recordings by Bill Evans, Johnny Hartman, Billie Holiday, Gregory Porter, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.

About This Version

Tony Bennett and Bill Evans recorded “But Beautiful” in June 1975. In fact, the entire album was recorded in three days: June 10-June 13. The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album was released on Bill Evans’s label: Fantasy Records. In 1991, Fantasy released the CD version, adding alternate takes for several songs.

Bennett wrote in his autobiography, The Good Life:

I remember how the intensity of the whole experience kept mounting. “Don’t wait for us to do a take, just keep the tape running all the time.” But all he said was, “I can’t. I’ll run out of tape.” My one regret is that we didn’t record all those rehearsals and run-throughs. It was fascinating to hear Bill work on songs. He was always improvising and revising, changing and improving his approach.

“But Beautiful,” as well as The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album, is available from iTunes.