• Home
  • About
    • About This Blog
    • About the Authors
  • Song of the Day
  • Album of the Week
  • Music and Art
    • Tony Live!
    • Music
      • Viva Duets
      • Songs
      • Albums
    • Art
  • And More
    • Collaborator of the Month
    • Songwriter of the Month – 2016
    • News
      • Cheek To Cheek
      • Bennett & Brubeck -The White House Sessions Live 1962
      • Life is a Gift
      • Viva Duets
      • Zen of Bennett
      • Other News
    • About His Collaborators
    • Musings
    • Extras
      • Books
      • Interviews
      • Media
  • The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography

The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

March 23, 2013 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Just In The Time

The song of the day for Saturday, March 23, 2013 is Just In Time.

About This Song

Just in Time is one of the many great songs from the 1956 musical Bells Are Ringing, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

The Year of Tony Bennett chooses this song in honor of Tony Bennett’s participation in the Third March from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965. The first two marches had ended poorly, with the marchers being attacked by police with billy clubs and tear gas on the first march and not being allowed to cross Edmund Pettus Bridge on the second march. Dr. Martin Luther King enlisted Harry Belafonte to encourage  other celebrities to join the fight. Tony Bennett was the first person Belafonte reached out to. Other participants included Joan Baez, Paul Newman, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frankie Laine and Nina Simone.

On the morning of March 24, the march entered Montgomery County, Alabama. That night, there was a “Stars For Freedom” rally, with performances by the artists. There was no stage; a local funeral home offered the use of empty coffins to make a stage. Tony Bennett, visibly exhausted from the long march, sang Just In Time. In August, 1965, Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

About This Version

This version of Just in Time is from the Tony Bennett / Count Basie album, In Person!

http://open.spotify.com/track/7zYba3iNwhjnlpDTbfXK5N
Just In Time, as well as the full Tony Bennett Count Basie In Person! album, is available from iTunes.

Here’s the interview with Tony Bennett and Harry Belafonte from CNN conducted on March 21, 2013.

 

Filed Under: Song of the Day Tagged With: Adolph Green, Bells Are Ringing, Betty Comden, Harry Belafonte, Jule Styne, Third March from Selma to Montgomery

September 5, 2012 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Just In Time

The Song of the Day for September 5, 2012 is Just In Time.

About Just In Time

Written by Jule Styne (music) and Betty Comden and Adolph Green (lyrics), Just In Time is just one the great hits from the 1956 Broadway musical Bells Are Ringing.  The stars of the show, Judy Holliday and Sydney Chaplin introduced the song. Tony Bennett recorded the song in the same year, and it was a big hit for Mr. Bennett. The Party’s Over, another song recorded by Mr Bennett (Hometown, My Town in 1959) was the other major hit song from this wonderful score.

About This Version

Mr. Bennett has sung this song over his career, including his duet with Michael Bublé in the 2006 Duets album. But perhaps his most significant performance was never recorded. Starting on March 21, 1965, Tony Bennett marched with Martin Luther King, now-Congressman John Lewis, Ralph Bunche, Billy Eckstine, Leonard Bernstein and many, many others on the Third March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. On the evening of March 24, 1965 on a makeshift stage (created with coffins loaned by a local mortuary), a Stars for Freedom rally and concert was held. In addition to Mr. Bennett, the performers included Harry Belafonte, Frankie Laine, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Peter, Paul and Mary.

The documentary film Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends, contains a short clip from this concert (approximately 21:28 in). You can easily see how completely and totally exhausted Mr. Bennett was at this rally. He got up and sang Just In Time and for the American civil rights movement, it was just in time. As a result of the marches from Selma to Montgomery, President Johnson introduced and Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, major battle in the Civil Rights movement.

For today, we present Mr. Bennett’s original recording of Just in Time, released as single and compiled here on the first CD of the Fifty Years of Tony Bennett box set.

Just in Time

Listen to Just in Time on Spotify. Tony Bennett · Song · 1962.

As I write this topic, the First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama, just finished addressing the delegates to the 2012 Democratic Convention. To have such a moment in our history, we owe thanks to many brave Americans who have fought racism all their lives, including Tony Bennett. Thank you, Mr. Bennett.

Filed Under: Song of the Day Tagged With: Adolph Green, Bells Are Ringing, Betty Comden, Harry Belafonte, Jule Styne, Martin Luther King, Third March from Selma to Montgomery, Voting Rights Act

Subscribe to The Year of Tony Bennett

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Current Reader Favorites

  • Song of the Day: The Right To Love
  • Song of the Day: You Must Believe in Spring
  • Duke Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance
  • Song of the Day: Make Someone Happy
  • Song of the Day: The Good Life
  • Song of the Day: The Song Is Ended
  • Home
  • About
  • Song of the Day
  • Album of the Week
  • Music and Art
  • And More
  • The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography

Copyright © 2023 The Year of Tony Bennett · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress