The song of the day for Saturday, February 11, 2017 is “Because Of You.”

About This Song

“Because Of You” was written in 1940 by Arthur Hammerstein and Dudley Wilkinson.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Because Of You” on April 4, 1951, with an arrangement by Percy Faith.

Tony Bennett relates this story about “Because Of You” in his autobiography The Good Life:

By the spring of 1951, I was told that if I didn’t get a hit soon I’d be dropped from the label. I went into Percy’s office and he said, “In this next session you really have to deliver. We have only three songs ready, so we need another song.” I remember that he looked through a bunch of sheet music on his desk, grabbed a song, and said, “Well, let’s do this one.” That song was “Because Of You.”

“Because of You” built momentum from jukebox listeners and thus caught on with local radio stations. It reached number one on Billboard’s magazine’s pop chart on June 23, 1951 and stayed on the chart for 32 weeks … ten of the weeks at number one. Tony Bennett had his first big hit.

“Because Of You,” as well as all of the singles collected on the Columbia Singles, Vol. 1, is available from iTunes.

About Today

Tony Bennett and k.d. lang recorded “Because of You” in 2006 for Duets: An American Classic. Here’s the video they made: