The song of the day for Saturday, March 15, 2024, is “I Wish I Were In Love Again.”
About Today
We are remembering Ruby Braff on the anniversary of his birth on March 16, 1927. Braff was a noted cornet and trumpet player. Braff, with The Ruby Braff/George Barnes Quartet, played for Tony Bennett’s two albums of Rodgers and Hart songs: Tony Bennett Sings 10 Rodgers and Hart Songs and Tony Bennett Sings More Great Rodgers & Hart, both released on Bennett’s own Improv label in 1973.
About This Song
“I Wish I Were In Love Again” was written by Richard Rodgers and Larry Hart for the 1937 musical Babes in Arms. It was a favorite song of Judy Garland, who recorded it in 1940. Other recordings include those by Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Audra McDonald.
About This Version
Tony Bennett recorded “I Wish I Were In Love Again” in July 1973 with The Ruby Braff/George Barnes Quartet (Braff on cornet, George Barnes and Wayne Wright on guitar, and John Guiffrida on bass), for Tony Bennett Sings More Great Rodgers and Hart, released in 1973.
In 1973 Tony Bennett and The Ruby Braff/George Barnes Quartet did a concert at Alice Tully Hall in New York. Whitney Balliett wrote a profile essay called “A Quality That Lets You In” for the January 7, 1974, issue of The New Yorker. Here’s an excerpt:
The concert at Alice Tully the next evening is billed as “An Evening with Rodgers and Hart,” and it is a smooth and engaging success. The hall is sold out, and the audience is hip. Bennett sings the verses of most of the songs and by the time he gets a note or two into the chorus there is the applause of recognition. He sings twenty-one Rodgers-and-Hart tunes, and many are memorable. He sings a soft, husky “Blue Moon,” and then comes a muted Ruby Braff solo. “There’s a Small Hotel” is even softer, and Braff and George Barnes react with pianissimo statements. The group, indeed, is impeccable. The solos are beautiful and the dynamics all anticipate Bennett’s. He does “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” as an encore. The ovation is long and standing.
“I Wish I Were In Love Again,” as well as Tony Bennett Sings The Rodgers & Hart Songbook, is available on Apple Music.