With
the lyrics written by Johnny Green and the music by Heyman, Sour and Eyton,
this song was written in 1930 for Gertrude Lawrence.The first British recording of it was
by Jack Hylton and His Orchestra but it became popular when it was recorded
by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, with Jack Fulton on vocals, and
retained No. 1 in the UK
charts for six weeks following its 11th October
1930 release.It appeared in Three's a Crowd
on Broadway on 15th October
1930 with the song performed by Libby Holman and danced
to by Clifton Webb.The Libby
Holman recording reached No. 3 in the US
charts but the song was banned for a year on radio because of its
suggestive lyrics.Notwithstanding
this ban the song was recorded 14 times over the 1930s and 1940s alone, by
artists that included the Benny Goodman Trio, Ruth Etting, Billy Eckstine
and Louis Armstrong.The song
has featured on the soundtracks of at least 15 movies, 3 stage productions
and 2 television programmes.The Library of Congress chose it as one of the year's 50 elected
recordings to be added to the National Recording Registry in 2004.
The Manhattan
Transfer Recordings
Atlantic:
K11476 B (UK45)
This
version is the B-side of The Manhattan Transfer chart song "Twilight
Zone/Twilight Tone" and appears on their album Extensions.
