This lovely song is best known because of Billie Holiday’s performance, although it was originally sung beautifully by Bing Crosby. I celebrate it as yet another triumph for the tragically short-lived composer Ralph Rainger, and the woman we do not think of as a lyricist, Dorothy Parker (her only other popular success was HOW AM I TO KNOW?).
It is now 2015, as you have noticed. And although I revere Lady Day to the utmost, I know there is Life After Billie as well. So I invite you to admire this performance of that song from the 2015 Allegheny Jazz Party (September 10) featuring Rebecca Kilgore with Harry Allen, Ehud Asherie, Howard Alden, Jon Burr, and Hal Smith — a masterpiece of dreamlike subtle floating:
Our Rebecca makes the song her own — her own tempo, her own improvisations shaping both the first and second choruses. And her instrumentalists keep us aloft. We don’t have to wish on the moon for every loveliness when they are so generously being granted us.
May your happiness increase!
