1932
Once referred to by renowned composer and music scholar Alec Wilder as the "perfect theater song," this sweeping, evocative number was written by Duke and frequent Harold Arlen collaborator Harburg for the stage production Walk a Little Faster, and introduced in a hit recording by Freddy Martin. Perhaps the most well-known recording would be Count Basie's jazzy rendition, typified by trumpeter Thad Jones' unforgettable solo and the Count's exhortations to his band of "one more time" and "one more once!" Basie's version was also memorably featured in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles.
Lyrics:
April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom
Holiday tables under the trees
April in Paris, this is a feeling
No one can ever reprise
I never knew the charm of spring
Never met it face to face
I never new my heart could sing
Never missed a warm embrace
Till April in Paris
Whom can I run to
What have you done to my heart?
Frank Sinatra
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
Billie Holiday
Thelonious Monk
Dinah Shore
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