Standard of the Day

By Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer 1961 Winning the Oscar for Best Original Song (in one of the last years in which that meant something),...

By Vernon Duke, John Latouche & Ted Fetter 1940 An infectiously rhythmic melody by Duke (pictured) and clever lyrics make it easy to und...

By Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart 1938 A sublime classic written by Rodgers & Hart for their 1938 musical I Married an Angel, in whic...

By Al Dubin & Harry Warren 1936 This one's a personal favorite of mine, which I discovered on an old LP of hits from the 1930s, belo...

By Juan Tizol & Irving Mills 1936 Generally considered the first Latin jazz song, this tune was composed by legendary trombonist Tizol f...

Jack Lawrence, one of the great lyricists of the Songbook Era, passed away six days ago in Redding, Connecticut at the age of 96, after suff...

By Antonio Carlos Jobim & Gene Lees 1963 One of the songs Jobim wrote for his groundbreaking collaboration with Stan Getz, this was firs...

By Frederick Hollander & Sammy Lerner 1930 A timeless theme of femininity introduced iconically by Marlene Dietrich in the motion pictur...

By Harold Arlen & E.Y. "Yip" Harburg 1940 The same duo that composed the score for The Wizard of Oz wrote this song the follow...

By George & Ira Gershwin 1937 A charming classic written for the Astaire/Rogers musical Shall We Dance. Ginger was the one to introduce ...

By Al Jolson, Vincent Rose & B.G. De Sylva 1920 Churned out at the height of Jolson's popularity, it may or not be legit that the si...

By Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II 1932 This sweeping, melodic beauty of a song was written for Tullio Carminati in the show Music in...

By Victor Schertzinger & Johnny Mercer 1941 Director Schertzinger collaborated with Mercer on this song for his 1942 musical film The Fl...

By Ralph Rainger & Leo Robin 1937 Written for the film of the same name, the song was originally performed as an instrumental, but becam...