Standard of the Day

By Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal and Pierre Norman 1930 Iconic Frenchman Maurice Chevalier was one of the leading film heartthrobs of the De...

By Herbert Stothart, Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar 1928 An iconic number for the original "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" girl Helen Kane, who ...

By Frank Silver and Irving Cohn 1923 On January 1, for the first time in 20 years, a motherlode of intellectual property entered the publ...

By Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel 1971 With the death late last month of Norman Gimbel , prominent lyricist of the 1950s-1970s, let'...

By Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson 1950 If you'll indulge me with a belated Christmas standard, I'd like to place the (not-too-hot)...

The world of popular standards has lost one of the last major vocalists to come along at the tail end of the "golden age" of Ame...

By Frank Loesser 1950 With all the recent hullabaloo over the Frank Loesser song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" ( whose entry yo...

By Johnny Green and Edward Heyman (pictured) 1931 From the same team responsible for "Body and Soul" and "I Cover the Wate...

By Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer 1938 One of the catchiest songs of the World War II generation, and a song that remains in the mainst...

By Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz 1934 With today being the birthday of the legendary songwriter Arthur Schwartz (father of longtime r...

By Richard A. Whiting and Johnny Mercer 1937 The unofficial theme song of the entire film industry, much of the song's enduring pop...

By Duke Ellington and Bob Russell 1944 One of several Ellington big band tunes for which long-time collaborator Russell (pictured) wrote ...

By Andre Popp, Pierre Cour and Bryan Blackburn 1967 This "easy listening" classic began life as the French song "L'am...

By George and Ira Gerswhin 1937 As with many classic songs , this one was written specifically for Fred Astaire to sing on film. In thi...