Lester Young
Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or… Read Full Bio ↴Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and sometime clarinetist.
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike".
Famous for his hip, introverted style, he invented or popularized much of the hipster jargon which came to be associated with the music.
Lester Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi, and grew up in a musical family. His father, Willis Handy Young, was a respected teacher, his brother Lee Young was a drummer, and several other relatives played music professionally. His family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, when Lester was an infant and later to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Although at a very young age Young did not initially know his father, he learned that his father was a musician. Later Willis taught his son to play the trumpet, violin, and drums in addition to the saxophone.
Lester Young played in his family's band, known as the Young Family Band, in both the vaudeville and carnival circuits. He left the family band in 1927 at the age of 18 because he refused to tour in the Southern United States, where Jim Crow laws were in effect and racial segregation was required in public facilities.
In 1933 Young settled in Kansas City, where after playing briefly in several bands, he rose to prominence with Count Basie. His playing in the Basie band was characterized by a relaxed style which contrasted sharply with the more forceful approach of Coleman Hawkins, the dominant tenor sax player of the day.
Young left the Basie band to replace Hawkins in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. He soon left Henderson to play in the Andy Kirk band (for six months) before returning to Basie. While with Basie, Young made small-group recordings for Milt Gabler's Commodore Records, The Kansas City Sessions. Although they were recorded in New York (in 1938, with a reunion in 1944), they are named after the group, the Kansas City Seven, and comprised Buck Clayton, Dicky Wells, Basie, Young, Freddie Green, Rodney Richardson, and Jo Jones. Young played clarinet as well as tenor in these sessions. He was a master of the clarinet, and there too his style was entirely his own. As well as the Kansas City Sessions, his clarinet work from 1938–39 is documented on recordings with Basie, Billie Holiday, Basie small groups, and the organist Glenn Hardman.
After Young's clarinet was stolen in 1939, he abandoned the instrument until about 1957. That year Norman Granz gave him one and urged him to play it (with far different results at that stage in Young's life—see below).
Young left the Basie band in late 1940. He is rumored to have refused to play with the band on Friday, December 13 of that year for superstitious reasons, spurring his dismissal. Lester left the band around that time and subsequently led a number of small groups that often included his brother, noted drummer Lee Young, for the next couple of years; live and broadcast recordings from this period exist.
During this period Young accompanied the singer Billie Holiday in a couple of studio sessions in 1940 and 1941 and also made a small set of recordings with Nat "King" Cole (their first of several collaborations) in June 1942. His studio recordings are relatively sparse during the 1942 to 1943 period, largely due to the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban. It was Holiday who gave Young the nickname "Pres", short for President.
In December 1943 Young returned to the Basie fold for a 10-month stint, cut short by his being drafted into the army during World War II (see below). Recordings made during this and subsequent periods suggest Young was beginning to make much greater use of a plastic reed, which tended to give his playing a somewhat heavier, breathier tone (although still quite smooth compared to that of many other players). While he never abandoned the wooden reed, he used the plastic reed a significant share of the time from 1943 until the end of his life. Another cause for the thickening of his tone around this time was a change in saxophone mouthpiece from a metal Otto Link to an ebonite Brilhart. In August 1944 Young appeared alongside drummer Jo Jones, trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, and fellow tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet in Gjon Mili's short film Jammin' the Blues.
In September 1944 Young and Jo Jones were in Los Angeles with the Basie Band when they were inducted into the U.S. Army. Unlike many white musicians, who were placed in band outfits such as the ones led by Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw, Young was assigned to the regular army where he was not allowed to play his saxophone.[citation needed] Based in Ft. McClellan, Alabama, Young was found with marijuana and alcohol among his possessions. He was soon court-martialed. Young did not fight the charges and was convicted. He served one year in a detention barrack and was dishonorably discharged in late 1945. His experience inspired his composition "D.B. Blues" (with D.B. standing for detention barracks).
Some jazz historians have argued that Young's playing power declined in the years following his army experience, though critics such as Scott Yanow disagree with this entirely. Recordings show that his playing began to change before he was drafted. Some argue that Young's playing had an increasingly emotional slant to it, and the post-war period featured some of his greatest renditions of ballads.
Young's career after World War II was far more prolific and lucrative than in the pre-war years in terms of recordings made, live performances, and annual income. Young joined Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) troupe in 1946, touring regularly with them over the next 12 years. He made a significant number of studio recordings under Granz's supervision for his Verve Records label as well, including more trio recordings with Nat King Cole. Young also recorded extensively in the late 1940s for Aladdin Records (1946-7, where he had made the Cole recordings in 1942) and for Savoy (1944, '49 and '50), some sessions of which included Basie on piano.
While the quality and consistency of his playing ebbed gradually in the latter half of the 1940s and into the early 1950s, he also gave some brilliant performances during this stretch. Especially noteworthy are his performances with JATP in 1946, 1949, and 1950. With Young at the 1949 JATP concert at Carnegie Hall were Charlie Parker and Roy Eldridge, and Young's solo on "Lester Leaps In" at that concert is a particular standout among his performances in the latter half of his career.
From around 1951, Young's level of playing declined more precipitously, as he began to drink more and more heavily. His playing showed reliance on a small number of clichéd phrases and reduced creativity and originality, despite his claims that he did not want to be a "repeater pencil" (Young coined this phrase to describe the act of repeating one's own past ideas). A comparison of his studio recordings from 1952, such as the session with pianist Oscar Peterson, and those from 1953–1954 (all available on the Verve label) also demonstrates a declining command of his instrument and sense of timing, possibly due to both mental and physical factors. Young's playing and health went into a crisis, culminating in a November 1955 hospital admission following a nervous breakdown.
He emerged from this treatment improved. In January 1956 he recorded two Granz-produced sessions featuring pianist Teddy Wilson (who had led the Billie Holiday recordings with Young in the 1930s), trumpet player Roy Eldridge, trombonist Vic Dickenson, bassist Gene Ramey, and drummer Jo Jones – available on the Jazz Giants '56 and Prez and Teddy albums. 1956 was a relatively good year for Lester Young, including a tour of Europe with Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Quartet and a successful stint at Olivia's Patio Lounge in Washington, DC.
Throughout the 1940s and 50s, Young had sat in on Count Basie Orchestra gigs from time to time. The best-known of these is their July 1957 appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, the line-up including many of Lester's old buddies: Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge, Illinois Jacquet and Jimmy Rushing. His playing was in better shape, and he produced some of the old, smooth-toned flow of the 1930s. Among other tunes he played a moving "Polkadots and Moonbeams", which was a favorite of his at that time.
On December 8, 1957, Young appeared with Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, and Gerry Mulligan in the CBS television special The Sound of Jazz, performing Holiday's tune "Fine and Mellow". It was a reunion with Holiday, with whom he had lost contact for years. She was also in decline at the end of her career, and they both gave moving performances. Young's solo was brilliant, considered by many jazz musicians an unparalleled marvel of economy, phrasing and extraordinarily moving emotion. But Young seemed gravely ill, and was the only horn player who was seated (except during his solo) during the performance. By this time his alcoholism had cumulative effect. He was eating significantly less, drinking more and more, and suffering from liver disease and malnutrition. Young's sharply diminished physical strength in the final two years of his life yielded some recordings with a frail tone, shortened phrases, and, on rare occasions, a difficulty in getting any sound to come out of his horn at all.
Lester Young made his final studio recordings and live performances in Paris in March 1959 with drummer Kenny Clarke at the tail end of an abbreviated European tour during which he ate next to nothing and virtually drank himself to death. He died in the early morning hours of March 15, 1959, only hours after arriving back in New York, at the age of 49. He was buried at the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. According to jazz critic Leonard Feather, who rode with Holiday in a taxi to Young's funeral, she said after the services, "I'll be the next one to go." Holiday died four months later at age 44.
Posthumous dedications and influence:
Charles Mingus dedicated an elegy, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", for Young only a few months after his death. Wayne Shorter, then of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, composed a tribute, called "Lester Left Town".
Young's playing style influenced many other tenor saxophonists. Perhaps the most famous and successful of these were Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon, but he also influenced many in the cool movement such as Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and Gerry Mulligan. Paul Quinichette modeled his style so closely on Young's that he was sometimes referred to as the "Vice Prez" (sic). Sonny Stitt began to incorporate elements from Lester Young's approach when he made the transition to tenor saxophone. Lester Young also had a direct influence on young Charlie Parker ("Bird"), and thus the entire be-bop movement. Indeed, recordings of Parker on tenor sax are similar in style to that of Young. Lesser-known saxophonists, such as Warne Marsh, were strongly influenced by Young.
Don Byron recorded the album Ivey-Divey in gratitude for what he learned from studying Lester Young's work, modeled after a 1946 trio date with Buddy Rich and Nat King Cole. "Ivey-Divey" was one of Lester Young's common eccentric phrases.
Young is a major character in English writer Geoff Dyer's 1991 fictional book about jazz, But Beautiful.
The Resurrection of Lady Lester by OyamO (Charles F. Gordon) is a play and published book depicting Young's life, subtitled "A Poetic Mood Song Based on the Legend of Lester Young".
In the 1986 film Round Midnight, the fictional main character Dale Turner, played by Dexter Gordon, was partly based on Young – incorporating flashback references to his army experiences, and loosely depicting his time in Paris and his return to New York just before his death.
Acid Jazz/boogaloo band the Greyboy Allstars song "Tenor Man" is a tribute to Young. On their 1999 album "Live", saxophonist Karl Denson introduces the song by saying, "now some folks may have told you that Lester Young is out of style, but we're here to tell you that the Prez is happenin' right now." Those were literally the lyrics Rahsaan Roland Kirk wrote and sang to the melody of the Charles Mingus elegy, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat".
Peter Straub's short story collection Magic Terror (2000) contains a story called "Pork Pie Hat", a fictionalized account of the life of Lester Young. Straub was inspired by Young's appearance on the 1957 CBS-TV show The Sound of Jazz, which he watched repeatedly, wondering how such a genius could have ended up such a human wreck.
Lester Young is said to have popularized use of the term "cool" to mean something fashionable. Another slang term he coined was the term "bread" for money. He would ask, "How does the bread smell?" when asking how much a gig was going to pay.
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike".
Famous for his hip, introverted style, he invented or popularized much of the hipster jargon which came to be associated with the music.
Lester Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi, and grew up in a musical family. His father, Willis Handy Young, was a respected teacher, his brother Lee Young was a drummer, and several other relatives played music professionally. His family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, when Lester was an infant and later to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Although at a very young age Young did not initially know his father, he learned that his father was a musician. Later Willis taught his son to play the trumpet, violin, and drums in addition to the saxophone.
Lester Young played in his family's band, known as the Young Family Band, in both the vaudeville and carnival circuits. He left the family band in 1927 at the age of 18 because he refused to tour in the Southern United States, where Jim Crow laws were in effect and racial segregation was required in public facilities.
In 1933 Young settled in Kansas City, where after playing briefly in several bands, he rose to prominence with Count Basie. His playing in the Basie band was characterized by a relaxed style which contrasted sharply with the more forceful approach of Coleman Hawkins, the dominant tenor sax player of the day.
Young left the Basie band to replace Hawkins in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. He soon left Henderson to play in the Andy Kirk band (for six months) before returning to Basie. While with Basie, Young made small-group recordings for Milt Gabler's Commodore Records, The Kansas City Sessions. Although they were recorded in New York (in 1938, with a reunion in 1944), they are named after the group, the Kansas City Seven, and comprised Buck Clayton, Dicky Wells, Basie, Young, Freddie Green, Rodney Richardson, and Jo Jones. Young played clarinet as well as tenor in these sessions. He was a master of the clarinet, and there too his style was entirely his own. As well as the Kansas City Sessions, his clarinet work from 1938–39 is documented on recordings with Basie, Billie Holiday, Basie small groups, and the organist Glenn Hardman.
After Young's clarinet was stolen in 1939, he abandoned the instrument until about 1957. That year Norman Granz gave him one and urged him to play it (with far different results at that stage in Young's life—see below).
Young left the Basie band in late 1940. He is rumored to have refused to play with the band on Friday, December 13 of that year for superstitious reasons, spurring his dismissal. Lester left the band around that time and subsequently led a number of small groups that often included his brother, noted drummer Lee Young, for the next couple of years; live and broadcast recordings from this period exist.
During this period Young accompanied the singer Billie Holiday in a couple of studio sessions in 1940 and 1941 and also made a small set of recordings with Nat "King" Cole (their first of several collaborations) in June 1942. His studio recordings are relatively sparse during the 1942 to 1943 period, largely due to the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban. It was Holiday who gave Young the nickname "Pres", short for President.
In December 1943 Young returned to the Basie fold for a 10-month stint, cut short by his being drafted into the army during World War II (see below). Recordings made during this and subsequent periods suggest Young was beginning to make much greater use of a plastic reed, which tended to give his playing a somewhat heavier, breathier tone (although still quite smooth compared to that of many other players). While he never abandoned the wooden reed, he used the plastic reed a significant share of the time from 1943 until the end of his life. Another cause for the thickening of his tone around this time was a change in saxophone mouthpiece from a metal Otto Link to an ebonite Brilhart. In August 1944 Young appeared alongside drummer Jo Jones, trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, and fellow tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet in Gjon Mili's short film Jammin' the Blues.
In September 1944 Young and Jo Jones were in Los Angeles with the Basie Band when they were inducted into the U.S. Army. Unlike many white musicians, who were placed in band outfits such as the ones led by Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw, Young was assigned to the regular army where he was not allowed to play his saxophone.[citation needed] Based in Ft. McClellan, Alabama, Young was found with marijuana and alcohol among his possessions. He was soon court-martialed. Young did not fight the charges and was convicted. He served one year in a detention barrack and was dishonorably discharged in late 1945. His experience inspired his composition "D.B. Blues" (with D.B. standing for detention barracks).
Some jazz historians have argued that Young's playing power declined in the years following his army experience, though critics such as Scott Yanow disagree with this entirely. Recordings show that his playing began to change before he was drafted. Some argue that Young's playing had an increasingly emotional slant to it, and the post-war period featured some of his greatest renditions of ballads.
Young's career after World War II was far more prolific and lucrative than in the pre-war years in terms of recordings made, live performances, and annual income. Young joined Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) troupe in 1946, touring regularly with them over the next 12 years. He made a significant number of studio recordings under Granz's supervision for his Verve Records label as well, including more trio recordings with Nat King Cole. Young also recorded extensively in the late 1940s for Aladdin Records (1946-7, where he had made the Cole recordings in 1942) and for Savoy (1944, '49 and '50), some sessions of which included Basie on piano.
While the quality and consistency of his playing ebbed gradually in the latter half of the 1940s and into the early 1950s, he also gave some brilliant performances during this stretch. Especially noteworthy are his performances with JATP in 1946, 1949, and 1950. With Young at the 1949 JATP concert at Carnegie Hall were Charlie Parker and Roy Eldridge, and Young's solo on "Lester Leaps In" at that concert is a particular standout among his performances in the latter half of his career.
From around 1951, Young's level of playing declined more precipitously, as he began to drink more and more heavily. His playing showed reliance on a small number of clichéd phrases and reduced creativity and originality, despite his claims that he did not want to be a "repeater pencil" (Young coined this phrase to describe the act of repeating one's own past ideas). A comparison of his studio recordings from 1952, such as the session with pianist Oscar Peterson, and those from 1953–1954 (all available on the Verve label) also demonstrates a declining command of his instrument and sense of timing, possibly due to both mental and physical factors. Young's playing and health went into a crisis, culminating in a November 1955 hospital admission following a nervous breakdown.
He emerged from this treatment improved. In January 1956 he recorded two Granz-produced sessions featuring pianist Teddy Wilson (who had led the Billie Holiday recordings with Young in the 1930s), trumpet player Roy Eldridge, trombonist Vic Dickenson, bassist Gene Ramey, and drummer Jo Jones – available on the Jazz Giants '56 and Prez and Teddy albums. 1956 was a relatively good year for Lester Young, including a tour of Europe with Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Quartet and a successful stint at Olivia's Patio Lounge in Washington, DC.
Throughout the 1940s and 50s, Young had sat in on Count Basie Orchestra gigs from time to time. The best-known of these is their July 1957 appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, the line-up including many of Lester's old buddies: Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge, Illinois Jacquet and Jimmy Rushing. His playing was in better shape, and he produced some of the old, smooth-toned flow of the 1930s. Among other tunes he played a moving "Polkadots and Moonbeams", which was a favorite of his at that time.
On December 8, 1957, Young appeared with Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, and Gerry Mulligan in the CBS television special The Sound of Jazz, performing Holiday's tune "Fine and Mellow". It was a reunion with Holiday, with whom he had lost contact for years. She was also in decline at the end of her career, and they both gave moving performances. Young's solo was brilliant, considered by many jazz musicians an unparalleled marvel of economy, phrasing and extraordinarily moving emotion. But Young seemed gravely ill, and was the only horn player who was seated (except during his solo) during the performance. By this time his alcoholism had cumulative effect. He was eating significantly less, drinking more and more, and suffering from liver disease and malnutrition. Young's sharply diminished physical strength in the final two years of his life yielded some recordings with a frail tone, shortened phrases, and, on rare occasions, a difficulty in getting any sound to come out of his horn at all.
Lester Young made his final studio recordings and live performances in Paris in March 1959 with drummer Kenny Clarke at the tail end of an abbreviated European tour during which he ate next to nothing and virtually drank himself to death. He died in the early morning hours of March 15, 1959, only hours after arriving back in New York, at the age of 49. He was buried at the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. According to jazz critic Leonard Feather, who rode with Holiday in a taxi to Young's funeral, she said after the services, "I'll be the next one to go." Holiday died four months later at age 44.
Posthumous dedications and influence:
Charles Mingus dedicated an elegy, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", for Young only a few months after his death. Wayne Shorter, then of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, composed a tribute, called "Lester Left Town".
Young's playing style influenced many other tenor saxophonists. Perhaps the most famous and successful of these were Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon, but he also influenced many in the cool movement such as Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and Gerry Mulligan. Paul Quinichette modeled his style so closely on Young's that he was sometimes referred to as the "Vice Prez" (sic). Sonny Stitt began to incorporate elements from Lester Young's approach when he made the transition to tenor saxophone. Lester Young also had a direct influence on young Charlie Parker ("Bird"), and thus the entire be-bop movement. Indeed, recordings of Parker on tenor sax are similar in style to that of Young. Lesser-known saxophonists, such as Warne Marsh, were strongly influenced by Young.
Don Byron recorded the album Ivey-Divey in gratitude for what he learned from studying Lester Young's work, modeled after a 1946 trio date with Buddy Rich and Nat King Cole. "Ivey-Divey" was one of Lester Young's common eccentric phrases.
Young is a major character in English writer Geoff Dyer's 1991 fictional book about jazz, But Beautiful.
The Resurrection of Lady Lester by OyamO (Charles F. Gordon) is a play and published book depicting Young's life, subtitled "A Poetic Mood Song Based on the Legend of Lester Young".
In the 1986 film Round Midnight, the fictional main character Dale Turner, played by Dexter Gordon, was partly based on Young – incorporating flashback references to his army experiences, and loosely depicting his time in Paris and his return to New York just before his death.
Acid Jazz/boogaloo band the Greyboy Allstars song "Tenor Man" is a tribute to Young. On their 1999 album "Live", saxophonist Karl Denson introduces the song by saying, "now some folks may have told you that Lester Young is out of style, but we're here to tell you that the Prez is happenin' right now." Those were literally the lyrics Rahsaan Roland Kirk wrote and sang to the melody of the Charles Mingus elegy, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat".
Peter Straub's short story collection Magic Terror (2000) contains a story called "Pork Pie Hat", a fictionalized account of the life of Lester Young. Straub was inspired by Young's appearance on the 1957 CBS-TV show The Sound of Jazz, which he watched repeatedly, wondering how such a genius could have ended up such a human wreck.
Lester Young is said to have popularized use of the term "cool" to mean something fashionable. Another slang term he coined was the term "bread" for money. He would ask, "How does the bread smell?" when asking how much a gig was going to pay.
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Lester Young Lyrics
A Foggy Day I was a stranger in the city Out of town were…
A Fool in Love I'm in the mood for love Simply because you're near me. Funn…
A Sailboat In The Moon Light A sailboat in the moonlight And you Wouldn't that be heave…
A Sailboat in the Moonlight A sailboat in the moonlight And you Wouldn't that be heaven …
Ad Lib Blues If you're evil and you're on the rise, You can count…
Afer You've Gone Now won't you listen honey, while I say, How could…
All of Me You took my kisses and all my love You taught me…
Almost Like Beeing In Love What a day this has been! What a rare mood I'm…
Back in Your Own Backyard We leave home expecting to find a blue bird, Hoping ev'ry…
Beautiful Eyes girls i have a secret if you lsten i will…
Body & Soul My heart is sad and lonely For you I sigh, for…
Body And Soul My heart is sad and lonely For you I sigh, for…
Born to Love There's something that rules our destiny Right from the fir…
Can't We Be Friends? Took each word she said as gospel truth the way…
Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie Clap hands, here comes Charlie Clap hands, good time Charlie…
Come Rain or Come Shine I'm gonna love you like nobody loved you Come rain or…
Confessin' I'm confessin' that I love you, Tell me, do you love…
Count Every Star ) Count every star in the midnight sky Count every rose,…
D. B. Blues Oh! Will you never let me be? Oh! Will you never…
Don't be That Way April skies are in your eyes But darling, don't be blue …
Don't Worry 'Bout Me Don't worry 'bout me I'll get along Forget about me Just be …
Don't Worry 'Bout Me Part 1 Don't worry 'bout me I'll get along Forget about me Just …
East Of Sun East of the sun and west of the moon We'll build…
East of the Sun East of the sun and west of the moon We'll build…
Easy Living Living for you is easy living It's easy to live when…
Evenin' Evening, every night you come and you find me And you…
Everybody's Laughing Everybody's laughing Yes everybody's laughing They know th…
Exactly Like You I used to have a perfect sweetheart Not a real one,…
Five O'Clock Whistle The five o'clock whistle's on the blink The whistle won't b…
Foolin' Myself I try to keep you out of my heart But…
Georgia On My Mind Georgia Georgia, the whole day through Just an old sweet s…
Getting Some Fun out of Life When we want to love, we love When we want to…
Goin' to Chicago Going to Chicago Sorry, I can't take you Going to Chicago …
He Ain't Got Rhythm 'Cause he ain't got rhythm Every night he sits in the…
He Don Though I should hate him cause he's always wrong, Instead I…
He Don't Love Me Anymore Though I should hate him cause he's always wrong, Instead I…
He's Ain't Got Rhythm 'Cause he ain't got rhythm Every night he sits in the…
He's Funny That Way Never had nothing No one to care That's why I seem to…
Here It Is Tomorrow Again See the house lights start to blink And the sky is…
Honeysuckle Rose Every honey bee fills with jealousy When they see you out…
How High The Moon Somewhere there's music How faint the tune Somewhere there's…
I Ain't Got Nobody Now I, ain't got nobody, nobody cares for me And I'm…
I Can't Get Started I've been around the world in a plane Settled revolutions in…
I Can't Believe That You're in Love With Me Yesterday you came my way, And when you smiled at me, In…
I Can't Get Started I've been around the world in a plane Settled revolutions in…
I Can't Get Started ) I've been around the world in a plane Settled revolutions i…
I Can't Get Started Alternate Take I've been around the world in a plane Settled revolutions in…
I Can't Give You Anything but Love Gee, but it's tough to be broke, kid. It's not a…
I Cant Get Started I've been around the world in a plane Settled revolutions in…
I Cover the Water Front I cover the waterfront, I'm watching the sea,, Will the on…
I Cover the Waterfornt I cover the waterfront, I'm watching the sea,, Will the one …
I Cover the Waterfront Alternate Take I cover the waterfront, I'm watching the sea,, Will the on…
I Cover the Waterfront Pt. 1 I cover the waterfront, I'm watching the sea,, Will the one …
I Didn't Know What Time It Was Once I was young Yesterday, perhaps Danced with Jim and Pa…
I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You I need your love so badly, I love you, oh,…
I Found a New Baby Everybody look at me, Happy girlie, you will see, I've…
I Got Rhythm 'Cause he ain't got rhythm Every night he sits in the…
I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan I guess I'll have to change my plan I should have…
I Must Have That Man Don't want my mammy I don't need a friend My heart is…
I Never Knew I'll never be the same Stars have lost their meaning for…
I Never Know You, get me feelin' crazy There always on my mind And I…
I Want a Little Girl I want a little girl, call my own. She must be…
I Want to Be Happy I'm a very ordinary man Trying to work out life's happy…
I'll Get By I'll get by As long as I have you Oh there be…
I'll Never Be the Same I'll never be the same Stars have lost their meaning for…
I'm Confessin I'm confessin' that I love you, Tell me, do you love…
I'm in the Mood for Love I'm in the mood for love Simply because you're near me. Funn…
I'm Pulling Through I'm pulling through and it's because of you! When I was…
I've Found a New Baby Everybody look at me, Happy girlie, you will see, I've…
I've Got a Date With a Dream I've got a date with a dream A dream divine I've got…
If a Dreams Come True If dreams come true I'll be with you I love that smile…
In a Little Spanish Town Evenings are crowded with memories Thrilling me again Like t…
Indiana I have always been a wanderer Over land and sea Yet a…
Indiana Pt. 1 Back home again in Indiana, And it seems that I can…
It Don It don't mean a thing If it ain't got that swing (doo…
It's Only a Paper Moon Say, it's only a paper moon Sailing over a cardboard sea B…
It's The Talk Of The Town We were more than lovers, We were more than sweethearts, It'…
Jeepers Creepers I don't care what the weatherman says When the weatherman s…
Just You Just you, just me Let's find a cozy spot To cuddle and…
Lady Be Good Listen to my tale of woe, It's terribly sad but…
Laughing At Life Don't mind the rain drops Wait till the rain stops Smile thr…
Let Chinks do it. Japs do it Upper Lapland little Lapps…
Let's Do It Chinks do it. Japs do it Upper Lapland little Lapps…
Let's Fall in Love Chinks do it. Japs do it Upper Lapland little Lapps…
Linger Awhile Just you, just me Let's find a cozy spot To cuddle and…
Love Come Back to Me You went away I let you We broke the ties that bind I…
Love Is Here to Stay It's very clear, our love is here to stay Not for…
Love Me or Leave Me This affair is killin' me I can't stand uncertainly Tell me …
Lover Come Back to Me You went away I let you We broke the ties that bind I…
Lullaby of Birdland Lullaby of Birdland, that's what I Always hear when you…
Me You went away I let you We broke the ties that bind I…
Me Myself and I Me, myself and I Are all in love with you We all…
Mean to Me You're mean to me Why must you be mean to me? Gee,…
My First Impression of You My first impression of you Was like the sight of flowers…
Oh Listen to my tale of woe, It's terribly sad but…
Oh Lady Be Good Listen to my tale of woe, It's terribly sad but…
Oh Lady be good ! Listen to my tale of woe, It's terribly sad but…
Oh! Lady Be Good Listen to my tale of woe, It's terribly sad but…
On the Funny Side of the Street Walked with no one and talked with no one And I…
Our Love Is Here to Stay It's very clear, our love is here to stay Not for…
Peg O My Heart Peg o'my heart I love you, don't let us part I love…
Pennies from Heaven Oh every time it rains It rains pennies from heaven Don't yo…
Perdido Perdido, I look for my heart It`s perdido I lost it way d…
Please Don Please don't talk about me when I'm gone Honey, though our…
Polka Dots and Monnbeams A country dance was being held in a garden I felt…
Prisoner of Love Someone that I belong to Doesn't belong to me Someone who ca…
Rose Room I want to take you to a little room A little…
Sailboat in Moonlight A sailboat in the moonlight And you Wouldn't that be heaven …
Say It With a Kiss Let me hear you say it Say it with a kiss It…
She's Funny That Way Once she dressed in silks and lace, Owned a Rolls…
Sheik Of Araby "I'm the Sheik of Araby, Your love belongs to me. At…
Somebody Loves Me Somebody loves me, I wonder who I wonder who he can…
Something to Remember You By Oh, give me something to remember you by When you are…
Sometimes I'm Happy Sometimes I'm happy, sometimes I'm blue My disposition depen…
Song Of The Islands Islands of Hawaii Where skies of blue are calling me Where b…
Star Dust And now the purple dusk of twilight time Steals across the…
Stardust And now the purple dusk of twilight time Steals across the…
Sun Showers Sun showers Never mind the rain The sun will shine again …
Sunday I'm blue every Monday Thinking only of Sunday That's one d…
Sweet Georgia Brown No gal made has got a shade on sweet Georgia…
Sweet Lorraine Everything is set, skies are blue, Can't believe it yet, but…
Taking a Chance on Love Here I go again, I hear those trumpets blow again. All…
Tea For Two Picture you upon my knee Just tea for two And two for…
That's All I can only give you love that lasts forever, And the…
The Man I Love Someday he'll come along The man I love And he'll be big…
The Sheik of Araby "I'm the Sheik of Araby, Your love belongs to me. At…
Them There Eyes I was just minding my business Life was a beautiful song Did…
Them There Eyes take 2 I was just minding my business Life was a beautiful song D…
These Foolish Things Oh! Will you never let me be? Oh! Will you never…
They Can't Take That Away from Me The way you wear your hat The way you sip your…
This Can't Be Love This can't be love Because I feel so well No sobs, no…
This Year's Kisses This year's crop of kisses Don't seem as sweet to me This…
Thou Swell Thou swell, thou witty Thou sweet, thou grand Wouldst kiss…
Three Little Words I need your love so badly, I love you, oh,…
Time On My Hands When the day fades away into twilight The moon is my…
Too For Two You're just too marvelous, too marvelous for words Like glo…
Too Marvellous for Words You're just too marvelous, too marvelous for words Like glor…
Trav'lin' All Alone I'm so weary and all alone Feel tired like heavy stone Trave…
Two for Tango Picture you upon my knee Just tea for two And two for…
What Goes Up Must Come Down You leave me alone, you don't even phone You're carefree as…
When You're Smiling I saw a blind man, He was a kind man, Helping a…
Who Wants Love Who wants love? Love is a joy we borrow Pay back in…
Why Was I Born Why was I born Why am I livin' What do I get What…
Without Your Love Without your love I'm like a song without words Just like a…
You Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you! Embrace me, you irrep…
You Can Count on Me Though you say we're through, I'll always love you And you…
You Can Count On Me Part 1 Yesterday you came my way, And when you smiled at me, In…
You Can Depend On Me Though you say we're through, I'll always love you And yo…
You Can't Be Mine You can't be mine and someone else's too Someday you'll find…
You're a Lucky Guy You're a lucky guy when you consider The highest bidder can'…
You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me Every kiss, every hug Seems to act just like a drug You're…
You're Just a No Account You're just a no account You never will amount to nothin'…
Yours and Mine The stars that shine Are yours and mine The rainbows in th…