Although most of my repertoire is classical, I like to occasionally add some popular American standards. Some years ago I was hired to play for an 80th birthday party. No special music was requested, but I thought it would be nice to play something that had been popular when the guest of honor was in his 20’s. Leafing through an anthology of tunes from the 1930’s, I can across this Jerome Kern melody. I’ve always liked it, and since it fit the time period I was trying to evoke, I now had a good reason to do an arrangement for solo guitar. Normally this is a gentle ballad, but for some reason I ended up doing it as an up tempo beguine. Since making this arrangement, it’s become a staple of my gig repertoire.
This song was first performed by Fred Astaire in the 1936 movie “Swing Time.” It won the Oscar for best song.
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