Welcome to

Cafe Songbook

Internet Home of the
Songs, Songwriters and Performers of
The Great American Songbook

 Madison Square logo, top of page cafe songbook sign for logo

Home || Songs || Songwriters || Performers || Articles and Blogs || Glossary || About Cafe Songbook || Contact/Submit Comment
Search Tips: 1) Click "Find on This Page" button to activate page search box. 2) When searching for a name (e.g. a songwriter), enter last name only. 3) When searching for a song title on the catalog page, omit an initial "The" or "A". 4) more search tips.

These Foolish Things
(remind me of you)

Written:
1934 - 1935

Music by:
Jack Strachey
with added material by Harry Link (*)

Words by:
Eric Maschwitz
(aka Holt Marvell)

Written for: a 1934 BBC radio revue.
Page Menu
Main Stage || Record/Video Cabinet || Reading Room || Posted Comments || Credits

On the Main Stage at Cafe Songbook

Two Classic Jazz interpretations: 1) Ella Fitzgerald with Oscar Peterson, 2) The Count Basie Trio with Benny Carter

Ella Fitzgerald (vocal)
with Oscar Peterson on Piano

performing

"These Foolish Things"

Chicago Opera House*
(1957)

from the album Ella Fitzgerald at the Opera House

For CD Info., see below.
 



The Count Basie Trio
with Benny Carter on Tenor Sax
(Count Basie, piano; Ray Brown, Bass; and Jimmy Smith, Drums)

performing

"These Foolish Things"

Montreux Jazz Festival/Basie Jam
(Switzerland, 1977)

for CD and DVD Info., see below.
 
*For another Ella performance of this song, see below.
More Performances of "These Foolish Things"in the Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet
(Video credits)
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

Cafe Songbook Reading Room

"These Foolish Things"

Critics Corner || Lyrics Lounge
About the Origins of the Song

Eric Maschwitz, who was born in England to Jewish parents, immigrants from Lithuania, occasionally used the pseudonym Holt Marvell to avoid his name's German associations at a time when Great Britain and Germany were close to or at war.

 

Sources: The material, including quotations, in the column to the right is drawn mainly from the article by Robin Miller, "'Sold for a Song' by Composer, Show Tune Grossed $500,000," The Milwaukee Journal, August 7, 1963, one of a series of articles about "Songs that Made Fortunes."

 

A similar account appears in the Eric Maschwitz autobiography No Chip on My Shoulder, London: Herbert Jenkins, 1957, as well as in Tim De Lisle, The Lives of the Great Songs. London: Pavilion Books. 1994.

 

 

According to the Encyclopedia of the Musical Theater, Eric Maschwitz "claimed that Cole Porter's 'You're the Top' gave him the idea of creating a catalog-type lyric made up of 'small fleeting memories of young love'." (See List or Catalog Song in the Cafe Songbook Glossary.)


bookk cover: Encyclopedia of the Musical TheaterEncyclopedia Of The Musical Theatre
Da Capo Press
1980

 

For a photo of Strachey (at piano) working with Maschwitz, see the blog site Songbook.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

A London revue titled Spread it Abroad (the revue that opened the then new Saville Theater in London on April 1, 1936) is often cited as the show for which "These Foolish Things" was written; but, in fact, that was not the case. In an August 7, 1963 article by Robin Miller on the origins of the song, songwriters Eric Maschwitz (lyrics) and Jack Strachey (music) reveal what led up to the song's use in Spread it Abroad.

Miller explains that Maschwitz while working for the BBC in 1934 had the responsibility of producing a weekly radio revue. During a particular week, the songwriter who had been assigned to write a number for that week's revue took ill and Maschwitz himself took on the duty. As Maschwitz recalled it, he went to sleep the night before the song was needed in a bit of a sweat with nothing specific in mind and somehow woke up with a title, "These Foolish Things," but nothing more. He did have in mind, however, a Cole Porter song ["You're the Top"] in which Porter presents a list of many amusing qualities about the object of the singer's affections. Maschwitz explains, "It ["You're the Top"] was the first of what are now called catalog songs [orlist songs]. I wanted to do the same thing for a romantic number," and Maschwitz claims that what he and Strachey wrote that day turned out to be the first romantic "list" or "catalog" song, soon to be followed by others such as the standards "All the Things You Are," "Thanks for the Memory," and "The Way You Look Tonight." (See Philip Furia's and Michael Lasser's commentary on this in the Critics Corner, below.)

Robin Miller then quotes Maschwitz on how everything else but the title got written, performed, and finally included in Spread it Abroad:

Anyway, I sat down to write it, and a miracle happened -- as miracles so seldom do in song writing. It was as if it was all stored up in my head. Ideas and rhymes flowed on to the typewriter. . . .

A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces
An airline ticket to romantic places. . . . .

At twelve it was finished. I rang Jack Strachey up and broke the news to him that he had to set the number to music by 6 o'clock that evening.

Other sources attribute Maschwitz's inspiration for the lyric to something more specific than the deadline for a radio program. Maschwitz was romantically linked to the Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong while working in Hollywood during the early thirties, and the lyric for "These Foolish Things" is supposedly evocative of his longing for her after they parted and he returned to England. However, the lyricist himself does not mention this.

The song, Maschwitz goes on to explain, was far from an instant success. It went into the radio revue where it was "beautifully sung by Patrick Waddington and a talented, lovely girl called Joan Carr -- who is now the Countess of Drogheda," but even though the songwriters' friends loved it, his publisher, as well as many others, rejected it, no doubt later regretting the torrent of royalties that eventually poured in.

It wasn't, according to Maschwitz, until six months later that the stroke of luck required to get the song out and about occurred when the West Indian-British cabaret star Leslie "Hutch" Hutcinson was visiting Maschwitz's studio and saw the "battered manuscript of 'These Foolish Things' . . . lying on top of the piano." Maschwitz (and Miller) finish the fantastic story:

"What's this?" he [Hutchinson] asked.
Maschwitz explained.
"Hutch" placed the music on the rack, played and sang the song right through.

The Moment he had finished, he turned to Maschwitz and said: "I have a recording session in two days' time. May I use it?"

And use it he did. Not only did "Hutch" make a record which both the composer and the lyricist still think is the best one of the song, but he found a publisher -- and made the song a hit.


An early Leslie Hutchinson recording of "These Foolish Things" but not the first one that Maschwitz refers to above.

It was only after the "Hutch" recording that "These Foolish Things" got put into Spread it Abroad where it was sung by Dorothy Dickson, a performance that stopped the show. After that an American, Irving Berlin no less, bought the American rights "and added two bars to the middle section, thus achieving the conventional 32 bar construction." In New York (and the rest of the United States) it also became a major success.

*A bit of a mystery exists as to why most, but not all, versions of the sheet music for "These Foolish Things" credit Harry Link as having written the music along with Jack Strachey. The mystery derives from the fact that all of the sources giving Maschwitz's account of the actual writing of the song clearly state that Strachey wrote the music, whereas Link is not mentioned at all. One might also find it interesting that although Link wrote the music for a lot of songs, for his only other big hit, "I've Got a Feeling I'm Fallin," he also shares the music credit with a much more well known composer, Fats Waller.

The explanation for Link's role may lie in the song's connection to Irving Berlin, as referred to above: more specifically with the claim that after Berlin bought the American rights to the song in 1936, Berlin himself added two bars to "These Foolish Things" making it conform to the standard 32 bar format of most popular songs of the time. It may have been that Berlin himself did this, but given that by 1936 he was already one of the most famous and wealthy composers of popular song of all time it seems more likely that Link, working for Berlin, made the change. Link, an American songwriter whose primary work was in the music publishing business, had connections to Berlin and his company for at least ten years as of the time Berlin bought the American rights to "These Foolish Things." His history with Berlin even includes rewriting the the lyric for one of Berlin's songs. In 1926, Link along with two other songwriters, one of whom was Babe Ruth's agent, rewrote, with Berlin's permission, the lyric for Berlin's 1914 song "Along Came Ruth" so it could be sung as part of the baseball star's vaudeville act. Also at least some of Link's own songs of the period were published by Berlin's company.

Peter Mintun, who sings the full British lyric as it was performed in Spread it Abroad (See video just below.), comments on the added need to alter the lyrics for an American audience. He points out that this is heard in rhymes like "haunted" and "enchanted" (which only works for Americans with the British pronunciation "enchaunted." Link or whoever made the change solves the problem by excising the entire bridgethat contains the offending transatlantic rhyme problem and merely replacing it with the bridge from the following refrain. (Visit the Cafe Songbook Lyrics Lounge to compare and contrast the two bridges).


Popular music scholar Peter Mintun sings and plays the British version of "These Foolish Things" as sung in Spread it Abroad. (Note that on the sheet music shown in the video Harry Link does not receive a credit.) For the fullest rendition of the American version of the lyrics, listen to
Ella Fitzgerald on the album, Ella and Louis Again -- a performance not to be missed.

This evidence is not definitive regarding Link's role, but it at least makes it plausible that he was given the job by Berlin or Berlin's music publishing firm of Americanizing bits of the lyric as well as the music -- and for that work was given "music by" credit. If this occurred, it would have made for a profitable few minutes work for him considering the money the song has brought in over the years -- though one shouldn't forget that it didn't take Maschwitz and Strachey much longer to create the entire song. Maybe it just comes down to this comment on the "mysterious third name ["the missing Link"] on the credits" by Robert Cushman in his article on "These Foolish Things":

Presumably he [Link] had somethng to do with sprucing up "These Foolish Things" for the US market, though it's hard to tell what. Maybe he was just good at royalties (Cushman, pp. 40-41). (Also see the definition of "cutting in" in the Cafe Songbook glossary.

According to Strachey, after "These Foolish Things" he never wrote another song that achieved its level of success. Apparently, "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," which he and Maschwitz wrote in 1939, and which is a standard by any measure, did not qualify. As he states: "I've been trying to write another 'These Foolish Things' all these years and I have never managed it."

Robin Miller comments, in his 1963 article, that it is quite possible that a certain kind of songwriting success is no longer possible because "The great songs of the 1930s were written by adults for adults. People with experience of life and love, who could appreciate wit and were not afraid of sentiment. And sentiment, of course, is what is revealed by every line, every note of 'These Foolish Things'."
 
back to top of page
Critics Corner


Book cover: Philip Furia and Michael Lasser, "America's Songs"
Philip Furia and
Michael Lasser,
America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley, New York: Routledge, 2006.

Maschwitz tells us that he had Cole Porter'slist song"You're the Top" in mind when he set out to write what became "These Foolish Things," but he distinguishes Porter's song from his as being the difference between a list song whose primary purpose is to be amusing, even if the general subject is romance, and one whose purpose is only to convey the depth of feeling that accompanies love.

Philip Furia and Michael Lasser in their book America's Songs elaborate on the distinction that Maschwitz sets forth by pointing out that the great majority of 1930s list songs such as Porter's and "The Lady Is a Tramp" by Rodgers and Hart "follow a longstanding comic tradition in which each successive image or allusion tries to 'top' what came before." They go on to note that even songs that are not ostensibly funny at their core such as "I Can't Get Started" by Ira Gershwin (words) and Vernon Duke (music) or "Thanks for the Memory" with lyrics by Leo Robin and music by Ralph Rainger "still leaven the sentiment with humor."

This is not the case, however, with "These Foolish Things," which presents, they write, "a list of haunting images of lost love -- 'a tinkling piano in the next apartment,' 'a cigarette that bears a lipsticks traces,' 'a telephone that rings but who's to answer'" (Furia, p. 138)--what Maschwitz himself describes as a list of "Small, fleeting memories of young love" (Encyclopedia Of The Musical Theatre).

book cover: The Lives of the Great Songs Ed. by Tim De Lisle
Robert Cushman,
"These Foolish Things"
Lives of the Great Songs,
Tim De Lisle (Ed.)
UK: Pavilion, 1994.

Robert Cushman comments that the achievement of Strachey's music is how it manages "to provide a long wistful line to accompany each of the foolish things -- and what Strachey does best -- to build to a climax, philosophic or despairing as the singer chooses, on the final "oh, how the ghost of you clings."

But like so many other commentators, Cushman wants to give Maschwitz the lion's share of the credit for the brilliance of "These Foolish Things." He goes so far as to state that he has "some claim to be considered the leading British lyricist of his era, Noel Coward not withstanding." This Cushman attributes at least partly to the images in his songs which made them "shorthand for Old Mayfair (a London district noted as a place where wealthy Brits went to recall life before The Great War changed everything).

Cushman's article on "These Foolish Things" is critically the most insightful both on the song itself and the performances of it, at least those that preceded it.
   
   
   
back to top of page
Lyrics Lounge

Click here to read the lyrics for "These Foolish Things," as sung by Frank Sinatra
on the album Best of the Columbia Years
(Sinatra omits the verseas well as changing other portions of
Maschwitz's original on this recording.)
Listen to Leslie Hutchinson's and/or the Ella Fitzgerald's recording above to hear the verse as well the rest of what Maschwitz wrote.

In the verse, Maschwitz (aka Marvell) has his singer setting up the refrain by lamenting how he/she continues to be bound to his love even though they are no longer together because " those little things remain, / that bring me Happiness or pain." The refrainthen becomes Maschwitz's immortal list of those "little things."

Sinatra not only omits the verse but alters the lyric further by leaving out the the second refrain (the one that begins with "First daffodils and long excited cables, / And candle lights on little corner tables"). altogether. He preserves only one five line portion from Maschwitz's third refrain by grafting it onto the end of the first refrain as the conclusion of the song. The five lines Sinatra borrows for his ending are:

The smile of Garbo and the scent of roses,
The waiter whistling as the last bar closes,
The song that Crosby sings,
These foolish things
Remind me of you.

But he doesn't stop there. He changes up "Garbo" for "Turner," his second wife Ava Gardner's friend and fellow movie star, Lana Turner. He leaves his chief vocal competitor, Bing Crosby, stand as in the original lyric. When Ella Fitzgerald gets to "Crosby," she imitates the crooner by covering some notes with a "boo, boo, boo, boo, boo," which not only adds a little impersonation shtick to her rendition, but is also perhaps a comment on Bing's style of scat. (Listen to Ella.)

As discussed above, both the music and the lyric had minor changes made in them for the American edition of the song. The most significant change made to the lyric, to accommodate an American ear, is the replacement of the bridgein the second refrain with the bridge from the third refrain, thus eliminating the rhyme of "haunted" and "enchanted" -- which only works for Americans if they hear "enchanted" pronounced "enchaunted," which American singers would be very unlikely to sing. Link (or whoever made this change) did it without writing anything new, rather only by shifting things around. Here are the two bridges:

[Second Refrain only in British version]
I knew that this was bound to be;
These things have haunted me,
For you've entirely enchanted me, . . .

(As sung by Mintun above in the second refrain only)

[Second and third refrain in American version]
"How strange, how sweet,
To find you still;
These things are dear to me,
They seem to bring you near to me, . . .

(As sung by Ella Fitzgerald in both the second and third refrains)

Other American singers alter the lyrics (usually by shortening them) in various ways: Sarah Vaughan sings the verse and the first refrain and that's it. Billie Holiday (in her 1952 recording) drops the verse, sings the first refrain, jumps to the bridge of the third refrain, and finishes with the last portion of that refrain -- and so on. Maschwitz's series of images is a tour de force, and its a shame any have to be dropped. Consider this from the second refrain:

The sigh of midnight trains in empty stations,
Silk stockings thrown aside, dance invitations.
Oh, how the ghost of you clings!
These foolish things
Remind me of you.

The complete, authoritative lyrics for "These Foolish Things" (American version) can be found in:

book cover: "Reading Lyrics" Ed. by Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball
Reading Lyrics,
Edited and with an Introduction by Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball,
New York: Pantheon Books, 2000.

Click here to read Cafe Songbook lyrics policy.
back to top of page

Visitor Comments

Submit comments on songs, songwriters, performers, etc.
Feel free to suggest an addition or correction.
Please read our Comments Guidelines before making a submission.
(Posting of comments is subject to the guidelines.
Not all comments will be posted.)
To submit a comment, click here.

Posted Comments on "These Foolish Things":

 

No Comments as yet posted

back to top of page

Credits

("These Foolish Things" page)

 

Credits for Videomakers of videos used on this page:

Borrowed material (text): The sources of all quoted and paraphrased text are cited. Such content is used under the rules of fair use to further the educational objectives of CafeSongbook.com. CafeSongbook.com makes no claims to rights of any kind in this content or the sources from which it comes.

 

Borrowed material (images): Images of CD, DVD, book and similar product covers are used courtesy of either Amazon.com or iTunes/LinkShare with which CafeSongbook.com maintains an affiliate status. All such images are linked to the source from which they came (i.e. either iTunes/LinkShare or Amazon.com).

 

Any other images that appear on CafeSongbook.com pages are either in the public domain or appear through the specific permission of their owners. Such permission will be acknowledged in this space on the page where the image is used.

 

For further information on Cafe Songbook policies with regard to the above matters, see our "About Cafe Songbook" page (link at top and bottom of every page).

The Cafe Songbook
Record/Video Cabinet:
Selected Recordings of

"These Foolish Things"


(All Record/Video Cabinet entries below
include a music-video
of this page's featured song.
The year given is for when the studio
track was originally laid down
or when the live performance was given.)
Performer/Recording Index
(*indicates accompanying music-video)
back to top of page

c. 1935
Leslie Hutchinson
album: Hutch at the Piano


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes: According to Robert Cushman, the version on the album Hutch at the Piano is the "classic" version, but Cushman notes that it omits the most famous image, the one that opens the refrain "A Cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces." Cushman writes: "So it's a shock to find that that line -- which I had always assumed made the song's fortune -- does not figure on Hutch's classic recording. Maybe it was written in later, after the song took off; maybe Hutch simply preferred other bits of the lyric. He had plenty to choose from; the song, copious as alist songshould be, boasts three choruses, of which he sings two" (Cushman, p. 41). Cushman also observes of Hutchinson's rendition, "Most singers have tipped that balance [the one between the lyrics' 'those little things that bring me happiness or pain'] in one direction or another. Hutch keeps it exquisitely poised; he suggests he has the heart for grief but would never dream of wallowing in it" (Cushman, p. 42).
back to top of page

1936 & 1952
Billie Holiday
(with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra)
album: Lady Day
The Best of Billie Holiday


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunesicon

Notes: "In New York in 1936 pianist Teddy Wilson, in a model of understated swing, set an even jauntier tempo [than Leslie Hutchinson's recording] to usher in a single chorus from the 21-year-old Billie Holiday. She brings a new note to the song: disappointment verging on anger. Hutch sang of loss; Holiday sings of betrayal" (Cushman, p. 42 -- Cushman's incisive commentary on Holiday's recording is worth reading in its entirety).

Recorded in New York, June 30, 1936 with Jonah Jones (trumpet) Johnny Hodges (alto sax) Harry Carney (baritone sax) Teddy Wilson (piano) Lawrence Lucie (guitar) John Kirby (bass) Cozy Cole (drums) Billie Holiday (vocal)
.
Billie Holiday also recorded "These Foolish Things on April 21, 1952 in Los Angeles with her own orchestra featuring Oscar Peterson on piano.


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes


A track of this version can also be found on the CD, Best of Billie Volume 2 - 40 Originals.

Amazon

back to top of page

1936 & 1940
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
(Helen Ward vocal--1936)
album: Sing, Sing, Sing


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes:
Original 78 RPM track, Victor #25351, recorded June 15,1936 -- same as remastered track on above album.

c. 1940
Benny Goodman Sextet
Album: Benny Goodman Sextet
Featuring Charlie Christian (1939-1941)


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes: The sextet features Christian on guitar, with Goodman, clarinet; Fletcher Henderson, piano; Lionel Hampton, vibes; Cootie Wilson, trumpet; and Georgie Auld, tenor sax.
 (Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

back to top of page

1945 and 1961
Frank Sinatra
album: The Best of the Columbia Years
1943-1952

1945

same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

nores: Same track as on album above, the studio recording for Columbia Records, July 30, 1945, with arrangement and orchestra conducted by Axel Stordahl. The alternate recording from the above studio session is released on the 1997 2 CD set Portrait of Sinatra: Columbia Classics.

1961
album: Point of No Return


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes: "Sinatra's final recorded songs with Capitol Records before permanently moving to his own Reprise Records label to achieve more artistic freedom with his recordings.

"Indeed, he had already begun recording with Reprise as early as 1960 and had already recorded Ring-A-Ding-Ding, I Remember Tommy, and Sinatra Swings by the time these sessions occurred. He recorded this album in a hurried two-day session in September 1961 to fulfill his contract.

"The album was still a special occasion, reuniting Sinatra with Axel Stordahl, the arranger and conductor who helped Sinatra rise to stardom in the 1940s. Sinatra rushed through the sessions to fulfill his obligation to Capitol, something which Stordahl said upset him." from Wikipedia

"'These Foolish Things" on Point of No Return "settles on a plateau of acceptance, lost love recollected in something approaching tranquility. . . . Sinatra sings here with a light burned out quality and with an unexpected casualness of tone" (Cushman, p. 43).
back to top of page

1954, 1955
Stan Getz
albums: Stan Getz Plays


same track as on albums referenced on the Amazon link below with a play time of approximately 3:20

Amazon iTunes

Notes: Personnel joining Getz include the Oscar Peterson Trio, Astrud Gilberto, and others.
back to top of page

1957
Nat King Cole
album: Just One of Those Things


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes: Orchestra conducted and arrangements by Billy May. The track may also be found on The Billy May Sessions CD on Blue Note Records:

Amazon iTunes

(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

back to top of page

1957
Ella Fitzgerald
1. album: Ella and Louis Again


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes: This is an album of classic collaborations preeminently between Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong singers, but also among the singers and the musicians who include Oscar Peterson on piano along with the members of his trio, Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass plus Louis Belson on drums -- and of course Armstrong on trumpet. But not all of the recordings are vocal duets. A number of songs including "These Foolish Things" are vocal solos, in this case by Ella, which was recorded in Los Angeles on July 23, 1957. Ella includes the verseand all the choruses.

2. album: Ella Fitzgerald at the
Opera House

Amazon iTunes

Notes and Video: Another 1957 version of "These Foolish Things" (live in Chicago) from the album Ella Fitzgerald at the Opera House (which includes two similar performances, one from Chicago and one from Los Angeles) can be heard on the Cafe Songbook Main Stage above.
back to top of page

1962
Etta James
album: The Essential Etta James (1993)


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes icon

Notes: James originally recorded "These Foolish Things" on her third album Etta James for Lovers in 1962. The album was released on a 12-inch LP produced by Phil and Leonard Chess for Argo Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records, and consisted of ten tracks, with five on each side of the vinyl LP. The LP has yet to be made into a CD but the track of "These Foolish Things" as well as most others from the album have been included on many Etta James compilation CDs.

On "These Foolish Things," James is accompanied by the Riley Hampton Orchestra.

The tracks on the CD The Essential Etta James were "Principally recorded in Chicago between 1960-1975. [The CD] includes liner notes by David Ritz. Digitally remastered by Erick Labson (MCA Music Media Studios), except "Would It Make Any Difference," "Pay Back" and "Two Sides To Every Story" which were remixed to stereo from original 4-tracks. THE ESSENTIAL ETTA JAMES contains 2 CDs worth of recordings Etta James made for Chess Records between 1960-1975. Also included is a 16-page booklet with photos, interviews and track-by-track annotations. This is the definitive collection of Etta James's career-defining work at Chess Records. Spanning two discs and 44 tracks, THE ESSENTIAL takes the listener chronologically from 1960's heart-wrenching story-song "All I Could Do Is Cry" to 1975's "Lovin' Arms" (from description at CD Universe.

(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

back to top of page

1962-63
James Brown
album: Ballads

Amazon iTunes


same track as on album referenced above

Notes: Recorded in the studio in NYC, Dec. 1962 and released in 1963, this version of "These Foolish Things," along with other ballads on the album, are examples of James Brown, the wild man of soul, turning it down a few notches (but not too many) in order to put his mark on standard ballads. This performance of "These Foolish Things" as well as the one by Etta James just above, and, some thirty years later, by Aaron Neville, suggest the enduring appeal the song has had for R&B singers. Brown's version begins with a chorus of violins but ends with his trademarked scream.

(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

back to top of page

1965
Johnny Hartman
album: Hartman for Lovers


same track as on album referenced above
(followed by the remainder of album)

Amazon iTunes

Notes: As the latest edition in its For Lovers series, Verve issues this stellar collection of cuts by "the Voice" himself, Johnny Hartman. Indeed, given the nature of Hartman's significant -- and even singular contribution -- to the art of the ballad, it's a wonder that the label didn't issue one before now. The 11 tracks here range chronologically, from 1963-1966, and are culled from such classic albums as John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, Unforgettable, I Just Dropped By to Say Hello, and Voice That Is! Tracks include "Unforgettable," "Stairway to the Stars," "These Foolish Things," "For the Want of a Kiss," "My One and Only Love," and others, with backing by not only the Coltrane quartet, but Hank and Elvin Jones, Milt Hinton, Illinois Jacquet, Herb Ellis, Joe Mondragon, Mike Melvoin, Richard Davis, Gerald Wilson, and others. But it's the mood, the feel, the grace, the aplomb, and the dignity that are in the smoothed-out grain of Hartman's instrument, seducing the listeners and instilling a great calm and a quiet yearning. In addition to having all of these songs in one place for a budget price, there is a terrific, beautifully articulated set of liner notes by the writer Al Young, who places the great Hartman in his proper historical and aesthetic context. ~ Thom Jurek at CD Universe
back to top of page

1969
Mable Mercer
album: Mabel Mercer & Bobby Short:
Second Town Hall Concert


Amazon iTunes

Notes: This recording was made in 1969 live at Town Hall when, as Robert Cushman notes, Mercer "was 70 and had a cold; her delivery was husky and very conversational." Nevertheless, she is for him "as grief wrenching as Billie Holiday, but rather nobler. Hers is the most balanced account of the song since Hutch's, and a lot more approachable" (Cushman, p. 44).
Video:
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

back to top of page

1973
Bryan Ferry
album: These Foolish Things


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes: Ferry, for Robert Cushman, the musical techniques on this recording include an out of tempo verse "in traditional verse manner," "a piercing trumpet and exaggeratedly docile piano, a Brecht and Weill combination," and according to jazz critic Francis Davis, a record that is "fiendishly syncopated" -- which is apparently good. Despite Ferry's somewhat eccentric elocution, Cushman notes that "nobody could accuse [him] of swallowing the words. They all come out clear if somewhat odd; 'the park at evening' becomes 'the park a tevening," reminding me of Ken Tynan's comment on an especially eccentric performance by Ralph Richardson: 'a mode of speech that democratically regards all syllables as equal'" Cushman concludes that Ferry, nevertheless, has laid out all the elements of the song: "the elegance, the nonchalance, the driven misery -- but dislocated and jumbled, so that [he] seems simultaneously to be commenting on traditional pop style and re-enacting it" (Cushman, p. 43-44). (Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

back to top of page

1977
Count Basie Orchestra and Trio
album: Jam: Montreux 77
featuring Benny Carter on
tenor sax

Amazon iTunes

Notes: "Producer Norman Granz commonly liked to showcase his artists for the Pablo label in jam session settings, producing fun results. This Count Basie jam session recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1977 is brimming with good times, featuring ex bandmates like Vic Dickenson and Al Grey on trombones, the fiery Roy Eldridge on trumpet, Benny Carter on alto sax, and Zoot Sims on tenor. The band gets loose on "Bookie Blues", featuring all six soloists and Basie being greatly encouraged in his sparse but excellent stride piano solo. There are a few ballad features for selected hornmen, and a surprise vocal by Roy Eldridge on a roaring "Kidney Stew". Perhaps the best performance on the album is "Trio Blues", with the Count being backed only by the rhythm section of Ray Brown, and drummer Jimmie Smith (no relation to organist). Basie spins a magnificent solo that prompts Benny Carter at the end of the tune to enthusiastically repeat "We Can't Follow That Bill! ". Well, the band indeed rose to the challenge by closing a fantastic set with the Basie anthem "Jumpin' At The Woodside". Overall, "Count Basie Jam: Montreux '77" is a very well conceived jam session and a glowing lesser known gem in the late period Basie catalog" (from Amazon customer reviewer Swingin Live Basie).
Video: See Cafe Songbook Main Stage, above for live performance. Click here For the DVD Norman Granz at Montreux Jazz: Improvisation at Amazon.com.
back to top of page

c. 1990
Andrea Marcovicci
album: As Time Goes By: The best of Andrea Marcovicci


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon

Notes: Robert Cushman and other commentators typically characterize Andrea Marcovicci's "These Foolish Things" as intense, in Cushman's words an "extreme treatment." Along with the Mabel Mercer version it is one of his two picks for the best post war renditions. It appears on two Marcovicci albums: What is Love from 1990 (though probably recorded earlier) above and the Marcovicci compilation album As Time Goes By.
back to top of page

1993
Aaron Neville
album: The Grand Tour


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes: James Brown, 1963 (see above), Etta James on her 1962 recording, and Aaron Neville (1993) have all given "These Foolish Things" a feeling of R&B/soul, suggesting a comfort zone for the song in that genre.
back to top of page

c. 2004
Michael Bublé
album: Special Delivery


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes: "Michael Bublé's six-song Special Delivery (2010) features a handful of ballads and two up-tempo numbers that make the most of his supple crooner vocals and winning charm. Included here are such standards as "These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)," "Dream a Little Dream of Me," and "Mack the Knife." Longtime listeners of Bublé's will be pleased with the big band and symphonic ensemble arrangements that have become the singer's stock in trade. Although this is a short release, likely intended as a pleasant side-car to Bublé's 2009 full-length Crazy Love, Special Delivery is nonetheless a must hear for fans" (from iTunes review). The "These Foolish Things" track appeared as early as 2006 on the EP With Love, but that album was compiled from recordings made between 2003-2005.
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

back to top of page

2010
Hilary Kole and Dave Brubeck
album: You Are There (Duets)


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes: "For her second recording, Hilary Kole has pulled off a coup any jazz singer can only dream of, yet it has become real. You Are There contains 13 vocal-piano duets recorded over a five-year period with some of the most renowned pianists in history, including Dave Brubeck and Hank Jones. It's even better to hear Kole's pitch-perfect voice alongside these unquestioned masters in mostly subtle ballad versions of standards" (from iTunes review by Michael G. Nastos, Rovi).
back to top of page

2013
Emmy Rossum
album: Sentimental Journey


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes: "Singer/actress Emmy Rossum is an opera-trained singer best known for her work in the Showtime series Shameless and the 2009 film version of the stage musical Phantom of the Opera. . . . . Sentimental Journey, Rossum takes a somewhat more traditional if no less ambitious approach and delivers a series of standards from the '20s through the '60s. . . .[Her} stellar backing musicians here, including Giulio Carmassi who, aside from adding some roiling piano accompaniment, also plays various horns, vibes, and melodica. The result is that while Rossum's style lands firmly in a cabaret, Broadway mold, the album has a looser, jazzier feel than one might expect from someone raised on opera and musical theater. ~ Matt Collar at CDUniverse.com.

(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

back to top of page

2015
Seth McFarlane
album: No One Ever Tells You


same track as on album referenced above

Amazon iTunes

Notes: The 17 track album features
both originals and covers. MacFARLANE teamed up with Grammy Award-nominated composer Joel McNeely for
the project. Expanding his discography, No One Ever Tells You follows up last year s Holiday For Swing. His 2011
debut, Music Is Better Than Words, received Grammy Award nominations in Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album &
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. (Amazon Editorial Review)
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

back to top of page

 
back to top of page