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"Body and Soul": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video

"Body and Soul"

"Body and Soul" was added to the score of Three's a Crowd in its Philadelphia preview before the show opened in New York, October 15, 1930. Other songs from this show currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook:


Will Friedwald
Stardust Melodies: A Biography of 12 of America's Most Popular Songs.
Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2002
Paper-bound Ed. (pictured) 2004.

According to jazz critic Will Friedwald, "Body and Soul" was written when, in 1930, Johnny Green and Edward Heyman recieved a call from Gertrude Lawrence who needed some new material for her 1930 New York act. Friedwald's essay on "Body and Soul" in his book Stardust Melodies tells the complete story of the song's origins (Will Friedwald, Stardust Melodies: A Biography of 12 of America's Most Popular Songs, pp. 147 ff. paper-bound Ed.).


Phil Johnson,
"Body and Soul"
Lives of the Great Songs,
Tim De Lisle (Ed.)
UK: Pavilion, 1994
(A collection of essays on
individual popular songs by
very capable critics

Jazz critic Phil Johnson after describing the scene in the 1986 film 'Round Midnight, in which Dexter Gordon plays "Body and Soul," comments on the iconic status of the song:

Pain and loss, darkness and death, love and life gone sour: this then, is the subtext to the song -- at least in the film, which puts a doomy French spin on the dreamy cadences of the tune. And this is largely what "Body and Soul" has come to mean for us today, even without the lovelorn lyric. . . . "Body and Soul" has become the iconic reduction of all those late-night crying-into-your-beer jazz ballads. It's a standard for all saxophonists not because it tests their technical skills but because it challenges their powers of emotional expression. ( Lives of the Great Songs , p. 114)


Dexter Gordon performing "Body and Soul" on Tenor Sax (playing Dale Gordon in the 1986 film Round Midnight) with Herbie Hancock on piano, Pierre Michelot on bass, John Mclaughlin on guitar, and Billy Higgins on drums.

Notes

Questions

What is Body and Soul?

"Body and Soul" was added to the score of Three's a Crowd in its Philadelphia preview before the show opened in New York, October 15, 1930. Other songs from this show currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook :

How should Body and Soul be cited?

Cite this page as ""Body and Soul": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video," Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/b/body_and_soul.html

Which Cafe Songbook pages are related?

Also read "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/b/boogie_woogie_bugle_boy.html); "Bob White" (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/b/bob_white.html); "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/b/boulevard_of_broken_dreams.html); "Blues in the Night" (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/b/blues_in_night_f.html).

Cite this page: "Body and Soul": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/b/body_and_soul.html