"Easy Living": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video
"Easy Living"
A wealthy financier (Edward Arnold) gets upset with his family's profligate life style and throws his wife's new sable coat out of their New York apartment window. It lands on a poor working girl (Jean Arthur) and thus the plot of the Preston Sturges screenplay for the screwball comedy Easy Living begins.
To listen to Ralph Rainger's music as it skips through the movie serving as a lighthearted background theme for a screwball comedy is to wonder how it evolved into a vehicle for the bluesy irony that emanates from the soul of the Teddy Wilson / Billie Holiday version, with lyrics added by Leo Robin a little after the movie's release in 1937. Whatever happened it was this recording that started the song off on its path to becoming an American standard.
Buck Clayton (trumpet), Buster Bailey (clarinet), Lester Young (tenor sax), Teddy Wilson (piano) Freddie Green (guitar), Walter Page (bass) Jo Jones (drums) Billie Holiday (vocal) --
recorded in New York, June 1, 1937
- Norah Jones and Marian McPartland: Westdens;
- Billie Holiday and Teddy Wilson, 1937: nataladass
Notes
- Other songs written for Easy Living currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook : none.
Questions
What is Easy Living?
A wealthy financier (Edward Arnold) gets upset with his family's profligate life style and throws his wife's new sable coat out of their New York apartment window. It lands on a poor working girl (Jean Arthur) and thus the plot of the Preston Sturges screenplay for the screwball
How should Easy Living be cited?
Cite this page as ""Easy Living": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video," Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/e/easy_living.html
Which Cafe Songbook pages are related?
Also read "Easy to Love" (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/e/easy_to_love.html); "Easy Come, Easy Go" (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/e/easy_come_easy_go.html); "Embraceable You" (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/e/embraceable_you.html); "Easter Parade" (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/e/easter_parade_m.html).
Cite this page: "Easy Living": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/e/easy_living.html