Key Largo

By Benny Carter, Karl Suessdorf & Leah Worth
1948

Written for the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall film of the same name, this smooth, gentle number was introduced by Carter's own band. It would later become a popular tune with the progressive jazz performers who would emerge in the 1950s.

Lyrics:

Key largo,
Alone on Key Largo,
How empty it seems,
With only my dreams

Strange cargo,
They come to Key Largo,
But where is the face
My heart won’t erase?

The moon tide,
Rolling in from the sea,
Is lonely,
and it always will be, till you’re with me.

And I know,
I’ll stay in Key Largo,
Just watching the shore
To find you once more

In Key Largo, find you once more in Key Largo.

Recorded By:

Sarah Vaughan
Benny Carter

Misty

By Erroll Garner & Johnny Burke
1954

A late jazz standard, pianist Garner composed the tune, only to have words added by Burke sometime later. It became on the most successful standard compositions of the 1950s, and something of a signature tune for both Johnny Mathis and Sarah Vaughan. It also figures prominently in the 1971 Clint Eastwood film Play Misty for Me. The melody is thoroughly modern, evoking the boldness of 1950s jazz.

Lyrics:

Look at me, I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree,
And I feel like I'm clinging to a cloud, I can't understand,
I get misty, just holding your hand.

Walk my way, and a thousand violins begin to play,
Or it might be the sound of your hello, that music I hear,
I get misty, the moment you're near.

You can say that you're leading me on,
But it's just what I want you to do,
Don't you notice how hopelessly I'm lost,
That's why I'm following you.

On my own, would I wander through this wonderland alone,
Never knowing my right foot from my left, my hat from my glove,
I'm too misty, and too much in love.
I'm too misty, and too much in love.

Recorded By:

Nat King Cole
Frank Sinatra
Julie London
Ella Fitzgerald
Ray Stevens

Tenderly

By Walter Lloyd Gross & Jack Lawrence
1946

Back in the early '40s when it was known simply as "Walter's Melody", Gross would play this tune privately and for club audiences. But in 1946, singer Margaret Whiting introduced him to Jack Lawrence, lyricist for such hits as "If I Didn't Care" and "All or Nothing at All". Lawrence put words and a new title to the song, and after Gross asked Sarah Vaughan to make the first recording of it, the two men had a hit on their hands. It was one of Vaughan's earliest hits as a solo artist.

Lyrics:

The evening breeze caressed the trees,
Tenderly.
The trembling trees embraced the breeze,
Tenderly.

Then you and I came wandering by,
And lost in a sigh were we.

The shore was kissed by sea and mist,
Tenderly.
I can't forget how two hearts met,
Breathlessly.

Your arms opened wide and closed me inside.
You took my lips, you took my love,
So Tenderly.

Recorded By:

Chet Baker
Rosemary Clooney
Nat King Cole
Jackie Gleason
Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald