Tangerine

By Victor Schertzinger & Johnny Mercer
1941

Director Schertzinger collaborated with Mercer on this song for his 1942 musical film The Fleet's In, in which it was introduced by Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra, featuring Helen O'Connell & Bob Eberly on vocals. Schertzinger and Mercer teamed to write several numbers for the movie, also including "I Remember You". The tune is a classic example of Mercer's delightfully playful way with a lyric.

Lyrics:

South American stories
Tell of a girl who's quite a dream,
The beauty of her race.
Though you doubt all the stories,
And think that the tales are just a bit extreme,
Wait till you see her face.

Tangerine--
She is all they claim,
With her eyes of night and lips as bright as flame.
Tangerine--
When she dances by,
Senoritas stare and caballeros sigh.

And I've seen
Toasts to Tangerine
Raised in every bar across the Argentine.
Yes, she has them all on the run,
But her heart belongs to just one.
Her heart belongs to Tangerine.

Recorded By:

Frank Sinatra
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Dave Brubeck
Chet Baker
Harry Connick Jr.

I Remember You

By Victor Schertzinger & Johnny Mercer
1941

Proof that even the most beautiful song can be horrifying under the right circumstances, Slim Whitman's country-style recording of this standard was used to great effect in Rob Zombie's film House of 1,000 Corpses. It was originally written for quite a different movie--1942's The Fleet's In, in which it was introduced by Cass Daley. It can also be heard in Star Trek III, and Uncle Junior even quoted a bit of it on a Sopranos episode.

Lyrics:

Was it in Tahiti?
Were we on the Nile?
Long, long ago,
Say an hour or so
I recall that I saw your smile.

I remember you,
You're the one who made
My dreams come true
A few kisses ago.

I remember you,
You're the one who said
"I love you, too," I do.
Didn't you know?

I remember, too,
A distant bell,
And stars that fell like rain
Out of the blue.

When my life is through,
And the angels ask me to recall
The thrill of them all,
Then I shall tell them
I remember you.

Recorded By:

Nat King Cole
Frank Ifield
Diana Krall
Chet Baker
Bjork