I Thought About You
"I Thought About You" is a 1939 popular song composed by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was one of three collaborations Van Heusen and Mercer wrote for the then recently established Mercer-Morris publishing company, started by Mercer and former Warner Bros. publisher Buddy Morris.[1] The other two were called "Blue Rain" and "Make with the Kisses". "I Thought About You" was by far the most popular of the songs.
The lyrics were inspired by Mercer's train trip to Chicago. Mercer has said about the song:
"I can remember the afternoon that we wrote it. He [Van Heusen] played me the melody. I didn't have any idea, but I had to go to Chicago that night. I think I was on the Benny Goodman program. And I got to thinking about it on the train. I was awake, I couldn't sleep. The tune was running through my mind, and that's when I wrote the song. On the train, really going to Chicago."[1]
Mercer went on to author other songs whose central theme were trains, including "Blues in the Night" (1940) and "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" (1946).[2]
Recordings
The song has become a jazz standard, having been performed by numerous jazz artists including:
- Mose Allison
- Mildred Bailey
- Will Bradley
- Ray Brown
- Dave Brubeck Quartet with Jerry Bergonzi - Paper Moon (1982)[3]
- Kenny Burrell (with Coleman Hawkins) - Bluesy Burrell (1962)
- Royce Campbell - All Standards and a Blues (2009)
- Jeremy Davenport - Maybe in A Dream (1997)
- Miles Davis - Someday My Prince Will Come (1961), The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965
- Ella Fitzgerald - Like Someone in Love (1957)
- Johnny Hartman - And I Thought About You (1958)[4]
- Jessica Elbert (2006)
- The Hi-Lo's - A Musical Thrill (2006)
- Billie Holiday - Lady Sings the Blues (1956)
- Shirley Horn - I Thought About You (1987)[5]
- Keith Jarrett - Bye Bye Blackbird (1993)
- Susannah McCorkle - Most Requested Songs (2001)
- Carmen McRae - The Great American Songbook (1972)[6]
- Del Rey - Boogie Mysterioso (1993)
- Rita Reys - Swing & Sweet (Blue Note, 1990)
- Diane Schuur and Johnny Smith[7]
- Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956)
- Mel Tormé and Cleo Laine - Nothing Without You (1991)
- Mal Waldron - Moods (1978)
- Dinah Washington - What a Diff'rence a Day Makes! (1959)
- Nancy Wilson - But Beautiful (1969)
- Eliane Elias - I Thought About You (2013)
- Rebecca Ferguson - Lady Sings the Blues (2015)
Notes
- 1 2 Gene Lees: Portrait of Johnny: The Life of John Herndon Mercer. Hal Leonard Corporation, 2006. ISBN 0-634-09929-9. pp. 112–113
- ↑ Philip Furia and Michael L. Lasser: America's Songs: The Stories Behind The Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley. CRC Press, 2006. ISBN 0-415-97246-9. p. 159
- ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Dave-Brubeck-Quartet-Paper-Moon/master/346533
- ↑ allmusic ((( And I Thought About You > Overview ))), allmusic - retrieved on 18 June 2010
- ↑ allmusic ((( I Thought About You > Overview ))), allmusic - retrieved on 18 June 2010
- ↑ allmusic ((( The Great American Songbook > Overview ))), allmusic - retrieved on 18 June 2010
- ↑ "I Thought About You" at jazzstandards.com - retrieved on 24 May 2009
