This past Sunday I watched the Oscar-nominated film Blue Moon instead of watching the Oscars. The film is a portrait of Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers’s first lyricist. I found the movie on cable and watched it while we were snowbound at home. The movie was directed by Richard Linklater, written by Robert Koplow, and stars Ethan Hawke. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard a reference to “feminine rhyme” in a film.
I liked everything about the movie. It gave me the idea of devoting an installment of Sunday Morning Coming Down to the Rodgers and Hart songbook — drawing on favorite artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and a few others among the hundreds who have covered their work. The Rodgers and Hart catalog is vast and my knowledge is slim. I hope merely to inspire a few of you to go out exploring on your own.
There is no place better to begin than with Mark Steyn. Mark is the perfect teacher. He devoted a January installment of his SteynOnline Song of the Week series to “Blue Moon” (January 18, 2026). Mark incoporates videos that range from the Marcells’ inspired hit single version of the song to Rod Stewart’s more restrained interpretation. In Mark’s teaching, “There’s something for everyone. It’s a country song to the Mavericks, it’s a doowop revival number to Showaddywaddy, it’s virtually an entire film score in itself to the makers of An American Werewolf In London, who used three different versions on the soundtrack.” I’m not sure what Mark would say about Mel Tormé’s treatment of the song on his On the Moon album (1960). I say it fits right in.
“There’s something for everyone” is my theme this morning. These songs have become standards intepreted by just about everyone, roughly speaking, and in every style of popular music.
Norman Granz founded Verve Records in part to turn Ella Fitzgerald into the kind of star he thought she deserved to be. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (1956) was Verve’s first release and a double album to boot. It turned out pretty, pretty well. Granz sought to capitalize on its success with Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Song Book later that year. In 1999 the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
According to Tad Hershorn’s invaluable biography of Granz, Granz had decided to spotlight the Rodgers and Hart catalog “because he felt Hart’s words had insipred Rodgers to write with a leanness and edge whereas Rodgers’s work with Oscar Hammerstein was more schmaltzy.”
Ella would not record “Have You Met Miss Jones?” as written. She felt that it wasn’t a woman’s lyric. Over Granz’s objection she insisted on “Have You Met Sir Jones?” Have you met “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”? By the way, Ella’s Rodgers and Hart Song Book filled another double album.
Sarah Vaughan released her own Rodgers and Hart Songbook in 1956. “Little Girl Blue” is one of the highlights.
Rodgers and Hart wrote “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” for the 1939 musical Too Many Girls, but Frank Sinatra took a turn with it in Pal Joey (1957). My teacher Jeffrey Hart wrote a tribute to the 1950s that he titled When the Going Was Good! He knew what the time was and he did not omit the contribution of Rodgers and Hart in making his case.
Sinatra gave “It Never Entered My Mind” an essential interpretation on his classic In the Wee Small Hours album (1955).
Linda Ronstadt returned to it on Lush Life (1984) in an arrangement by Nelson Riddle.
I don’t think I appreciated Rodgers and Hart until I heard the Mamas and Papas version of “My Heart Stood Still” on their self-titled 1966 album. They weren’t done with Rodgers and Hart. They also managed to put “Glad To Be Unhappy” on the charts when they released their version as a single 30 years after Rodgers and Hart wrote it for On Your Toes. That single is also accessible on YouTube.
Sarah Vaughan covered “You Are Too Beautiful” on Crazy and Mixed Up (1982). Her lone accompanist on this track is pianist Roland Hanna.
Tony Bennett was backed by the all-star jazz quartet of Herbie Hancock on piano, Stan Getz on sax, Ron Carter on Bass, and Elvin Jones on drums when he recorded “Have You Met Miss Jones?” The song remained in the vault until Bennett’s 1987 album Jazz. Ted Gioia remarked about this collaboration: “Something amazing happened on May 25, 1964, at least if you’re a jazz fan. On that day, Tony Bennett walked into a New York studio with Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Elvin Jones. Just thinking about it makes my heart palpitate. But here’s the rub: they only recorded one track. Later that year, that same ensemble returned to the studio, and recorded three more songs. In other words, they never had enough music to release an entire album—which makes me moan and groan, because this would have been one of the classic jazz vocal albums of the century. At least we have a taste of this music to savor.”
Joni Mitchell included “I Wish I Were In Love Again” on Both Sides Now (2000). Joni was backed by members of the London Symphony Orchestra and a cast of jazz greats including Herbie Hancock on piano, Wayne Shorter on sax, and Mark Isham on trumpet. The orchestra was conducted by Vince Mendoza. The album seems to me to have been lovingly produced — by Joni’s ex-husband Larry Klein.
I err on the side of including Tony Bennett’s interpetations of Rodges and Hart. He recorded “My Romance” several times. This is a good one.
Have you met Ms. James? Morgan James is the classically trained singer who has pursued a successful career in popular music. She may have the Miss Jones effect on you. In the video below she performs “Where Or When” with her husband, Doug Wamble. She’ll be at the Dakota in Minneapolis this coming Tuesday.
Tony Bennett released a Rodgers and Hart songbook album in 1973. Bennett recorded the song for his 1973 Rodgers and Hart songbook album and again in 1975. As the film Blue Moon concludes, Bennett’s 1975 interpretation of “This Funny World” plays on the soundtrack. The song is some 100 years old. He plucked the song from the 1926 musical Betsy. Bennett’s rendition of the song the second time around appeared on Life Is Beautiful, the first album released on his Improv label. I posted it last Monday. Let’s give it another spin to go out on this incomparable note.
