Great Day (song)
Great Day is a pop song written by Vincent Youmans (music), Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu (lyrics) and released in 1929.
background
The songwriting team Youmans, Rose and Eliscu wrote Great Day for the musical of the same name , to which they also contributed the songs More Than You Know , Happy Because I'm in Love and Without a Song . The song was presented in the musical, which had its world premiere on October 17, 1929 in New York's Cosmopolitan Theater , by the Russell Wooding's Jubilee Singers . Was popular Great Day as a "hymn to the power of positive thinking", especially in the Depression years ; one line of the lyrics read: "When you're down and out, lift up your head and shout There's gonna be a great day "
First recordings and later cover versions
Paul Whiteman had a number one hit in the US charts with his recording (Columbia 098-D) of the song . Other musicians who covered the song from the end of 1929 included Frankie Trumbauer / Smith Ballew (OKeh), Roger Wolfe Kahn (Brunswick) and Philip Spitalny (Harmony)
The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 45 (as of 2016) cover versions in the field of jazz , including a. from 1933 by Vincent Lopez , Bill Challis , Kay Kyser , Glenn Miller , Jo Stafford , Claude Thornhill , Benny Goodman , Oscar Peterson , Ella Fitzgerald / Frank De Vol , Sarah Vaughan , Art Farmer , Houston Person , Dick Hyman , Rigmor Gustafsson and Tierney Sutton . Barbra Streisand interpreted the song in the film musical Funny Lady (1975).