One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)
One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) is a song by the composer Harold Arlen with lyrics by Johnny Mercer from 1943. Written for Fred Astaire , it became world famous primarily through the interpretations of Frank Sinatra .
history
Fred Astaire
Arlen and Mercer composed the song in early 1943 for the film musical The Sky's the Limit with Fred Astaire in the lead role. Astaire himself choreographed the extensive scene in which he interprets music and dance very intensely as the drunk Flying Tiger One for My Baby . The filming of the scene took two full days because Astaire injured his foot on a shot of broken glass. His haunting performance, which Astaire himself later described as one of his best movie scenes, contributed to the fact that the song was soon covered by other performers despite its excess length.
More artists
In the classic film Noir Road House (1948), One for My Baby is interpreted as a ballad by Ida Lupino in her role as a nightclub singer and pianist. This adaptation, arranged by Earle Hagen , set the style for the interpretations of numerous other vocalists. In addition to Sinatra, artists such as Tony Bennett , Rosemary Clooney , Perry Como , Marlene Dietrich , Billie Holiday , Ella Fitzgerald , Lena Horne , Etta James , Chuck Berry and Julie London recorded the song. More recently, artists such as Iggy Pop and Robbie Williams have been added. For her performance of the song in the Tonight Show from Johnny Carson won Bette Midler 1992 an Emmy .
Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra recorded One for My Baby for the first time in August 1947 with a small orchestra, arranged by Axel Stordahl , for Columbia Records ; the recording was not released until June 1949, when Ida Lupino's 1948 film version had become a success.
Together with his pianist Bill Miller , who accompanied him regularly since autumn 1951, Sinatra then developed a ballad version as a duet of voice and piano, which he kept for decades and which would become one of Sinatra's signature songs .
It was first heard in 1954 in the film Young At Heart , in which Sinatra played alongside Doris Day . Sinatra's studio recording of the piece from June 1958 with an orchestra arranged by Nelson Riddle for the Capitol album Only The Lonely then became a Sinatra classic and the epitome of the saloon song . In 2005 this version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame .
Sinatra kept the piece, which he performed in concert mostly as a duet with Bill Miller on the piano, in the program from 1957 (with an interruption from 1977 to 1985) until his last appearances in 1994; numerous live versions from these decades have been published. Choreographer Twyla Tharp used Sinatra's recording in 1983 as the leitmotif for The Sinatra Suite , danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov . In January 1985, Baryshnikov danced this piece again, accompanied by Sinatra's singing, at the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan .
In early July 1993, Sinatra's last studio recording of the song was made on Capitol Records, again accompanied by Bill Miller. For the album Duets (1993), this recording was overdubbed to include instrumental solos by Kenny G that were later recorded .