"The Best Things in Life Are Free" | |
---|---|
Song | |
Published | 1927 | by De Sylva, Brown and Henderson
Genre | Show tunes |
Composer(s) | Ray Henderson |
Lyricist(s) | Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown |
"The Best Things in Life Are Free" is a popular song written by the songwriting team of Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown (lyrics) and Ray Henderson (music) for the 1927 musical Good News . It enjoyed a revival during the period from 1947 to 1950, when it was covered by many artists.
On January 1, 2023, the composition entered the public domain in the US. [1]
The song first enjoyed chart success in 1927 with the recordings by George Olsen and Frank Black. [3]
Jo Stafford recorded the song on November 7, 1947, [4] bringing the song to a new genre. She enjoyed chart success with the song reaching the No. 21 spot in 1948. Dinah Shore also covered the song in 1948; [5] her single reached peaked at No. 18 on the charts. [3]
The song was included in both film adaptations of Good News , in 1930 and 1947; the 1947 film featured the song several times, sung by June Allyson, Mel Tormé, and Peter Lawford.
The film The Best Things in Life Are Free (1956), about DeSylva, Brown and Henderson, was named after the song and featured it with a version sung by Sheree North (dubbed by Eileen Wilson).
In an episode of The Muppet Show , a group of kleptomaniac prairie dogs sang the song as they looted the set.
The song was sung by Bonnie Bedelia in the 1969 Sydney Pollack film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Robert Morse performed the song in the Mad Men (season 7) episode "Waterloo" (May 25, 2014), in a dream sequence. [13]
Also featured in the film Nanny McPhee Returns during the piglet feeding in the beginning of the movie. Sung by Bing Crosby.
Sam Cooke's version of the song is used in the closing of the Season 2 finale (episode 7) of The White Lotus .
"In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" is a popular song with music by Hoagy Carmichael and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was originally planned to feature it in a Paramount film written for Betty Hutton that never took off, which was to be called The Mack Sennett Girl. The song was buried in Paramount's files until it was rediscovered and then used in the 1951 film Here Comes the Groom and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
"Pretty Baby" is a song written by Tony Jackson during the Ragtime era. The song was remembered as being prominent in Jackson's repertory before he left New Orleans in 1912, but was not published until 1916.
"All I Do Is Dream of You" is a popular song. The music was written by Nacio Herb Brown, the lyrics by Arthur Freed. The song was published in 1934. It was originally written for the Joan Crawford film Sadie McKee (1934) when it was played during the opening credits and later sung by Gene Raymond three times. It was also sung in the film by Earl Oxford in a show. The song is also featured in the films Singin' in the Rain, A Night at the Opera, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis, and Crimes and Misdemeanors.
"All Alone" is a popular waltz ballad composed by Irving Berlin in 1924. It was interpolated into the Broadway show The Music Box Revue of 1924 where it was sung by Grace Moore and Oscar Shaw. Moore sat at one end of the stage under a tightly focused spotlight, singing it into a telephone, while Oscar Shaw sat at the other, doing the same.
"If You Were the Only Girl (In the World)" is a popular song, written by Nat D. Ayer with lyrics by Clifford Grey. It was written for the musical revue The Bing Boys Are Here, which premièred on 19 April 1916 at the Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square, London. The song was originally performed as a duet between Lucius Bing, played by George Robey, and his love interest Emma, originated by Violet Loraine.
"I Had the Craziest Dream" is a popular song which was published in 1942. The music was written by Harry Warren, the lyrics by Mack Gordon.
"It's the Talk of the Town" is a popular song written by Jerry Livingston, the lyrics by Al J. Neiburg and Marty Symes.
"South of the Border Down Mexico Way" is a popular song describing a trip to Mexico, written by Jimmy Kennedy and Michael Carr and published in 1939 for the film of the same name starring country star Gene Autry.
"Please Send Me Someone to Love" is a blues ballad, written and recorded by American blues and soul singer Percy Mayfield in 1950, for Art Rupe's Specialty Records. It was on the Billboard's R&B chart for 27 weeks and reached the number-one position for two weeks; it was Mayfield's most successful song.
"April Showers" is a 1921 popular song composed by Louis Silvers with lyrics by B. G. De Sylva.
"Nobody's Sweetheart", also known as "Nobody's Sweetheart Now" and "You're Nobody's Sweetheart Now", is a popular song, written in 1924, with music by Billy Meyers and Elmer Schoebel, and lyrics by Gus Kahn and Ernie Erdman. The song is a jazz and pop standard.
"Early Autumn" is a song composed by Ralph Burns and Woody Herman with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The song grew out of the fourth segment of Burns's "Summer Sequence" concert piece. The original recording was made by Herman's second herd on December 27, 1947, which had a notable eight-bar solo by saxophonist Stan Getz. Herman asked Johnny Mercer to write lyrics in 1952 and he re-recorded the song taking the vocal duties himself.
"Isn't This a Lovely Day?" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1935 film Top Hat, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire in the scene where his and Ginger Rogers' characters are caught in a gazebo during a rainstorm. The lyric is an example of a song which turns a bad situation into a love song, a common style for Irving Berlin, as in I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm and Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee.
"(You'd Be So) Easy to Love" is a popular song written by Cole Porter for William Gaxton to sing in the 1934 Broadway show Anything Goes. However Gaxton was unhappy about its wide vocal range and it was cut from the musical. Porter re-wrote it for the 1936 film Born to Dance, where it was introduced by Eleanor Powell, James Stewart, and Frances Langford under its alternate title, "Easy to Love". The song was later added to the 1987 and 2011 revivals of Anything Goes under the complete title "You’d Be So Easy to Love".
"Along the Navajo Trail" is a country/pop song, written by Dick Charles, Larry Markes and Eddie DeLange in 1945, and first recorded by Dinah Shore in May 1945.
"Waves of the Danube" is a waltz composed by Iosif Ivanovici in 1880, and is one of the most famous Romanian tunes in the world. The song has many variations throughout the piece, reminiscent of the music of Johann Strauss. Through the Viennese style variations, there is still a distinct Slavic style. In the United States, it is frequently referred to as "The Anniversary Song", a title given by Al Jolson when he and Saul Chaplin released an adaptation of the song in 1946.
"Alabamy Bound" is a Tin Pan Alley tune written in 1924, with music by Ray Henderson and words by Buddy DeSylva and Bud Green. It was popularized by Al Jolson and included in the musical Kid Boots, where it was sung by Eddie Cantor. Successful recordings of the song were released in 1925 by Paul Whiteman, Isham Jones and Fletcher Henderson (instrumentals), as well as Blossom Seeley, whose vocal version reached number 2 on the charts. The song has sold over a million copies of sheet music and has been included in several films over the years.
"Cabaret" is the title song of the 1966 musical of the same name, sung by the character Sally Bowles. It was composed by John Kander, with lyrics by Fred Ebb.
"Careless Hands" is a popular song written by Carl Sigman and Bob Hilliard, and first recorded in 1948.
"Miss You" is a 1929 song by the Tobias brothers: Charles Tobias, Harry Tobias and Henry Tobias. It was the three brothers' first published song, and their first hit, but one of the few songs where all three collaborated.