September 5, 2007

"These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)"

Spread It Abroad is a long-forgotten musical revue from 1935 that had at least one memorable moment - "These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)." The song would reappear six years later in the film A Yank in the R.A.F. More from Wikipedia:

"These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)" is a popular song with words and music by Harry Link, Holt Marvell, and Jack Strachey.

The song originally had the lyrics, "The song that Crosby Sings." Curiously Bing Crosby himself was also the first singer not to sing the line.

Bryan Ferry covered the Dorothy Dickson version of the song for the title track of his first solo album These Foolish Things (1973).


I prefer the darker, "smokier" version Frank Sinatra recorded in 1962 on what would be his last recordings for Capitol Records, Point of No Return (the album which reunited the singer with his 1940s, Columbia arranger, Axel Stordahl). But here is perhaps the classic Sinatra recording - the July 30, 1945, Columbia Records version, done in Hollywood:


by 78MAN

A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces
An airline ticket to romantic places
And still my heart has wings
These foolish things remind me of you

A tinkling piano in the next apartment
Those stumbling words that told you what my heart meant
A fairground's painted swings
These foolish things remind me of you

You came, you saw, you conquered me
When you did that to me
I knew somehow this had to be

The winds of March that make my heart a dancer
A telephone that rings but who's to answer?
Oh, how the ghost of you clings
These foolish things remind me of you

The smile of Turner and the scent of roses
The waiters whistling as the last bar closes
The song that Crosby sings
These foolish things remind me of you

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