Feb. Song Of The Month--It Had To Be You

MikeK · February 2023

This month's tune is commonly called in my town but I never seem to get tired of playing it. It was written by Isham Jones (music) & Gus Kahn (lyrics) in 1924 and went straight up to #1 on the charts that year. It has the distinction of being one of the tunes in our repertoire that's in the public domain, so there's that.

It has appeared in many films and tv shows over the years, including:

Casablanca (Dooley Wilson)

Gilligan's Island (Tina Louise)

Annie Hall (Diane Keaton).

It's been recorded by so many great artists over the years, but some of my favorites include Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday & Ray Charles. My favorite Django version is from Paris, recorded on 11/13/47. His electric tone is to die for. Here's a link to it--

https://youtu.be/-GTjIXov9Fo

It's usually played in the key of G. I'll post the chart that my band uses later.