Songfacts®:

• First published in 1932, the history of this song plays like a veritable who's who in the jazz music world. It's been released on albums by many different jazz artists, including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore. It is often sung as a duet.
• The music was written by Vernon Duke, who also composed music for the musicals Ziegfeld Follies and Cabin in the Sky. The lyricist was Yip Harburg, also wrote the lyrics for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic "Over The Rainbow." They wrote the song for the Broadway production Walk A Little Faster, which debuted in 1933 with Evelyn Hoey singing the stage version. The lasted just one season, but the song proved much more popular.
• Count Basie's version of this song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1985.
• Ella Fitzgerald was known as "The First Lady of Song" and is considered one of the best female jazz singers of all time, alongside Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. Her career spanned more than half a century; she retired in 1994 and died two years later.
• The song was used as the title for a 1952 movie starring Doris Day and Ray Bolger. Doris Day performed the song in the film.