#91: Just One of Those Things

Cole Porter, the master of breezy sophistication, brilliantly unsentimentalizes love in his much recorded, now-standard "Just One of Those Things." Written for the 1935 musical Jubilee, this tune out-Porters Porter in its cool take on the loss of love. Hey, it was just one of those nights...just one of those fabulous flights...a trip to the moon on gossamer wings...just one of those things. And really, if we'd thought a bit of the end of it (when we started painting the town), we'd have been aware that our love affair was too hot not to cool down.

With its uptempo beat and trademark inner rhyming in the refrain, Porter reminds us all that romance may not last, but hey, why should we be sad and sentimental? After all, it was great fun! And really just one of those things. Watch Ella in Amsterdam, 1957: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoiLkCojxAM

#92: Everybody Eats When They Come to My House

Have a banana, Hannah
Try the salami, Tommy
Get with the gravy, Davy
Everybody eats when they come to my house

"His High-de-Highness of the Ho-de-Ho," Cab Calloway and his band co-headlined Harlem's famed Cotton Club with Duke Ellington in the 1930s. While Calloway's most famous song may be "Minnie the Moocher," I love the jaunty, rhyme-licious "Everybody Eats," written by Jeanne Burns. Look out for Calloway's Yiddishisms ("do have a bagel, Fagel" or "look in the Fendel, Mendel"), which are not only cute -- but also make transparent the intertwining of Jewish and African-American cultures in this distinctly American art form. While John Lithgow dusted off this song for a kids' album ten years ago, I'd listen to Mr. Calloway in this YouTube clip.

#93: Them There Eyes

My heart is jumpin'
Sure started somethin' with
Them there eyes
You'd better watch them if you're wise
They sparkle
They bubble
They're gonna get you in a whole lot of trouble
You're overworkin' them
There's danger lurkin' in
Them there eyes

This 1930 tune literally winks at you. "Them There Eyes" is a jazz-band favorite and gets a lot of its bounce out of its heart-fluttering tempo, flirty theme and quick, paired rhymes. Made famous by Billie Holiday (who took melody as a suggestion, rather than a given), it's been sung by everyone from Louis Armstrong to Chaka Khan. Maceo Pinkard and William Tracey collaborated on this naughty number with the 23-year-old Doris Tauber, who went on to write Bette Midler's famous "Clams on the Half Shell" revue 45 years later. Once a flirt, always a flirt.

Listen to this great rendition by Rebecca Kilgore.

#94: I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself A Letter

I'm gonna smile and say
I hope you're feeling better
And close "with love"
The way you do
I'm gonna sit right down
And write myself a letter
And make believe it came from you

This is either a massively passive-aggressive message ("write me, damn it!"), or it's just darn sad. Either way, it's a little odd that the melody is so cheerful (it's kinda "Tip Toe Through the Tulips" to me somehow), but perhaps because I can totally see myself doing exactly what the lyric says, I like it just the same. This tune, written in 1935 by Fred Ahlert (music) and Joe Young (lyrics), was a Fats Waller standard, later recorded by plenty of stars, including Frank Sinatra with Count Basie, but also Bill Haley and the Comets (in a rejiggered version), Tony Danza, and Danny Aiello. Me, I'd go with Nat King Cole or Sarah Vaughn.

YouTube has the Fats Waller version, snipped from a cute Sesame Street vignette. Hats off to PBS for introducing this one to the young'uns.

#95: On A Slow Boat to China

I'd love to get you
On a slow boat to China,
All to myself alone.
Get you to keep you in my arms evermore,
Leave all your lovers
Weeping on the faraway shore.

I love all of the things happening lyrically here. In 1945, when Frank Loesser wrote this song, there weren't many trips you could take that would be longer than the crossing to Asia, so a slow boat to China would be an eternity. The singer suggests that, on such a long and romantic trip, surely s/he'll be successful at "melting your heart of stone." Sprinkle in the jealous suitors, out of breath and shaking their fists as the ship leaves port, and you've got yourself quite a drama in just a few lines.

Frank "Guys and Dolls" Loesser loved bringing the vernacular into his music. In her 1993 biography of her father, Susan Loesser explains that experienced poker players used the phrase "I'd like to get you on a slow boat to China" when their opponents were both low in skill and high on cash. She writes, "My father turned it into a romantic song, placing the title in the mainstream of catch-phrases in 1947."

While everyone from Bette Midler to Jimmy Buffett has recorded this one, I prefer the old-time Benny Goodman / Al Hendrickson version. (Sorry, Ms. M.) Listen here for a YouTube clip of a Kay Kyser recording.

#96: Top Hat, White Tie and Tails

I'm stepping out, my dear,
To breathe an atmosphere
That simply reeks of class
And I trust
That you'll excuse my dust
When I step on the gas

Irving "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up In the Morning" Berlin never sounded more debonair than this partnership with the epitome of Depression-era escapism, Fred Astaire, for this ode to a fancy invitation.

This song positively dances, from climbing up the scale in the intro ("your presence / requested / this evening / it's formal") to skipping in the bridge, quoted above. This white tie and tails were tailor-made for Astaire. Listen here for a (kinda scratchy) YouTube clip.

#97: I Could Write a Book

If they asked me, I could write a book
About the way you talk
And whisper and look
I could write a preface of how we met
That the world would never forget

This tune is so charming that it captures the "lovers from friends" romance perfectly in "When Harry Met Sally," despite being thick with irony in its original context. Pal Joey, the song-and-dance anti-hero in the 1940's Rodgers and Hart musical of the same name, just met a naive newcomer to the city and is already beguiling her with chapters about their storied romance through this song, despite the fact he's probably never read a book in his life.

I love newcomer Dana Lauren's interpretation on her 2008 album, "Stairway to the Stars," with one verse as a ballad and another up-tempo. Dana's story is incredible: she met Cuban trumpet legend Arturo Sandoval on her 18th birthday when he was performing at the Newport Jazz Festival; they got to talking backstage, where he learned that she was a vocal jazz student at the New England Conservatory. He asked her to perform with him, and the rest is history. In fact, she could write a book. Click here for Dana's MySpace page; then choose this song from her player.