Midnight Sun (song)

"Midnight Sun" (1954) was originally an instrumental composed by Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke in 1947 and is now considered a jazz standard. Subsequently, Johnny Mercer wrote the words to the song. One famous recording of the song with the Mercer lyrics is by Ella Fitzgerald on her album Like Someone in Love (1957).

Story behind the lyrics

According to Phillip Furia,^[1] Johnny Mercer was driving along the freeway from Palm Springs to Hollywood, California, when he heard the instrumental on his car radio and started to set words to the song as he drove.

Notable recordings

• Original instrumental recording by the Lionel Hampton Orchestra in 1947 (Decca L 4546, 1947)

• Dee Dee Bridgewater - Live at Yoshi's (1998)
• June Christy - Something Cool (1954), Road Show (1959), A Lovely Way to Spend An Evening (1986)
• Bob Dorough - Devil May Care (1956)
• Ella Fitzgerald - Like Someone in Love (1957) and Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook (1964)
• Al Jarreau - Accentuate the Positive (2004)
• Dianne Reeves - When you know (2008)
• Diane Schuur and Maynard Ferguson - Swingin' for Schuur (2001)
• Jo Stafford - Jo + Jazz (1960)
• Sarah Vaughan - Sarah Sings Soulfully (1963)
• Mel Tormé - A Vintage Year (1987)
• Weather Report - live concert in Offenbach, Germany, 1978

References

1. ^ Furia, Phillip (1990). The Poets of Tin Pan Alley. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

See also

• Lionel Hampton