While it's still Winter, let's get to another seasonal song - "The Things We Did Last Summer" from 1946 by the prolific hit-writing team of lyrist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne!
It's a popular standard, but despite it taking place, if you will, in the Winter, it hasn't made its way onto the list of seasonal songs that have been recorded ad infintum over the years, such as another Cahn/Styne song, "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"
When it was published, "The Things We Did Last Summer" was recorded on all the labels, with some pretty big star power!
My favorite version is by Jo Stafford on Capitol:
There's something in Jo's voice that conveys a wistfulness that really suits this song.
Another popular version was by Frank Sinatra on Columbia:
Frank sings the song well, but it's hard to imagine the skinny 1940s Sinatra being able to ring the bell at the midway!
Big-voiced Vaughn Monroe definitely sounds like he could ring the bell, though, and he cut the song for RCA Victor:
Of course, I "get" that the vocal group is called The Moon Maids because "Racing with the Moon" was Vaughn's theme song!
Decca got in on the action by teaming Bing Crosby with Jimmy Dorsey's band:
Bing and Jimmy went back a long way and always sounded good together.
The smaller Majestic label had Georgia Gibbs record the song:
Georgia's peak of popularity was about a decade later when she had several hits based on popular R 'n' B tunes, but this was back when she was known as "Her Nibs, Miss Georgia Gibbs," as she was called by Garry Moore on his radio program with Jimmy Durante.
So, some nice recordings!
(Obligatory mention that Jule Styne also composed the songs for "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol," but you already knew that!)
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