"Just One of Those Things" is apopular song written byCole Porter for the 1935 musicalJubilee.
Porter had written the score forJubilee while on an extended sea cruise in the early part of 1935; however, in September 1935,Jubilee's librettistMoss Hart mentioned that the play's second act required an additional song. Porter had "Just One of Those Things" completed by the following morning. (He had previously used the title for a song intended for but not featured in the 1930 musicalThe New Yorkers. Apart from the title the two songs are distinct).[1]
Porter's original lyric lacked an adjective for the line "a trip to the moon ongossamer wings": "gossamer" would be suggested by his friend, Ed Tauch.[2]
A recording byRichard Himber reached the charts of the day in 1935 andPeggy Lee's stylized arrangement of the song was a No. 14 hit in theBillboard charts in 1952.[3]
The song has become a standard of theAmerican Songbook, with many other recordings having been made of it. Among artists who have recorded it areElla Fitzgerald,Anita O'Day,Louis Armstrong,Billie Holiday,[4]Sarah Vaughan,Bing Crosby (recorded January 21, 1945),[5]Doris Day,Lena Horne,Maxine Sullivan,Frank Sinatra,Johnny Hartman,Mel Torme,Louis Prima,Diana Krall,John Barrowman,Bryan Ferry,Lionel Hampton,Claude Bolling,Charlie Parker,Gil Evans,Dave Brubeck,Freddie Hubbard,Oscar Peterson,Lee Morgan,Sidney Bechet,Nellie McKay,Erin McKeown,Joan Morris,Judy Garland,Patricia Barber,Johnny Dorelli,Jamie Cullum,Dionne Warwick,The Pogues withKirsty MacColl and theCherry Poppin' Daddies.Nat King Cole recorded it as the title track of his 1957 albumJust One Of Those Things.Maurice Chevalier included it in a Cole Porter medley on his farewell album, released on his 80th birthday.[6]Shirley Bassey recorded the song in 1963 for her EPIn Other Words....[7]Tony Bennett recorded a version of the song for his 2021 collaborative album withLady Gaga,Love for Sale.[8]Anna-Jane Casey performed the song live at the 2010 BBC Swinging Christmas, under the John Wilson Orchestra.[9]
In 1958,Polly Bergen and guestsDick Van Dyke andCarol Haney performed "Just One of Those Things" on her short-livedNBCvariety show,The Polly Bergen Show.[15] Also on television,Diana Dors plays a nightclub singer who sings the song in the 1963 "Run for Doom" episode ofThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
In 1983, it was used onNBC News Overnight's final broadcast on December 3, during the montage of the show's staff.
In 2019, actressHelena Bonham Carter performed a rendition of the song in the third-season premiere ofThe Crown, while her character,Princess Margaret, is at a dinner party.
Mariah Carey sings a few lines of the chorus, when describing a past love affair in the audiobook of her autobiography,The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
The title of the final, 2-hour episode ofM*A*S*H,Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, is from the song's lyrics.
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