It's no coincidence that Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse recorded ”Body and Soul” for Tony Bennett's album Duets II. The song is the most covered jazz standard of all time.
There are approximately 1000 jazz standards and of those, “Body and Soul” is undoubtedly the best known and most recorded. Ask any jazz musician at any gig to play the song for you (while slipping a $20 bill into their hand) and they will happily play you their very own rendition of the song and nail it.
The heartbroken MEN who wrote it.
“Body and Soul” was written in 1930 by three lyricists named Edward Heyman, Robert Sour and Frank Eyton and the music was written by Johnny Green. Yes, four men wrote the words and music for a song about loving someone unconditionally and not being loved back. I’ll bet they all knew what it was like to have their hearts broken. If you can't remember what that feels like just listen to or read the lyrics to “Body and Soul”… your heart will crack like you were a hormonal teenager suddenly losing your first love. Pain.
Sex. Scandal. Banned from the radio.
The song was first heard on Oct. 15th in a Broadway musical revue called Three’s a Crowd. People loved the song right away and the show was a hit so it had a nice soft pillow to land on. Not long afterward the first recording was made by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra with Jack Fulton singing the lyrics. But, it was also 1930... and the lyrics were too racy for the radio. Because of that the song was banned from airplay for almost one year. After the ban was lifted, up to fourteen versions of “Body and Soul” made it to the charts in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Try doing that with a Black Eyed Peas song today!
Whose version stands out?
Of the thousands of performance of “Body and Soul” there are two that stand out: Billie Holiday's vocal version and Coleman Hawkins' instrumental version on saxophone. Both have charms and challenges but both convey the very foundation of what makes this song so great:
1. Its fascinating and complicated melody/chord structure
2. The painful reality of the song's meaning.
But remember that there are thousands of recordings of “Body and Soul” from Frank Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald to Chet Baker and many, many more. Do a search on iTunes and you’ll see what I mean.
“Body and Soul” isn't a song with a happy ending but it does deliver it's promise of cutting you like a knife each time you hear it. Because of that we give thanks for a jazz standard that will always remind us that that love really does suck... sometimes... until you fall in love again.
Related links:
Stories and Standards - "St. Louis Blues"
Stories and standards: ‘Autumn Leaves’
Stories and Standards: 'Take the 'A' Train'