The 1932 Broadway revue Walk a Little Faster introduced “April in Paris,” composed by Vernon Duke and lyricist E. Y. “Yip” Harburg. The production starred comedians Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough and actress/singer Beatrice Lillie. This was the first time Duke had written the complete score for a show, and “April in Paris” was not originally a part of it. Set designer Boris Aronson had created a Left Bank setting for a number, and the producers wanted a romantic song. Duke and some friends and collaborators were having a discussion when someone (purportedly Dorothy Parker) expressed a longing to be in Paris during the month of April.

Duke pricked up his ears, found a piano and worked out the song to which Harburg quickly supplied lyrics. The song was inserted into the revue in Boston tryouts and was sung by Evelyn Hoey. Boston critics gave the song high praise, but in New York the song fell flat and was dismissed by critics. One reason given for its failure was that Hoey had laryngitis which marred her performance of the song on opening night.

However, the song received attention after the show closed following 119 performances. Blues singer Marian Chase featured it in her club dates and influenced other musicians such as band leaders Eddie Duchin and Paul Weston, vocalist Hildegarde, and opera singers Lilly Pons and Dorothy Kirsten to perform it.

Two recordings of “April in Paris” charted in 1933-34. The first was by tenor saxophonist Freddy Martin (nicknamed “Mr. Silvertone”), leader of one of the most popular “sweet bands” of the ‘30s. It made the charts in December, 1933, and stayed there for seven weeks. A week later, on December 30, Henry King, pianist and leader of a hotel band, recorded the song which stayed on the charts for two weeks:

• Freddy Martin and His Orchestra (1933-34, Elmer Feldkamp, vocal, #5)
• Henry King and His Orchestra (1933-34, Joe Sudy, vocal, #14)
• Count Basie and His Orchestra (1956, #28)

In 1952 Doris Day starred in the film April in Paris with Ray Bolger. Her recorded version of the song was popular but the film was a flop. Unfortunately movie moguls had tried to capitalize on the plot of Romance on the High Seas, Day’s successful 1948 film debut where she impersonated another woman on a cruise to Europe. But neither the cast nor the plot of the copycat second film could match the ebullience of the earlier film with Jack Carson, Janice Paige, Don Defore, and the delightful addition of Oscar Levant, S.Z. Sakall, and Eric Blore.

In The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America’s Great Lyricists Philip Furia lauds the blending of Duke’s sophisticated melody and Harburg’s theatrical and poetic phrases and his “muted rhymes.” Furia refers to the songwriters’ collaboration as “melodramatic lyrics and urbane music”--the reverse, he says, of Rodgers and Hart.

Thomas S. Hischak in his book The Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia praises Duke’s bold melody, a departure from the norm both melodically and harmonically “with its sudden key changes in the opening section.” He calls Harburg’s lyric “beguiling” for his use of “short, haiku-like phrases to paint a picture with a series of specific and unforgettable images.... There are few rhymes in the lyric, and those that are there are quiet and understated.”

The verse deftly sets a romantic atmosphere. Harburg anthropomorphizes the month of April: “But here in Paris April wears a diff’rent gown, You can see her waltzing Down the street. The tang of wine is in the air.”

It was Count Basie’s classic 1955 recording of “April in Paris,” arranged by organist “Wild” Bill Davis, that brought the song to the forefront for jazz musicians. It was the Basie Band’s biggest hit, climbing to number 28 on the charts. The swinging performance, which featured an abundance of sterling solos, was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and future performers have continued to reference the “one more time” tag ending.

Some of the many jazz musicians who recorded the song include Ella Fitzgerald with Oscar Peterson, Coleman Hawkins, Mel Torme, Ahmad Jamal, Stan Kenton, Artie Shaw, Bill Evans, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Erroll Garner in his memorable Concert by the Sea album, recorded in the same year as the Basie arrangement.

Among contemporary artists who have recorded the tune are saxophonist Don Braden, reed player Anthony Braxton, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, drummer Cindy Blackman, guitarist Bireli Lagrene, and vocalist Kurt Elling.