This Dorothy Fields-Jimmy McHugh collaboration was written for the Paramount motion picture Every Night at Eight and introduced by vocalist Frances Langford in the film. Although Langford’s recording made the charts, it was the disc by Little Jack Little that bounced into the number-one slot.
- Little Jack Little and His Orchestra (1935, vocal, #1)
- Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra (1935, vocal, #3)
- Frances Langford (1935, vocal, #15)
- Leo Reisman and His Orchestra (1935, Frank Luther, vocal, #18)
- Billy Eckstine (1946, vocal, #12)
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The songs for Every Night at Eight basically ended the successful collaboration between lyricist Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh. The pair wrote one more song in 1935, “Lovely to Look At,” which was used in the film version of the Broadway musical Roberta, and they teamed up again briefly in 1947 for the first Radio City Music Hall production. Fields then paired up with veteran composer Jerome Kern and together they finished the music for Roberta. McHugh began a collaboration with Harold Adamson.
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McHugh and Fields wrote a total of six numbers for Every Night at Eight. “I’m in the Mood for Love” and “I Feel a Song Comin’ On” were the two that made the biggest impact. Both numbers had success in the charts for 1935, and vocalist Frances Langeford’s record featured both tunes, her first big recording.
Many die-hard jazz fans felt that Louis Armstrong had deserted jazz by the late-1920s when he began concentrating on recording popular songs. Yet Armstrong realized the importance of being what would now be referred to as a “crossover” artist; that to continue to play jazz and be successful he had to make concessions to the Tin Pan Alley music machine. Considering some of the material that Louis recorded during his Decca Records period (1934-1945), “I’m in the Mood” was certainly a better song than many, and Armstrong had successfully recorded versions of other Fields-McHugh compositions, notably “On the Sunny Side of the Street” and “Exactly Like You” from 1930 and “Blue Again” from 1931. (And if we are to believe that Fields and McHugh wrote “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” rather than Fats Waller and Andy Razaf, then it could be included in the list.)
Armstrong’s version of “I’m in the Mood for Love,” more pop treatment than swing, did have an impact. As far away as France, the American ex-pat trumpeter Bill Coleman did a duo version with the superb pianist Herman Chittison.
Vocalist/bandleader Billy Eckstine, another crossover artist who, like Armstrong, was more jazz than pop, recorded a hit version in 1945. His big band included jazz giants Fats Navarro on trumpet, Gene Ammons on tenor sax, and Art Blakey on drums.
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