As Time Goes By

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As Time Goes By (Herman Hupfeld)

from Wikipedia:

Herman Hupfeld wrote “As Time Goes By” for the Broadway musical Everybody’s Welcome which opened on October 31, 1931. In the original show, it was sung by Frances Williams. It was first recorded by Rudy Vallée on July 25, 1931 for Victor Records, then also by Jacques Renard and his Orchestra on Brunswick Records and Fred Rich. In 1932, Binnie Hale recorded the song. Elisabeth Welch included the song in her cabaret act soon after it was released. In terms of popularity at the time, it was a modest hit.

The song was re-introduced in the 1942 film Casablanca where it was sung by Sam, portrayed by Dooley Wilson. Sam’s piano accompaniment was played by a studio pianist, Jean Vincent Plummer.^[5][6][7] The melody is heard throughout the film as a leitmotif.^[8]

An excerpt from the WICN.org Song of the Week feature:

History
The song “As Time Goes By” and the film Casablanca are inextricably intertwined; it is nearly impossible to think of one without the other. That wasn’t always so. “As Time Goes By” was written in 1931, eleven years before Casablanca debuted. That year the song appeared in a modestly successful Broadway play, Everybody’s Welcome, and crooner Rudy Vallee’s recording reached fifteenth place on the pop charts. After that, the song was virtually forgotten and its composer, Herman Hupfeld, moved on to other musicals. In the 1930s he was better known for his novelty song, “When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba.”

“As Time Goes By” wasn’t forgotten by Murray Burnett, a student at Cornell University in 1931 and future playwright-to-be, who purchased the Vallee recording and wore it out. In 1938, while vacationing on the French Rivera, he heard “As Time Goes By” played by a black pianist at a nightclub that was frequented by the French, Nazis and refugees, La Belle Aurora. Struck by the juxtaposition of the nightclub scene with the atmosphere of pre-war Europe, after returning home he co-wrote with Joan Alison a play entitled Everybody Comes to Rick’s. In the play, Rick Blaine, the hard-bitten and cynical bar owner of a nightclub in Casablanca, Morocco, helps an idealistic Czech resistance fighter, Victor Lazlo, escape from the Nazis with the woman Rick loves, Ilsa Lund.

1931

Rudy Vallée and his Connecticut Yankees

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The Columbians, featuring vocals by Smith Ballew

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1932

Binnie Hale

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1942

Dooley Wilson as the character Sam in Casablanca

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1944

Billie Holiday – recorded 1 April 1944 in New York with Eddie Heywood and his Orchestra —  Doc Cheatham (tp) Lem Davis (as) Vic Dickenson (tb) Eddie Heywood (p) John Simmons (b) Sid Catlett (d) Billie Holiday (v)

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Frank Sinatra – recorded 12 September 1961, arr. Axel Stordahl

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1963

Barbra Streisand – from The Third Album

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David Matthews and Friends — A group of musicians from the Manhattan Jazz Orchestra featuring Ryan Kisor on Trumpet