"How High the Moon" is a jazz standard with lyrics by Nancy
Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. It was first featured in
the 1940 Broadway revue
Two for the Show, where it was sung by Alfred Drake and
Frances Comstock.
In "Two for the Show", this was a rare (and unforgettable)
serious moment in an otherwise humorous revue. The song was
sung, in a slow fox trot tempo, by a group of evening-dressed
people walking along a London street. At the end, they all
looked at the sky, and cowered, obviously terrified: quick
curtain. It was 1940, and the time of the London blitz: a clear
night meant "bomber's moon".
The earliest recorded hit version was by Benny Goodman &
His Orchestra. It was recorded February 7, 1940 and released by
Columbia Records as catalog number 35391, with the flip side
"Fable of the Rose". In 1948, bandleader Stan Kenton enjoyed
some success with his version of the tune. The recording, with
a vocal by June Christy, was released by Capitol Records as
catalog number 911 (with the flip side "Willow, Weep for Me")
and 15117(with the flip side "Interlude"). It reached the
Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on July 9, 1948, its only
week on the chart, at #27.
The best-known recording of the song is by Les Paul and Mary
Ford, made on January 4, 1951. The record was released by
Capitol Records as catalog number 1451, with the flip side
"Walkin' and Whistlin' Blues", and spent 25 weeks (beginning on
March 23, 1951) on the Billboard chart, 9 weeks at #1. The
record was subsequently re-released by Capitol as catalog
number 1675, with "Josephine" on the B-side.
The song was sung in various recordings by Ella Fitzgerald,
becoming (with the Gershwin's "Oh, Lady Be Good!") Ella's
signature tune. She first performed the song at Carnegie Hall
on September 29, 1947. Her first recording, backed by the
Daydreamers, was recorded December 20, 1947 and released by
Decca Records as catalog number 24387, with the flip side "You
Turned the Tables on Me". Her most celebrated recording of "How
High the Moon" is on her 1960 album
Ella in Berlin, and her version was inducted into the
Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002, which is a special Grammy award
established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least
twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical
significance."
Another jazz standard, "Ornithology" by Charlie Parker, is
based on the chords of "How High the Moon". It was common among
jazz musicians (Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton and others) to
seamlessly include "Ornithology" in the solo when performing
"How High the Moon". Miles Davis' "Solar" is also based on part
of the chord structure.
John Coltrane's composition "Satellite" is also based on the
chords of "How High the Moon", which Coltrane embellished with
the three-tonic progression he also used on his composition
"Giant Steps".
Paul McCartney stated during the filming of
Les Paul: Chasing Soundthat "How High the Moon" was the
first song The Beatles played in The Cavern Club.
The sculptural armchair "How High The Moon", designed by
Shiro Kuramata for Vitra AG of Switzerland in 1986, was named
after this song.