I wondered if I could trust my Musical Memory of the song "S' Wonderful"-also known as
"It's Wonderful". The short answer is that yes, my memory is rock solid even if I had to do some searching to prove that. Here's the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say...
Last Sunday I watched the reruns of The Ed Sullivan Show, as has become my custom.
This was a show from 1964 that featured Ella Fitzgerald and also had Sammy Davis Jr.
on. The word is that Sammy was so impressed by Ella that he persuaded Ed to let him
perform with Ella. And so a Great Moment In Music occurred. The song that Ella and
Sammy performed in an upbeat manner, alternating vocals and scatting and doing a
duet in harmony was the George Gershwin song "S' Wonderful" written in 1927 by
George and his brother Ira. I'm familiar with this song and have heard it many times but
never like this.
When I went to bed later that night the performance and song were in my mind. When
I woke up in the night (as we old folks do) I could hear Audrey Hepburn singing the
song and I wondered what that was all about. I found out that I was right! Fred Astaire
and Audrey Hepburn performed a duet of the song in the movie "Funny Face". I may
never doubt myself again!
Following are some links to various information I uncovered:
https://www.edsullivan.com/artists/ella-fitzgerald/ (scroll to the February 2, 1964 show)
http://www.greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/s/s_wonderful.html (history)
Following is a link to the movie performance by Fred and Audrey. From what I've
read, Audrey performed all her singing in the movie (instead of being dubbed). She
was sure a great performer. No wonder I remembered her!
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