This afternoon, Patricia and I watched an edition of Larry King that I had taped a couple of days ago. It featured a pretty decent interview with Beyonce. Larry is not known for his research skills; he has always prided himself on sometimes not even knowing who his guests will be on a given night.
At one point he quizzes her on what it was like to sing "At Last" for the Obama's at his inauguration in January. She explained it had been a great honour and that she didn't think she'd see the day that an African-American would be elected President. Larry then mentioned that the song had first been a hit for Jimmy Dorsey.
Hmm. Something smelled fishy. Larry said that Dorsey had a hit with "At Last" in 1958, but everybody knows that Jimmy Dorsey died in 1957. Had Dorsey been like Tupac and stockpiled tons of posthumous recordings? Or was Larry misremembering?
When I got home this evening, I sleuthed a bit and found that the song had in fact first been a hit for Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, back in 1942. Written by Harry Warren and Mack Gorden, it has been recorded by many, many people over the years, but Glenn Miller was the first to have a hit with it.
Nice to know that a big band hit from more than 60 years ago can still be popular today. Not that fans of Beyonce would know, of course.
Here: read more about it.
Here: watch a presentation of it by Glenn Miller, vocals by Ray Eberle and Pat Friday.
And, yes, that's Harry Morgan, later Sherman T. Potter of M*A*S*H* fame, in the scene.
Do you still want to see Beyonce sing the tune? OK. So do I. Here you go:
Enjoy!
Bevboy
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