Duke actually wrote it without commission. He was staying in Westport, CT, in late summer 1934, and was wishing he’d rather be in New York. When he heard that producer Eddie Dowling was looking for a song about Manhattan in the fall for his upcoming revue, THUMBS UP, he offered the song and it was accepted. Even so, it didn’t get much play until Sinatra’s cover in 1947.
THUMBS UP also produced another classic, James Hanley’s “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart.”
Laura in LA |
