| These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You) | |
| Type: | song |
| Published: | 1935 by Boosey & Hawkes |
| Composer: | Jack Strachey |
| Lyricist: | Eric Maschwitz as Holt Marvell |
"These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)" is a standard with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz, writing under the pseudonym Holt Marvell,[1] and music by Jack Strachey, both Englishmen. Harry Link, an American, sometimes appears as a co-writer; his input was probably limited to an alternative "middle eight" (bridge) which many performers prefer.[2]
It is one of a group of "Mayfair songs", like "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square".[3] Maschwitz wrote the song under his pen name, Holt Marvell, at the behest of Joan Carr for a late-evening revue broadcast by the BBC. The copyright was lodged in 1936.[4] According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, British cabaret singer Jean Ross, with whom Maschwitz had a youthful liaison, was the muse for the song.
Although Maschwitz's wife Hermione Gingold speculated in her autobiography that the haunting jazz standard was written for either herself or actress Anna May Wong, Maschwitz himself contradicted such claims. Maschwitz instead cited "fleeting memories of [a] young love" as inspiring the song. Most sources, including the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, posit cabaret singer Jean Ross, with whom Maschwitz had a youthful romantic liaison, as the muse for the song.
When the song was written, Maschwitz was Head of Variety at the BBC.[5] It is a list song (Maschwitz calls it a "catalogue song" in his biography), in this case delineating the various things that remind the singer of a lost love. The lyrics – the verse and three choruses – were written by Maschwitz during the course of one Sunday morning at his flat in London between sips of coffee and vodka. Within hours of crafting the lyrics, he dictated them over the phone to Jack Strachey, and they arranged to meet the same evening to discuss the next step.
The song was not an immediate success, and Keith Prowse, Maschwitz's agent, refused to publish it, releasing the copyright to Maschwitz himself – a stroke of luck for the lyricist. Writing in 1957, he claimed to have made £40,000 from the song. Despite being featured in Spread it Abroad, a London revue of 1936,[6] it aroused no interest until the famous West Indian pianist and singer Leslie Hutchinson ("Hutch") discovered it on top of a piano in Maschwitz's office at the BBC. "Hutch" liked it and recorded it, whereupon it became a great success and was recorded by musicians all over the world. This first recording by "Hutch" was by HMV in 1936. Popular versions in the USA in 1936 were by Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson with Billie Holiday, Nat Brandywynne, Carroll Gibbons and Joe Sanders.[7] Billie Holiday's rendering of the song with Teddy Wilson's orchestra was a favorite of Philip Larkin, who said, "I have always thought the words were a little pseudo-poetic, but Billie sings them with such passionate conviction that I think they really become poetry."[8] Holiday's version of the song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart.[9]
The song was translated into French under the title Ces petites choses ("These small things") and recorded by Jean Sablon in 1936 and by Ann Savoy in 2007.
| These Foolish Things | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | James Brown |
| B-Side: | (Can You) Feel It Part 1 |
| Genre: | Rhythm and blues, traditional pop |
| Label: | King |
| Chronology: | James Brown charting |
| Prev Title: | Prisoner of Love |
| Prev Year: | 1963 |
| Next Title: | Signed, Sealed, and Delivered |
| Next Year: | 1963 |
Various other versions have been recorded including vocal arrangements featuring: