Stories of Standards: “Time After Time”

Tune in to Jazz with Victor Cooper – weekdays from 6-9 a.m. MT – for Stories of Standards to hear our favorite versions of this song all week long!

Stories of Standards is sponsored by ListenUp – If you love music, you’ll love ListenUp.

Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn went to California on the same train as Frank Sinatra; there they started writing “theatrical productions”, with complete scores and sketches, starring their friends. Once, lacking a pre-written score, Jule asked if anyone had heard Jerome Kern’s new score for a musical about the life of Annie Oakley. Styne then created a tune which sounded to him like something Kern would write; this proved popular and more tunes from the show were requested, which he of course couldn’t remember. Soon afterwards Styne met up with Cahn, who wrote lyrics for the melody, now with the title “Time After Time”. Sinatra recorded it for Columbia on October 26, 1946 and again in the 1947 movie “It Happened in Brooklyn”, where Kathryn Grayson also sang it.

Jule Styne (1905-1994) started in England as a child prodigy on the piano, but went on to become a composer of more than 1500 songs and recipient of numerous awards. The family moved to Chicago in 1912, he joined the Ben Pollack band in 1926 and then wrote his first hit song. After he moved to Hollywood and teamed with Sanny Cahn, their hits included “Let It Snow, Let It Snow”, “It’s Been a Long, Long Time”, “The Things We Did Last Summer” and “I Believe”. Styne’s Broadway career began with “High Button Shoes” in 1947, followed by “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”. “Peter Pan”, “Gypsy” and “Funny Girl”. With eight Oscar nominations, the Kennedy Center Award for Artistic Achievement, two Grammys and an Oscar, with Sammy Cahn, for 1954’s “Three Coins in the Fountain” Styne’s career was truly prodigious.

Sammy Cahn (1913-1993) started in vaudeville and later said “I think a sense of vaudeville is very strong in anything I do, anything I write…” With Saul Chaplin, he wrote “Rhythm is Our Business”, which became the theme song for the Jimmie Lunceford band. and with Jule Styne wrote many more. He changed the spelling of his last name twice, once from Cohen to Kahn, to avoid being mistaken for comic Sammy Cohen, and again from Kahn to Cahn, to avoid confusion with lyricist Gus Kahn. He was nominated for 31 Academy Awards, two Golden Globe awards and an Emmy Award.