These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)

"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.^[4] The copyright was lodged in 1936.^[5] According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, British cabaret singer Jean Ross,^[6][7] with whom Maschwitz had a youthful liaison, was the muse for the song.^[6][7][8]

Creation

Jean Ross, a British singer and actress, purportedly inspired Maschwitz's lyrics.^[6]

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,^[9] Maschwitz himself contradicted such claims.^[4] Maschwitz instead cited "fleeting memories of [a] young love" as inspiring the song.^[4] Most sources, including the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, posit cabaret singer Jean Ross,^[6][7] with whom Maschwitz had a youthful romantic liaison, as the muse for the song.^[6][7][8]

When the song was written, Maschwitz was Head of Variety at the BBC.^[10] 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.^[4] 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.^[4]

Rise to popularity

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.^[11] Despite being featured in Spread it Abroad, a London revue of 1936,^[12] 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.^[11] 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.^[13] 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."^[14] Holiday's version of the song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart.^[15]

French version

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.

Interpretations

Various other versions have been recorded including vocal arrangements featuring:

• Nat King Cole (on Just One of Those Things in 1957)
• Bing Crosby (recorded 15 December 1944),^[16]
• In 1953, Billy Ward and his Dominoes recorded their version which made to No. 5 on the National Best Sellers chart.^[17]
• Johnny Hartman
• Frankie Laine
• Sam Cooke
• Sarah Vaughan
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Billie Holiday
• Etta James
• Joni James
• Andrea Marcovicci, (What Is Love?, 1992)
• Aaron Neville
• Frank Sinatra, (Point of No Return, 1961)
• Sammy Davis Jr ("When the Feeling Hits You!", 1965),
• Tiny Tim
• Yves Montand
• In 2005, Rick Astley covered this song for his 6th studio album Portrait.
• In 2015, Cassandra Wilson on her Coming Forth by Day.^[18]
• Rod Stewart (US AC #13, 2002)
• James Brown recorded the song three times, including a 1963 recording with strings that charted at No. 25 R&B and No. 50 Pop.^[19]
• Bryan Ferry covered the Dorothy Dickson version of the song for the title track of his first solo album These Foolish Things by Island Records in 1973.^[20]
• Bob Dylan sang on Triplicate (2017).
• Seth MacFarlane covered this song for his 2015 album No One Ever Tells You.

Popular culture

• It was sung by Florence Marly in the Humphrey Bogart film Tokyo Joe (1949).
• In the 1949 film Train of Events, the song is playing on a gramophone while Peter Finch's character strangles his estranged wife.
• In the 2015 Film The Intern, while Jools and Ben are talking over pizza and beer.

References

Bibliography

• Brown, Helen (18 February 2016). "Muse, The Witham, Barnard Castle". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
• Frost, Peter (31 December 2013). "Jean Ross". Morning Star. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
• Gingold, Hermione (1989). How to Grow Old Disgracefully. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 54. ISBN 9780575044777.
• Maschwitz, Eric (1957). No Chip on My Shoulder. London: Herbert Jenkins. pp. 77–79.
• Parker, Peter (September 2004). "Ross, Jean Iris (1911–1973)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/74425. Retrieved 18 June 2017. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)