Body and Soul

Johnny Green wrote the music in 1930 in New York, for Gertrude Lawrence, with lyrics by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour and Frank Eyton; Libby Holman sang it in the Broadway revue Three's a Crowd that year, and Jack Hylton and Ambrose recorded it in Britain in the same week of February 1930. Louis Armstrong made the first jazz recording that October, and at least eleven American bands had recorded it by the end of the year. It is a 32-bar song in AABA form, usually in D-flat.

Hawkins recorded it on October 11, 1939 at RCA Studios in New York as Coleman Hawkins and His Orchestra, his only Bluebird session, matrix BS-042936, length 3:00. It was the last of four tunes that day. He had played it at Kelly's Stable and used it as an encore in Europe. A scholarly performance history by Bowen, in the Journal of the Society for American Music, argues that this recording set the standard key and a standard tempo of about 90 beats a minute for later versions, even for singers; Len Weinstock likened the solo to the Gettysburg Address. It entered the Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2004.

He recorded it again in 1956 (4:51) and played it at Jazz at the Philharmonic in 1967. Frank Sinatra recorded it with Bobby Hackett on November 9, 1947, and Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse recorded it at Abbey Road on March 23, 2011, a version that reached number 87 on the Hot 100 and won a Grammy. Which recording our upload is, the 1939 original or the 1956 remake, was not confirmed.