I'm Glad There Is You

"I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary People)" is a song written by Jimmy Dorsey and Paul Madeira (sometimes credited as Paul Mertz) first published in 1941.[1] It has become a jazz and pop standard.

1942 Decca 78, 4197-B, by Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra featuring Bob Eberly on vocals.
Decca 78 single, 18799A, 1946.

Original recording

The song was released by Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra in 1942 by Decca Records backed with "Tomorrow's Sunrise" featuring Bob Eberly on vocals.[2] The song was recorded on December 22, 1941, in New York City.[3] The recording was reviewed in Billboard: "With the customary Dorsey eclat, Jimmy enters two new ballads in this couplet....Maestro Jimmy had a hand in writing the plattermate. It's a love song, with the story steeped in philosophical thoughts rather than June-moon wordage. Eberly sings it from edge, saxophones and Jimmy's clarinet carving a half chorus for themselves before Bob is brought back to finish it out."[4] The song was also released in 1946, recorded on February 6, 1946, by Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra with Dee Parker on vocals. The B side was "Ain't Misbehavin".

The 1941 original Decca recording by Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra featuring Bob Eberly on vocals appears on the 2011 various artists compilation album 100 Swing Jazz Classics by Masters Classics Records. The 1946 Decca re-recording by Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra featuring Parker on vocals appears on the 2011 collection Jazz Compilation, Vol. 1 by Digital Natives.

Jimmy Dorsey and Paul Madeira Mertz collaborated on the lyrics and the music. Paul Madeira, who is also known as Paul Madeira Mertz, was a jazz pianist and arranger who had first worked with Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey in 1922 in their first orchestra The Wild Canaries. Mertz had been a pianist in the Bix Beiderbecke band The Rhythm Jugglers in the 1920s and had worked in Hollywood on film music from the 1930s to the 1960s. He had played on the 1925 jazz classic "Davenport Blues" in 1925 released on Gennett Records. Mertz also played piano on the 1927 Grammy Hall of Fame inductee "Singin' the Blues" by Frankie Trumbauer and his Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke, Eddie Lang, and Jimmy Dorsey.

Cover versions
1942 sheet music cover for "I'm Glad There Is You", Mayfair Music Corp., New York.

The song has since been recorded by numerous artists.[5][6][7] "I'm Glad There is You" has been covered by Frank Sinatra, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Ginny Simms, Adam Jackson, Stan Kenton, Mel Tormé, Tony Bennett, Grover Washington, Jr., Paul Anka, Polly Bergen, Gene Ammons, Alvino Rey, Chris Connor, Jamie Cullum, Anita Kerr Singers, Arthur Prysock, Lillie Kae, Chet Baker, Sarah Vaughan, Mildred Bailey, Ray Anthony, Dorothy Squires, Shirley Bassey, Jack Jones, Smokey Robinson, Johnny Mathis, Robert Goulet, Meredith MacRae, Joe Pass, the New Glenn Miller Orchestra under Ray McKinley, Connie Francis, Natalie Cole, Johnny Hartman, Julie London, Jackie Gleason, Cannonball Adderley, Rosemary Clooney, The Temptations, Toni Tennille, The Lettermen, Dick Hyman, Chris Montez, Boots Randolph, Nancy LaMott, June Christy, Duke Pearson Trio, Wesla Whitfield, Helen Carr, Sheila Guyse, Don Cherry, Jane Monheit, Randy Crawford, Matt Monro, The Four Freshmen, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dorothy Dandridge, Hazel Scott, Art Garfunkel, Stan Kenton, Oscar Peterson, Barney Kessel, Kenny Burrell, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Stan Getz, Peggy Lee, Gloria Lynne, Vic Damone, Freddy Cole, Jean Laughlin, Tommy Joy, Jamie Cullum, Charlie Watts, Beyoncé Knowles, Rachael MacFarlane, Seth MacFarlane, Claire Martin and Eugene Chadbourne with Paul Lovens.

The Frank Sinatra version, released as a Columbia Records single, 40229, appeared in the Cashbox magazine best-selling record charts in 1954, reaching no. 40 on May 22, 1954.

Movie and TV appearances

The song has appeared in the movie Playing by Heart (1998) in a recording by Chet Baker and in My Sex Life ... or How I Got Into an Argument (1996) in a recording by Ella Fitzgerald.[8][9]

Meredith MacRae sings the song in Petticoat Junction Season Seven, episode 15 in 1970. The song also features in Season One, Episode 24 of The Cosby Show in 1985, performed by Lena Horne. Lena Horne also performed the song on The Muppets Show in the first season in 1976. The song also appeared on The Today Show in 1995, The Jack Benny Show in 1964, and The Frank Sinatra Show in 1957.

In the 1984 film No Small Affair, Chrissy Faith (providing the singing voice for Demi Moore) sings the song in a wedding reception scene, singing an arrangement by the film's composer, Rupert Holmes. It can be viewed on YouTube.

References
  1. Jazz Standards
  2. Stockdale, Robert L. Jimmy Dorsey: A Study in Contrasts (Studies in Jazz Series). Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 1999.
  3. Billboard Magazine, March 21, 1942.
  4. Billboard, March 21, 1942, p. 67.
  5. ASCAP database: I'm Glad There Is You.
  6. Trackpads, "I'm Glad There Is You", Song of the Week #58, June 11, 2007.
  7. "I'm Glad There Is You". Second Hand Songs.
  8. Jimmy Dorsey - IMDB.
  9. Playing by Heart at IMDb
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