Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive

Ac - Cent - Tchu - Ate the Positive (also: Accentuate the Positive ) is a song by Harold Arlen (music) and Johnny Mercer ( lyrics ), which was published in 1944.

Arlen and Mercer wrote the song Ac - Cent - Tchu - Ate the Positive for the film Here Come the Waves (1944, directed by Mark Sandrich ), with Bing Crosby and Betty Hutton in the lead roles. Bing Crosby and Sonny Tufts introduced the song. Ac - Cent - Tchu - Ate the Positive 1946 received an Oscar nomination for Best Song.

Analogously, is the refrain of the song: " Thou shalt Positive ac- cen- tu- ie- ren, the negative e -li -mi- never -tion, and cling to the Affirmative not lie down with Mister In between. "

Johnny Mercer's recording with The Pied Pipers and Paul Weston Orchestra ( Capitol 402) came in early 1945 in the Billboard charts. ; he was 13 weeks in the charts, where it reached # 2. Similarly, the successful version of Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters (# 2 ), he has also been recorded song in 1944 by Charlie Spivak, Mildred Bailey and the Artie Shaw Orchestra (Victor 1612, # 5 ), 1945 followed by the versions of Kay Kyser, Dinah Washington and in England by Johnny Green. In the following years numerous cover versions emerged in the field of jazz and popular music, including Louis Armstrong Jan Garber, Ray McKinley, Duke Ellington, Peggy Lee, Tommy Dorsey, Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald (The Harold Arlen Songbook 1960), in later years the song, inter alia by Bud Shank, Mel Tormé, Phil Wilson, Jay Leonhart, Roland Hanna / Carrie Smith ( I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues: songs of Harold Arlen, 2002 ), Al Jarreau and Annie Ross interpreted. The disco Count Tom Lord lists 93 versions of the song.