My Shining Hour

My Shining Hour is a song by Harold Arlen (music) and Johnny Mercer ( lyrics ) written and published in 1943.

Background and use of the song

Arlen and Mercer wrote the song for the film musical The Sky's the Limit, in which Fred Astaire and Joan Leslie played the lead roles. In the film, the song by Sally Sweetland was presented, which dubbed the singing for Joan Leslie, accompanied by Freddie Slack Orchestra.

The song in the song form A- A' -BA had the character of a ballad, and the text was held in the chorus with hymn form. He was nominated in the category Best Song for an Oscar, the Harry Warren and Mack finally 1944 Gordon received for the song You'll Never Know.

Allegedly is the song title in the context of a speech that Winston Churchill held before the British Parliament on 18 June 1940 and which was subsequently picked up by the BBC; there he spoke of a " Finest Hour" ( " ... last for a thousand years, men will quietly say, ' This was Their Finest Hour. "). Walter Rimler notes in his book Not Fade Away ( 1984) that the Songwriterduo Arlen / Mercer had " some very good songs for a couple of very bad movies " written in her career, such as " Ac - Cent - Tchu - Ate the Positive " ( for Here Come the Waves, 1944) and even " My Shining Hour" and "One for My Baby ( and One More for the Road ) " for The Sky's the Limit. It was the only work Harold Arlen for a Fred Astaire film.

Cover versions

In 1943 the song by Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra was covered ( with vocals by Eugenie Baird ); their version ( Decca 18567 ) came to the U.S. charts, where it stayed for seven weeks, and came up to 4th place in December.

In the 1940s and 1950s was followed by numerous recordings of the song, including through January Garber, André Previn, Ruth Price, Mel Tormé, Stan Kenton, Chris Connor Diahann Carroll and Tommy Dorsey, what the song to a popular jazz standard made. 1959 interprets it John Coltrane ( Coltrane Jazz ), in later years, inter alia, also Howard Alden, Duane Eubanks, Roy Haynes, Ake Johansson, Greetje purchase field, Brian Lemon, Larry McKenna, Michael Moore, Warren Vache, Tim Warfield and Gail Wynters. Tom Lord lists 322 cover versions of the title.