“She Was Too Good To Me”—Chet Baker

On February 18, 1930 New York's Ziegfeld Theater saw the premiere of "Simple Simon," a musical comedy.

The book of the show was written by the leading actor playing Simon, Ed Wynn, and Anglo-American playwright Guy Bolton.

The music was written by the American composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and the words to the songs by Lorenz Hart (1895-1943), a son of Jewish immigrants from Germany.

In next day's theater review columnist Arthur Pollock wrote "Its songs are not the best that Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart have ever done. Not by a long shot."

That could be because of the twenty songs written for the show, eight were dropped before the New York opening.

Fine songs such as "Dancing On The Ceiling" and "He Was Too Good To Me" fortunately found their way in the American Songbook and became jazz classics.

Almost half a century after the song was written, in 1974, Chet Baker went into the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and recorded the latter song as "She Was Too Good To Me"

The liner notes of the album by the same name says "This is Chet's first major recording since the night in San Francisco when five junkies relieved him of his dope money and his teeth and made him decide he'd have to give up heroin or die." In this ballad of regret "the celebrated similarity between Baker's instrumental and vocal phrasing is vividly displayed."

Enjoy your Sunday with Chet Baker at his best. The orchestra was conducted by 36-year-old American jazz trombonist Don Sebesky, who also made the arrangement.