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"In Other Words"
First recording titled "In Other Words"
Song by Kaye Ballard
Released	April 1954
Recorded	1954
Genre	Jazz
Length	2:14
Label	Decca
Songwriter(s)	Bart Howard

Fly Me to the Moon, originally titled In Other Words, is a song written in 1954 by Bart Howard.

Kaye Ballard made the first recording of the song the year it was written. Since then, it has become a frequently recorded jazz standard, often featured in popular culture. Frank Sinatra's 1964 version was closely associated with the Apollo missions to the Moon.

In 1999, the US-based Songwriters Hall of Fame honored Fly Me to the Moon by inducting it as a "Towering Song"^[1] which is an award "...presented each year to the creators of an individual song that has influenced our culture in a unique way over many years.”^[2]

Background and composition

In 1954, when he began to write the song that became Fly Me to the Moon, Bart Howard had been pursuing a career in music for over 20 years.^[3] He played piano to accompany cabaret singers, but also wrote songs with Cole Porter, his idol, in mind.^[4]
In response to a publisher's request for a simpler song,^[5] Bart Howard wrote a cabaret ballad^[6] which he titled In Other Words. A publisher tried to make him change some words from "fly me to the moon" to "take me to the moon," but Howard refused.^[7] Many years later Howard commented that "... it took me 20 years to find out how to write a song in 20 minutes."^[7]

He used his position as a piano accompanist and presenter at the Blue Angel cabaret venue to promote the song,^[5] and it was soon introduced in cabaret performances by Felicia Sanders.^[4]

Early recordings

Kaye Ballard circa late 1950s

Kaye Ballard made the song's first commercial recording,^{[citation needed]} and Decca released it in April 1954.^[8] A brief review published on 8 May 1954 in Billboard said that In Other Words was "...a love song sung with feeling by Miss Ballard."^[9] This recording was released as the flipside of Lazy Afternoon, which Kaye Ballard was currently performing as star of the stage show The Golden Apple.^[10]

Over the next few years, jazz and cabaret singers released cover versions of In Other Words on EP or LP record albums, including Chris Connor, Johnny Mathis, Portia Nelson, and Nancy Wilson.^{[citation needed]}Eydie Gormé sang the song on her 1958 album Eydie In Love,^[11] which reached #20 in the Cashbox Album Charts^[12] and was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Fly Me to the Moon

In 1960, Peggy Lee released the song on the album Pretty Eyes,^[13] then made it more popular when she performed it in front of a large television audience on The Ed Sullivan Show.^[4] As the song's popularity increased, it became better known as Fly Me to the Moon,^[14] and in 1963 Peggy Lee convinced Bart Howard to make the name change official.^[7] In the early 1960s, versions of the song were released under its new name by many well-known singers, including Nat King Cole, Julie London, Sarah Vaughan, and Brenda Lee.^{[citation needed]}Connie Francis released two non-English versions of the song in 1963: in Italian as Portami Con Te^[15] and in Spanish as "Llévame a la Luna.^[16]

Fly Me to the Moon Bossa Nova 1963 album by Joe Harnell

In 1962, Joe Harnell arranged and recorded an instrumental version in a bossa nova style. It was released as a single in late 1962.^[17][18] Harnell's version spent 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, reaching No. 14 on February 23, 1963,^[19] while reaching No. 4 on Billboard's Middle-Road Singles chart.^[20][21] Harnell's version was ranked No. 89 on Billboard's end of year ranking "Top Records of 1963".^[22]

Harnell's recording won him a Grammy Award at the 5th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Performance by an Orchestra – for Dancing.^[23][24]

Harnell's version was included on his album Fly Me to the Moon and the Bossa Nova Pops^[25] released in early 1963, which reached No. 3 stereo album on the Billboard Top LP's chart.^[26]

Versions of the song were released by many other 1960s instrumental artists, including Roy Haynes, Al Hirt and Oscar Peterson.^{[citation needed]}

Frank Sinatra included the song on his 1964 album It Might as Well Be Swing, accompanied by Count Basie.^[27] The music for this album was arranged by Quincy Jones,^[27][28] who had worked with Count Basie a year earlier on the album This Time by Basie, which also included a version of Fly Me to the Moon.^[29]Will Friedwald commented that "Jones boosted the tempo and put it into an even four/four" for Basie's version, but "when Sinatra decided to address it with the Basie/Jones combination they recharged it into a straight swinger... [which]...all but explodes with energy".^[6]

Other releases

Bart Howard estimated that by the time Frank Sinatra covered the song in 1964, more than 100 other versions had been recorded.^[6] By 1995, it had been recorded more than 300 times.^[10] One notable example is a remix of the song used as a main theme for Platinum Games's PS3 game Bayonetta, which is sung by Helena Noguerra. The Japanese animated series Neon Genesis Evangelion uses it for the closing music for each episode.^[30]

NASA association

Quincy Jones presents platinum copies of Frank Sinatra's album to Senator John Glenn and Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong

Frank Sinatra's 1964 recording of Fly Me to the Moon became closely associated with NASA's Apollo space program. A copy of the song was played on the Apollo 10 mission which orbited the Moon.^[31] It became the first music heard on the Moon when played on a portable cassette player by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin after he stepped onto the Moon.^[32] The song’s association with Apollo 11 was reprised many years later when Diana Krall sang it at the mission's 40th anniversary commemoration ceremony.^[33] She also sang a “slow and solemn version” in 2012 at the national memorial service for Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong.^[34]

References

External links

• 
  Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
  


• ASCAP Foundation: Bart Howard Provides A Musical Gift


• Fly Me to the Moon Chord Study for Guitar


• 
  "Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)" at MusicBrainz (information and list of recordings)