I'll Remember April (song)

"I'll Remember April" is a popular song and jazz standard with music written by Gene de Paul, and lyrics by Patricia Johnston and Don Raye. It made its debut in the 1942 Abbott and Costello comedy Ride 'Em Cowboy, being sung by Dick Foran.

Since then, dozens upon dozens of artists have covered the song, including Robert Goulet, June Christy, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Clark, Lee Konitz, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Stitt, Frank Sinatra, and Julie London. One of the most notable live renditions of the song is a radio performance by Judy Garland, on a broadcast of Lux Radio Theatre.

'I'll Remember April' can be found in the Real Book. It also appears as background music in the "Adam-12" episode "Something Worth Dying For", in which Officer Reed (played by Kent McCord) is given the Medal of Valor.

Recorded versions

• Robert Goulet - "I'll Remember You" album
• Cannonball Adderley
• Cyrille Aimee - Cyrille Aimee and the Surreal Band (2009)
• Chet Baker
• Shirley Bassey - "The Fabulous Shirley Bassey" (1959)
• Clifford Brown
• Jimmy Bruno
• Royce Campbell
• June Christy - Impromptu (1977), Day Dreams (1995), Cool Christy (2002)
• Sonny Clark
• Perry Como
• Bobby Darin (1958)
• Miles Davis - Blue Haze, Prestige Album (1954)
• Doris Day
• Tal Farlow
• The Four Freshmen - Voices In Love/Love Lost (2001)
• Judy Garland - Lux Radio Theatre
• Erroll Garner - Concert by the Sea (1955)
• Terry Gibbs Quartet
• Dexter Gordon
• Stéphane Grappelli
• David Floodstrand
• Grant Green
• Hampton Hawes (1958)
• Woody Herman (1942)
• Ahmad Jamal - Cross Country Tour 1958 - 1961

• Harry James - Jazz Session (Columbia CL-669, 1955)
• Keith Jarrett
• Lee Konitz - Motion
• Steve Lawrence
• Julie London
• Carmen McRae
• Charles Mingus - Charles Mingus Quintet with Bud Powell, Mingus At Antibes
• Eric Dolphy - Berlin Concerts, Uppsala Concert
• Freddy Martin and His Orchestra
• Modern Jazz Quartet
• Gerry Mulligan
• Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
• Charlie Parker (1950)
• Joe Pass
• Bud Powell (1947)
• Django Reinhardt
• Sonny Rollins - A Night At The Village Vanguard
• Boz Scaggs - Speak Low (2008)
• George Shearing - Verve Jazz Masters 57 (1996)
• Dinah Shore (1958)
• Frank Sinatra (1961)
• Johnny Smith
• Sonny Stitt - Sits In With The Oscar Peterson Trio
• Martha Tilton
• Hugo Winterhalter (1963)
• Dinah Washington - Dinah Jams (1954, remastered 1990)

References

• "I'll Remember April" at jazzstandards.com. Accessed 20 September 2007.

Trivia

• This song is widely featured in at least two films by Robert Siodmak, Phantom Lady (1944) and Criss Cross (1949).
• Tal Farlow recorded this song in his album The Return of Tal Farlow/1969, but he had previously homaged it in Autumn in New York (1954), under the title "And She Remembers Me", but based upon the same chord changes after the intro section.
• Gerry Mulligan's 'Rocker' is based on the chord changes in "I'll Remember April".
• In the 1949 film Criss Cross Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) plays a few bars on the piano while she's talking to Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster).