Out of Nowhere (Johnny Green song)

The cover of Johnny Green and His Orchestra's recording of "Out of Nowhere".

"Out of Nowhere" is a popular song composed by Johnny Green with lyrics by Edward Heyman. It was the first recording by Bing Crosby under his Brunswick Records contract. He recorded it on March 30, 1931 and it became his first number one hit as a solo artist. Crosby also sang it in the film Confessions of a Co-Ed (1931) and in his short film I Surrender Dear (1931). The song was also featured on the soundtrack of the film Dude Ranch (1931).

It has become a jazz standard, with dozens of instrumental and vocal versions by various artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Patti Page and Vic Damone.

Tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins's instrumental 1937 version with Benny Carter and Django Reinhardt became very successful, and Hawkins's performance on the song was so intimidating that no tenor saxophone player tried the tune until eight years later, when Don Byas recorded it. Charlie Parker recorded a ballad version in 1947. Bunk Johnson also recorded the song at the same year on his record Last Testament. An instrumental version was recorded by Russell Garcia (on his 1958 album The Johnny Ever Greens), starring John Williams on piano and Don Fagerquist on trumpet. Al Hirt released a version on his 1961 album, The Greatest Horn in the World.

The song's harmonic progression has been used in several later songs, such as Alexander Courage's "Theme from Star Trek", Tadd Dameron's "Casbah", Fats Navarro's "Nostalgia" and Lennie Tristano's "317 East 32nd Street."

See also

• List of 1930s jazz standards