"Too Marvelous for Words"

Frank Sinatra singing
"Too Marvelous for Words" (1956)

By Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

"Too Marvelous for Words"
Album by Johnny Mercer (1937)

Frank Sinatra singing
"Too Marvelous for Words" (1956)

Song featured in
Dark Passage (1947)

Preface: For Song #43, I've selected "Too Marvelous for Words" (1956). Ann recommened this song
(5-23-2023) that we danced the foxtrot at Cubberley Pavilion. This popular song was written in 1937. Johnny Mercer wrote lyrics for music composed by Richard Whiting. It was introduced by Wini Shaw & Ross Alexander in the 1937 Warner Brothers film Ready, Willing and Able, as well as used for a production number in a musical revue on Broadway. The song has become a pop and jazz standard and has been recorded by many artists. The song was used as the love theme for the characters played by Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in the 1947 film noir Dark Passage, directed by Delmer Daves. The lyrics have won praise as sophisticated and perfectly synchronized with the tune. In the opinion of at least one critic, Mercer borrowed some of the lyric techniques and wordplay from Ira Gershwin. Bing Crosby recorded the song on March 3, 1937 with Jimmy Dorsey for Decca Records and it went to the top of the charts of the day during ten weeks in the listings. Frank Sinatra covered the song on his 1956 album Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, arranged by the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. He continued to perform the song on his 1962 world tour and performed it with a new arrangement by the Count Basie Band in 1965. Lyrics

You're just too marvelous, too marvelous for words
Like "glorious", "glamorous" and that old standby "amorous".
It's all too wonderful, I'll never find the words
That say enough, tell enough, I mean they just aren't swell enough.

You're much too much, and just too "very, very"
To ever be in Webster's Dictionary.
And so I'm borrowing a love song from the birds
To tell you that you're marvelous— too marvelous for words.

[Musical interlude]

You're much— you're too much— and just too "very, very"
To ever be, to ever be in Webster's Dictionary.
And so I'm borrowing a love song from the birds
To tell you that you're marvelous;
Tell you that you're marvelous;
Tell you that you're marvelous— too marvelous for words

© Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com
August 12, 2023