"I’LL REMEMBER APRIL" (1941)

GAGS! NAGS! SWEETIES AND SWING! That was the tagline used on movie posters to advertise the 1942 film Ride ‘Em Cowboy, in which "I’ll Remember April" first appeared. Many jazz standards have had strange beginnings, but one of the most bizarre had to be in this film that starred the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello cast as peanut vendors pretending to be cowboys at a dude ranch.
In the film, "I'll Remember April" was sung by Dick Foran, an actor and singer best known for his roles in musicals with a western theme and as a supporting actor in dramas. He crooned the song to actress Anne Gwynne cast as the dude ranch owner’s pretty daughter, but who more commonly played a "scream queen" in horror films. Ride ‘Em Cowboy capitalized on the notoriety of Abbott and Costello, among the highest paid and most popular entertainers during World War II. The film was a wild melange of comedy, cowboy songs, current pop tunes and swing dancers. One critic said, "For a few brief minutes, "I’ll Remember April" was an oasis of sanity in the madness."
Incredibly, this screwball comedy was the scene for two firsts in jazz history. Not only did it debut one of the most recorded of jazz standards, it also debuted Ella Fitzgerald in her first screen role. She played Ruby, an employee at the dude ranch whose duties included performing as a rodeo clown and working as a maid. She sang two numbers, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," for which she was already famous, and "Rockin’ and Reelin’." In Stuart Nicholson’s biography about Fitzgerald, he described the film as "otherwise forgettable," but praised her performance. "…Ella’s performance provides some explanation of her remarkable popularity. She projected a light, frothy, easy-going humor that simultaneously communicated and was endearing. …From her recordings we get only half the story; on the film version of "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" she goes through a complete little-girl-lost routine that fits the lyrics perfectly. Even on "Rockin’ and Reelin’," sung with the vocal group the Merry Macs, she is full of ingenious, girlish mischievousness – a fascinating glimpse of the young Ella as much an entertainer as singer." Prior to her role in Ride 'Em Cowboy, she already was a well known singer, but the film provided the first opportunity for many of her fans to see as well as hear her sing.
Gene De Paul composed the music for "I’ll Remember April" in collaboration with lyricists Don Raye and Patricia Johnston. De Paul was a pianist, singer and arranger who composed songs for Hollywood films and Broadway. He and Raye collaborated on several songs that became standards, such as "You Don’t Know What Love Is" and "Star Eyes." De Paul worked with other lyricists also, including Johnny Mercer, with whom he wrote the score for the Broadway musical L’il Abner. Raye, a dancer, bandleader, and songwriter, wrote boogie-woogie songs for the Andrews Sisters and other songs that crossed musical genres, but he is best known in the jazz genre for his collaboration with De Paul. Little is known of co-lyricist Johnston, except that she was a friend of Raye.
“I’ll Remember April” was recorded by Woody Herman and His Orchestra and entered the pop charts in March of 1942, where it peaked at number twenty-three. Although there were several early recordings, including those by Bing Crosby and the Nat King Cole Trio, the song didn’t achieve much popularity as a pop song. The song probably would have drifted into obscurity if bebop musicians hadn’t discovered it in the late 1940s. Jeremy Wilson at www.jazzstandards.com describes why “I’ll Remember April” may have had limited appeal as a pop song, “Even at the specified moderato tempo, Gene De Paul’s composition has a wandering, drawn out feeling compared to the average pop song. The 48-bar A-B-C-D-A-B’ gives the feeling of a doubly long A-B-A composition, requiring the listener to wait thirty-two bars before a repeat instead of the eight required by an A-A-B-A form. As a result, “I’ll Remember April” is difficult to hum after the first or second listen.” However, its unusual characteristics were assets to bebop musicians. Wilson goes on to say, “An interesting comparison of pre-bop versus bop renditions of “I’ll Remember April” can be made with big band vocalist Anita Boyer’s romantic and languid take (The Nat King Cole Trio: The MacGregor Years 1941-1945 disc 4) versus Bud Powell’s definitive bop piano (The Complete Blue Note and Roost Recordings disc 1).”
Beboppers Charlie Parker and Bud Powell were among the first to explore the song’s unconventional structure, followed by an influential 1950 recording by Red Norvo's trio with Tal Farlow and Charles Mingus. Since then it has been recorded hundreds of times and is ranked 29th on the list of the 1000 most recorded jazz standards on the JazzStandards.com website. It became a jam session favorite and a test of musical virtuosity, especially for young musicians aspiring to play with the veterans. For example, in 1955 when alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, an unknown music teacher at the time, was asked to sit in with bebop pioneer and bassist Oscar Pettiford’s group at the Café Bohemia in New York City, his soaring solo rendition of “I’ll Remember April” created a sensation and helped to launch his career.