The Things We Did Last Summer

Written in 1946 by Sammy Cahn (words) and Jule Styne (music), The Things We Did Last Summer had a rough start. Cahn and Styne had promised Frank Sinatra that if he recorded the song for Columbia, they would see to it that no other recording of their ballad would be released before his. But Columbia couldn't ready the Sinatra recordings until October 15. Meanwhile, Jo Stafford liked the song as well and had recorded it for Capitol, which planned to release hers on Sept. 1. Sinatra was livid, so Cahn and Styne's publishing company, Mayfair Music, asked Capitol to wait until after mid-October. But Capitol insisted it had received no release restriction letter from Mayfair, and that the best it could do was hold Stafford's record until Sept. 15. Stafford's version peaked at #10 on Billboard's pop charts; Sinatra's never charted. Whether a letter from Mayfair actually went out is anyone's guess. Songwriters loved when top pop singers battled to record their songs. The more the merrier meant one of the versions had a shot at Billboard's top 10, resulting in fatter copyright royalties.

As summer psychologically ends today, here are 11 of my favorite versions of this lyrical fond farewell to a warm season past:

Here's Jo Stafford...

Here's Nancy Wilson with George Shearing...

Here are the Beach Boys...

Here are the Four Lads with Claude Thornhill...

Here's Fats Navarro...

Here's Beverly Kenney...

Here's Carmen McRae and Sammy Davis Jr....

Here's Bill Holman...

Here's Lou Donaldson with Horace Silver on piano...

Here's Al Cohn...

And here's the Australian Jazz Quartet...