"IMAGINATION", now considered a jazz standard, was written by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Johnny Burke. The song was first published in 1940. The two best-selling chart versions at the time were recorded by the orchestras of Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey (featuring a vocal by Frank Sinatra).  A version by Ella Fitzgerald hit #15 on the charts as well. When the song is played on the air today, the version by Fitzgerald is the one most often played. That is interesting because composers Van Heusen and Burke took a definite point of view regarding this song. It appeared on the flip side of a 1950 recording of The Top 20 song "Bewitched" by Doris Day. Once they heard Miss Day's version, their comment was: "it has been sung now by the very best."

In Great Men of American Popular Song David Ewen tells how composer Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Imagination” brought him to Hollywood. “Mark Sandrich, producer of the Astaire-Ginger Rogers screen musicals, heard the song, fell in love with it, and yelled out to one of his assistants, ‘Get me that guy!’” Lyricist Johnny Burke, who had written the lyrics for “Imagination,” was already established in Hollywood as a top lyricist for Bing Crosby films. Eventually the pair worked on several of the “Road” pictures starring Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour."

Ewen also quotes Van Heusen’s recollection of his first meeting with Burke at the office of the music publisher where Van Heusen worked. “He just came into the office [Remick’s] to shoot the breeze. He said to me, ‘Got any tunes?’ I said, ‘Sure!’ So we went and wrote ‘Oh, You Crazy Moon.’ The next time he was in, we did ‘Polka Dots and Moonbeams.’ Soon after that came Imagination and the rest is history'.”

And now it is your turn to see if you agree with the composers.  Although the song has been recorded over the years by hundreds of singers and jazz performers, the definitive recordings remain.

       THE 1940 CHART TOPPERS

 GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA

TOMMY DORSEY/SINATRA

     ELLA FITZGERALD

                      THE FAVORITE VERSION OF THE COMPOSERS

     HERE ARE OTHER NOTABLE RECORDINGS FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

               KEELY SMITH

               DEAN MARTIN

               CHET BAKER

            JO STAFFORD

  ARTIE SHAW AND GRAMERCY FIVE

   DINAH SHORE (from her weekly TV show)