I swear, "Fly Me to the Moon" has some kind of magic spell on it.
No matter where I'm performing - fancy wedding in Germany, intimate dinner in Spain, corporate event anywhere - someone always requests this song. And when I start playing it, the whole room changes.
The crazy thing is, it almost didn't happen. Bart Howard wrote it in 1954 and called it "In Other Words." For years, nobody cared. It was just another cabaret song that didn't quite catch on.
Then Sinatra got his hands on it in 1964, and suddenly it was everywhere. But here's the part that blows my mind: Buzz Aldrin literally played it on the moon during Apollo 11. Like, actual outer space.
Think about that for a second. A song about using space travel as a metaphor for love actually made it to space. You can't make this stuff up.
But why does it work so well? I think it's because the lyrics are both completely ridiculous and totally relatable. "Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars" - that's absurd, right? But we've all felt that way about someone.
When I perform it, I love watching people's faces. There's always this moment of recognition, like "Oh, THIS song." And then they're transported somewhere else for three minutes.
The chord progression is sophisticated enough to keep musicians interested, but the melody is so singable that everyone can hum along. It's the perfect storm of accessibility and artistry.
Plus, it works in any arrangement. Solo with backing tracks? Perfect. Full big band? Even better. I've heard jazz trios make it intimate and orchestras make it epic.
Sometimes I wonder what Bart Howard would think about his little cabaret song becoming this universal anthem. Probably pretty amazed.
What's a song that never fails to transport you? I bet it's not the one you'd expect...