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I Had the Craziest Dream

Written: 1942

Music by: Harry Warren

Words by: Mack Gordon

Written for: Springtime in the Rockies (movie, 1942)
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Main Stage || Record/Video Cabinet || Reading Room || Posted Comments || Credits

On the Main Stage at Cafe Songbook
A Cafe Songbook Twofer (from 1957 and 2004)



Beverly Kenney

performing

"I Had the Craziest Dream"

arrangement by Stan Free
1957
originally from the album Like Yesterday

Amazon iTunes

 
 



Ryan Kisor

performing

"I Had the Craziest Dream"

with Ryan Kisor (trumpet)
Sam Yahel (organ)
Peter Bernstein (guitar)
Greg Hutchinson (drums)
2004 on the album Donna Lee

Amazon iTunes

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More Performances of "I Hadn't Anyone Till You" in the Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet (Video credit)

Cafe Songbook Reading Room

"I Had the Craziest Dream"

Critics Corner || Lyrics Lounge
About the Movie Springtime in the Rockies / Origins of the Song

Other songs written for Springtime in the Rockies currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook:

none; however, other songs included in the Cafe Songbook catalog but not written for this movie are used in it:

1. Chattanooga Choo Choo

2. You Made Me Love You

3. At Last

 

For a complete listing of songs used in this movie, see IMDB Soundtrack.

Ed.s Note: This in not the 1937 film also titled Springtime in the Rockies, starring Gene Autry.




Helen Forrest with Harry James and His Music Makers introduce
"I Had the Craziest Dream Last Night" in the 1942 20th Century Fox movie, Springtime in the Rockies, in which Helen sings the verse.

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Critics Corner
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Lyrics Lounge

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Credits

(this page)

 

Credits for Videomakers of custom videos used on this page:

Borrowed material (text): The sources of all quoted and paraphrased text are cited. Such content is used under the rules of fair use to further the educational objectives of CafeSongbook.com. CafeSongbook.com makes no claims to rights of any kind in this content or the sources from which it comes.

 

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For further information on Cafe Songbook policies with regard to the above matters, see our "About Cafe Songbook" page (link at top and bottom of every page).

The Cafe Songbook
Record/Video Cabinet:
Selected Recordings of

"I Had the Craziest Dream"


(All Record/Video Cabinet entries below
include a music-video
of this page's featured song.
The year given is for when the studio
track was originally laid down
or when the live performance was given.)
Performer/Recording Index
(*indicates accompanying music-video)

1942
Helen Forrest with Harry James and his orchestra
album: Helen Forrest Original Studio Radio Transcriptions (With Artie Shaw & Harry James Orchestras)

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notes: Helen Forrest and Harry James introduced "I Had the Craziest Dream" in the 1942 movie Springtime in the Rockies.
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1942-43
The Four Vagabonds
album: Four Vagabonds Vol. 2
(1942-1943)


same track as on album referenced above

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Notes: "The Four Vagabonds were radio stars of the early and mid 1940s. As 50's vocal harmony lovers will tell you, the Four Vagabonds are grandfathers of R&B harmony. Regardless of the repertoire, the Four Vagabonds were expert practitioners of improvisational harmony singing. The balance of their harmony is an extraordinary thing, the evenness of the four voices. The singers' pitch is exceptionally accurate, especially lead vocalist John Jordan. The Four Vagabonds' mastery of "barbershop chord" construction is evident in many stunning touches, most particularly the "instrumental choruses," which add another dimension to the Four Vagabonds' art . . . .

"In more ways than one, the Four Vagabonds bridge the gap between 1930s vocal quartet jive and R&B vocal groups of the Post-WWII era. Their commercially recorded repertoire makes it clear their real stock-in-trade was the haunting romantic harmony ballads such as "I Had The Craziest Dream," "If I Were You" and "Taking My Chance With You." The best of these can truly be described as classics of American folk and popular music . . . ." (from YouTube uploader Althazarr/History in Music)
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1957
Doris Day
album: Hooray for Hollywood
(Vol. 1)

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Notes: Orchestra conducted by Frank De Vol for a selection of standards from movies: songs by Berlin, Gershwin, Porter, etc. all sung by Day.
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1958
Nat King Cole
album: Nat King Cole
Sings the Great songs


same track as on album referenced above

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Notes: "I Had the Craziest Dream" recorded November 5, 1958, conducted and arranged by Nelson Riddle, released 1965 on the Capitol album Nat King Cole Sings the Great Songs -- CD also includes second album, Thank You, Pretty Baby)
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1958
Dizzy Reece
albums: Trumpet Jazz Essentials
and Blues in Trinity

Amazon iTunes

The track on the music-video can be found on both the Essentials and the Blues in Trinity albums as well as The Complete Recordings 1054-1962.

iTunes review of Blues in Trinity album: "As Dizzy Reece's first album for Blue Note, Blues in Trinity goes a long way to establish the trumpeter's signature sound. Reece doesn't take chances stylistically; he prefers to stay within the confines of hard bop. Nevertheless, he has a bold, forceful sound that simply burns with passion. Even on slower numbers, there's a fire to his playing that keeps Blues in Trinity from being predictable. The high quality of the album is even more impressive given the recording circumstances. The English-based Reece was playing in Paris at the time, and he assembled a sextet featuring the vacationing British musicians Tubby Hayes (tenor saxophone) and Terry Shannon (piano), visiting American stars Donald Byrd (trumpet) and Art Taylor (drums), and Canadian bassist Lloyd Thompson, who was playing in Paris with Zoot Sims. Although the band was thrown together, there's a definite spark to this combo, which interacts as if it had been playing together for a long time. Throughout it all, Reece steals the show with his robust playing, and that's why Blues in Trinity rises above the level of standard-issue hard bop and becomes something special."
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1967
Astrud Gilberto
album: Beach Samba


not the same track as on album referenced above

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Notes: on the album Beach Samba, personel includes arrangers Don Sebesky and Eumir Deodato, Toots Thielemans (harmonica), Ron Carter (bass), Hubert Laws (flute), Bobby Rosengarten and Grady Tate (drums), Ernie Royal (trumpet) and Walter Wanderley (organ), among many others.
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1979
Frank Sinatra
album: Trilogy Past, Present, Future

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Notes: "Originally a three-record set, ultimately transferred to two CDs, TRILOGY is an ambitious undertaking of epic proportions. Around 1979, longtime Sinatra producer Sonny Burke started musing on the career of the singer, and the path he had taken. Together, Sinatra and Burke decided to make a grand statement, a record that would encapsulate Sinatra's early recordings as well as representing his current activities and projecting into his musical future. The result was TRILOGY.

The 'Past' section enlists the talents of arranger Billy May, for a swinging set of tunes that hails back to Frank's late-'50s work (including 'I Had the Craziest Dream'), freshly recorded, and invested with an extra touch of maturity. For "The Present," Sinatra teams with Don Costa to record 10 contemporary tunes, including cuts written by Neil Diamond and Billy Joel. "The Future" ventures into the realms of art song and science fiction, with a futuristic, multi-part concept suite ostensibly about space travel, easily the most unusual piece Sinatra ever recorded" (from CD Universe Product Description).
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2003
Wesla Whitfield
album: September Songs
Music of Wilder Weill & Warren

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Notes: Wesla Whitfield specializes in singing less well known songs from the songbook and always incuding the verse. She is accompanied on piano by Mike Grinsell.
music-video currently unavailable.
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2005
Michael Feinstein
and George Shearing
album: Hopeless Romantics

Amazon iTunes

Notes: Feinstein and Shearing focus on the songs of Harry Warren that are less than his most famous but still mostly standards. The combination of the lushness of Feinstein's voice and the jazz inflected quality of Shearing's piano provide a compelling combination.
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2007
Ehud Asherie
album: Lockout

Amazon iTunes

Notes: Ehud Asherie (piano) Grant Stewart (tenor sax) Ryan Kisor (trumpet) Joel Forbes (bass) Phil Stewart (drums). "Israeli-born, New York-based post-bop pianist Ehud Asherie makes his debut as a leader with the unflashy small-combo set Lockout. Leading a solos-discouraged rhythm section (bassist Joel Forbes and drummer Phil Stewart) alongside a front line of trumpeter Ryan Kisor and tenor Grant Stewart (with whose quartet the young pianist got his first major exposure) on a set evenly split between originals and standards, Asherie generally keeps the tempos fleet and the spotlight moving" (from iTunes review)
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