Eddie Pensier writes:

The sublime Sylvia McNair treats us to her rendition of the Arlen/Mercer standard, which originally appeared in Blues in the Night (1941). It’s on her marvelous 1995 collaboration with André Previn*, Come Rain Or Come Shine: The Harold Arlen Songbook, another winner of the “CDs That Eddie Has Played Into Oblivion” sweepstakes.

McNair was one of the great light-lyric sopranos of the 1990s, better even than Kathleen Battle and Dawn Upshaw in my opinion. She had  success both in opera and concert, being  especially in the works of Mozart. She’d begun to move into jazz/pop even before an early-2000s fight with breast cancer sidelined her for a while. Now it’s what she does nearly exclusively: I’d say she’s one of the most successful at “crossover”: her rock-solid technique gives her the confidence to immerse herself in the pop style, without sounding too much like “an opera singer singing jazz”.

Wolfgang Amadeus’ loss is Harold and Johnny’s gain, I think you’ll agree.

* Also known as Woody Allen’s father-in-law.