"More Today Than Yesterday" is a song written by Pat Upton and performed by Spiral Starecase, of which Upton was the lead vocalist. The song was produced by Sonny Knight and arranged by

Al Capps Allan Alfonzo Capps (April 26, 1939 – June 7, 2018) was an American record producer, arranger, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist. Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, he produced and arranged albums for popular artists such as Cher, A ...

Background

The principal idea of the song was made famous at the turn of the 20th century in a poem by Rosemonde Gérard, the wife of the poet and playwright

Edmond Rostand Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (, , ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with th ...

(''

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th ce ...

'').

Chart performance

It reached No. 1 on the KHJ Boss Radio survey, No. 6 in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, No. 7 on the ''Cashbox'' Top 100, and No. 12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1969. It was also released in the United Kingdom as a single, but did not chart. The song was featured on their 1969 album, '' More Today Than Yesterday''. It ranked No. 50 on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' magazine's Top

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

songs of

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Other versions

Charles Earland Charles Earland (May 24, 1941 – December 11, 1999) was an American jazz organist. Biography Earland was born in Philadelphia and learned to play the saxophone in high school. He played tenor with Jimmy McGriff at the age of 17 and in 1960 fo ...

released a version of the song on his 1969 album ''

Black Talk! ''Black Talk!'' is an album by organist Charles Earland which was recorded in 1969 and released on the Prestige label.Shirley Scott Shirley Scott (March 14, 1934 – March 10, 2002) was an American jazz organist. Her music was noted for its mixture of bebop, blues, and gospel elements. She was known by the nickname "Queen of the Organ". Life and career Scott was born in P ...

released a version of the song on her 1969 album '' Shirley Scott & the Soul Saxes'' *

Andy Williams Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...

released a version of the song featuring

The Osmonds The Osmonds were an American family music group who reached the height of their fame in the early to mid-1970s. The group had its best-known configurations as a quartet (billed the Osmond Brothers) and a quintet (the Osmonds). The group has c ...

on his 1969 album ''

Get Together with Andy Williams ''Get Together with Andy Williams'' is the twenty-fourth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams which was released on October 6, 1969, by Columbia Records and contained covers of recent hits. The one new song was "You Are", which was ...

'' *

Barbara McNair Barbara Jean McNair (March 4, 1934 – February 4, 2007) was an American singer and theater, television, and film actress. McNair's career spanned over five decades in television, film, and stage. McNair's professional career began in music dur ...

released a version of the song as the title track of her 1969 album ''More Today Than Yesterday'' *

Barbara Acklin Barbara Jean Acklin (February 28, 1943 – November 27, 1998) was an American soul singer and songwriter, who was most successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her biggest hit as a singer was "Love Makes a Woman" (1968). As a songwriter, she is bes ...

released a version of the song on his 1970 album ''Someone Else's Arms'' *

Chris Connor Mary Jean Loutsenhizer, known professionally as Chris Connor (November 8, 1927 – August 29, 2009), was an American jazz singer. Biography Chris Connor was born Mary Loutsenhizer in Kansas City, Missouri, to Clyde Loutsenhizer and Mabel Sh ...

released a version of the song on her 1970 album ''Sketches'' * Joe Bataan released a version of the song on his 1971 album ''Mr. New York And The East Side Kids'' * Colleen Hewett released a version of the song in Australia as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

of her 1971 single, "

Superstar A superstar is someone who has great popular appeal and is widely known, prominent, or successful in their field. Celebrities referred to as "superstars" may include individuals who work as actors, musicians, athletes, and other media-based profe ...

" *

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of the C ...

released a version of the song on her 1971 album '' Nature's Baby'' *

Sonny & Cher Sonny & Cher were an American pop and entertainment duo in the 1960s and 1970s, made up of spouses Sonny Bono and Cher. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as rhythm and blues, R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector. ...

released a version of the song on their 1971 album '' All I Ever Need Is You'' as well as on '' Sonny & Cher Live'', released the same year * Ronnie Dyson released a version of the song on his 1976 album ''The More You Do It'' *

Patti Austin Patti Austin (born August 10, 1950) is an American Grammy Award-winning R&B, pop, and jazz singer and songwriter best known for " Baby, Come to Me", her 1982 duet with James Ingram, which topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 after its re-release ...

released a version of the song on her 1976 album '' End of a Rainbow'' *

James Darren James William Ercolani (June 8, 1936 – September 2, 2024), known by his stage name James Darren, was an American television and film actor, television director, and singer. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had notable starring and su ...

released a version of the song on his 2001 album '' Because of You'' *

Nick Carter Nickolas Gene Carter (born January 28, 1980) is an American singer, the lead vocalist of the vocal group Backstreet Boys, and an alleged rapist. As of 2015, he has released three solo albums, '' Now or Never'', '' I'm Taking Off'' and '' All A ...

released a version of the song on his 2003 album ''

Before the Backstreet Boys 1989–1993 ''Before the Backstreet Boys 1989–1993'' is the unofficial, independently released demo album released by Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter. The songs were recorded by Carter from 1989 to 1993 and are mostly covers of songs from the 1950s to 1 ...

'' *

Grant Green Grant Green (June 6, 1935 – January 31, 1979) was an American jazz guitarist and composer. Green has been called one of the "most sampled guitarists." Biography Grant Green was born on June 6, 1935, in St. Louis, Missouri, to John and ...

recorded a live version of the song in 1971, which was however released only on his 2006 album '' Live at Club Mozambique'' *

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...

includes the song as part of her playlist in many concerts, including the More Today Than Yesterday: The Greatest Hits Tour and recorded the song for her 2006 album '' I Love You'' * The CompanY released a version of the song on their 2008 album with

Gerard Salonga Gerard Imutan Salonga (born October 11, 1973) is a Filipino musical conductor, composer, and arranger. From 2012 to 2020, he was the music director of the ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra, assistant conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orches ...

and FILharmoniKA titled ''Group Hug'' * Kermit Ruffins released a version of the song on his 2010 album ''Happy Talk'' *

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, with the Les Deux Love Orchestra, released a cover of the song on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

in 2013 *

Allan Harris Allan Harris (28 December 1942 – 23 November 2017) was an English football player and manager. He played for Chelsea, Coventry City and Queens Park Rangers. His brother Ron was also a professional footballer. Harris was a full-back and b ...

recorded a version on his 2016 album ''Nobody's Gonna Love You Better''WBGO Jazz 88.3FM: https://wbgo.org/radar/allan-harris-nobodys-gonna-love-you-better , accessdate: September 30, 2016 * Nyoy Volante recorded the song for the 2018 Philippine drama series '' Playhouse''

In media

* Goldfinger released a version of the song that was featured in the ending credits of the 1998 film ''

The Waterboy ''The Waterboy'' is a 1998 American sports comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. It was written by Adam Sandler as well as Tim Herlihy and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. Sandler also stars as the title character while Kathy Ba ...

''. * Jordan McCoy sang a version of the song on ''

American Juniors ''American Juniors'' is an American reality television singing competition series that was broadcast for one season from June 3 to August 19, 2003, on Fox. The series was a spin-off of ''American Idol'', but with younger contestants. The show ...

''. * Kenneth "Ken" Dingle sang a version of the song when he was a semi-finalist on ''

Philippine Idol ''Philippine Idol'' is a Philippine television interactive reality competition show broadcast by ABC. Created and developed by FremantleMedia and 19 Entertainment, the program is a franchise of ''Pop Idol'' created by British entertainment exe ...

''. *

Tito Sotto Vicente Castelo Sotto, III (; born August 24, 1948), is a Filipino politician and television personality who is a Senate of the Philippines, senator-elect of the Philippines. He is the longest-serving senator in the history of the upper chamb ...

Vic Sotto Marvic Valentin "Vic" Castelo Sotto (born April 28, 1954), popularly known as Bossing, is a Filipino actor, comedian, and television personality. Prolific in film and television in the Philippines since the 1970s, he is known for playing comed ...

, and

Joey de Leon Jose Maria Ramos de Leon Jr. (born October 14, 1946), professionally known as Joey de Leon and also known as Henyo Master, is a Filipino comedian, actor, television host and songwriter. He is one of the members of the comedy trio, collectively ...

performed a version of the song on the 37th Anniversary of ''

Eat Bulaga! ''Eat !'' (; stylized as ''Eat... Bulaga!'') is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine television variety show broadcast by Radio Philippines Network, ABS-CBN, GMA Network and TV5 (Philippine TV network), TV5. Originally hosted by Tito S ...

'' * Briefly heard in the first entrance of Jamie Lee Curtis's character in '' My Girl''. * Sung by character Richard Fish (

Greg Germann Gregory Andrew Germann ( ; born February 26, 1958) is an American actor who is known for playing Richard Fish on the television series ''Ally McBeal'', which earned him a Screen Actors Guild award. He also is known for his roles as Eric "Rico" M ...

) at the Christmas party in

Ally McBeal ''Ally McBeal'' is an American legal comedy-drama television series created by David E. Kelley that originally aired on Fox from September 8, 1997, to May 20, 2002. It revolves around Calista Flockhart in the title role as a lawyer working ...

- S1E11 (Silver Bells) * The Spiral Starecase's version appears in a

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

TV commercial A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

for

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

faucets. * In '' The Mule (2018 film)'', this song was the lifelong love song (the "our song") of Earl and Mary, which was made clear on Mary's deathbed when their last words together were quotations of the chorus's first two lines.

References

External links

* * {{authority control 1969 songs 1969 singles Spiral Starecase songs Diana Ross songs Columbia Records singles