"Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year" is the title of a 1943 traditional pop composition by Frank Loesser, written for and introduced in the 1944 movie '' Christmas Holiday'', the song was largely overlooked for some ten years before being rediscovered in the mid-1950s to become a pop and jazz standard much recorded by vocalists and instrumentalists.

Composition / theme

An early instance of Frank Loesser writing his own music for his lyrics, "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year" has been described by singer Michael Feinstein - the "foremost expert on the music of the Great American Songbook" - as "a perfect example of that heart-on-your-sleeve quality evident in so many oesser songs" The composer's daughter: Susan Loesser, classes the song as a rare "melancholy" item in her father's songbook, but one whose lyric is "not without hope". "Spring Will Be ..." belongs to a sub-genre of songs which treat springtime as a metaphor in an ironic context, the most extreme exemplars such as " Spring Is Here" and " Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" "upend ngthe conventional view of spring as the season of rebirth

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use spring as the setting for expressions of disenchantment or remorse": however "Loesser's lyric ... follow a middle course, evoking a state of mind neither breezily cheerful nor trite; but not unremittingly dark either."

First recordings and ''Christmas Holiday''

"Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year" was written for the film '' Christmas Holiday'' to be sung by the female lead Deanna Durbin, a movie musical star from the age of 14 who at age 23 was making a career shift with an essentially dramatic role as a fallen woman working a taxi dance hall near New Orleans. The film discreetly posits Durbin's character as a singer who is first seen singing "Spring Will Be ..." at the dance hall in a performance which eschews Durbin's established "perky upbeat operetta persona" in favor of a "downbeat bluesy jazz" style. The lyrics of "Spring Will Be ..." touch on the film's plot: Dean Harens plays a serviceman who, just after receiving a Dear John letter, is flying home for Christmas when a storm mandates a layover in New Orleans. Meeting Durbin at the dance hall, Harens treats her chivalrously, and she eventually confides her sad history. Once married to a charming

roué In a historical context, a rake (short for rakehell, analogous to "hellraiser") was a man who was habituated to immoral conduct, particularly womanizing. Often, a rake was also prodigal, wasting his (usually inherited) fortune on gambling, w ...

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Gene Kelly Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American actor, dancer, singer, filmmaker, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style and sought to create a new form of American dance accessibl ...

) who has been jailed for murder, Durbin is now self-indentured at the dance hall as penance for failing to somehow save her husband from himself. Subsequent to a denouement which frees Durbin from her thralldom, with imminent romance with Harens implied, ''Christmas Holiday'' ends with Durbin gazing up at an overcast sky whose clouds drift apart as she watches. Completed in February 1944, ''Christmas Holiday'' would be released June 1944 to become a box office hit while making only a transient impression on the public consciousness, suggesting that moviegoers anticipating the lighter fare associated with Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly were disappointed by ''Christmas Holiday'' and preferred to forget the film, whose few critical notices virtually ignored "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year" (Margaret Bean of the '' Spokesman-Review'' dismissed the film's "new song" as "not too appealing"). The song had already had three recorded versions prior to the film's release, beginning with that by Johnnie Johnston with the Paul Weston Orchestra, released March 1944 (the song serving as

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

to a 78-rpm single entitled "Irresistible You"), followed by recordings by Percy Faith (recorded April 24, 1944), as an instrumental) and Morton Downey (recorded May 8, 1944, for June 8, release). Also recorded in 1944 by Eddy Howard, "Spring Will Be ..." was recorded by Deanna Durbin - in her signature soprano - in a December 1944 session in which Durbin also recorded the other song she'd sung in ''Christmas Holiday'': " Always", with the tracks being paired on a March 1945 single release (on which "Always" was designated as A-side). Durbin's studio recording of "Spring Will Be ..." is the first evident instance of the song's two verses being preceded by a four line song intro which has rarely been included in subsequent recordings of the song. (See sidebox below.)

Rediscovery

As with its parent film, "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year" seemed to soon lose such attention as it had garnered, the first evident recording of the song subsequent to 1944 being a 1950 release by the Ralph Flanagan Orchestra with vocalist Harry Prime. The song seems to have come to the fore due to its being recorded in the mid-1950s by

Sarah Vaughan Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer. Nicknamed "Sassy" and "Jazz royalty, The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine ...

, who was evidently the first female vocalist to record "Spring Will Be ..." since Deanna Durbin in 1944, Vaughan also evidently being the song's first jazz-influenced interpreter. Vaughan first recorded "Spring Will Be ..." in a January 5, 1953, session with the Percy Faith Orchestra - Faith having made one of the earliest recordings of the song; the track being released as a single March 3, 1953, and appeared on the 1955 album '' Sarah Vaughan in Hi-Fi''. Subsequent to Vaugahn's version, "Spring Will Be ..." has been recorded on a constant basis mostly by jazz-influenced and/or traditional pop vocalists, mostly female. ("Nearly all the best songs about spring are about disappointment, and all the best versions are by tuned-in women who know the score.")

Recorded versions

Vocal versions of "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year" include those recorded by (album titles in italics): * Johnnie Johnston with the Paul Weston Orchestra: 78-rpm single 1944 * Morton Downey: 78-rpm single 1944 * Eddy Howard: 78-rpm single 1944 * Deanna Durbin: 78-rpm single 1945 * Harry Prime with the Ralph Flanagan Orchestra: 78-rpm single 1950 *

with the Percy Faith Orchestra 78-rpm single 1953 * Steve Allen ''Steve Sings'' 1956 * Ray Charles Singers ''Spring is Here'' 1956 * Helen Merrill ''Helen Merrill With Strings'' 1956 * Rita Reys with the Jazz Messengers ''The Cool Voice of Rita Reys'' 1956 *

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''The Four Lads Sing Frank Loesser'' 1957 * Joni James ''Joni Sings Songs by Frank Loesser'' 1956 * Dick Haymes ''Little White Lies'' 1958 * Jeri Southern ''Coffee, Cigarettes & Memories'' 1958 * Eydie Gormé ''Love is a Season'' 1959 * Polly Bergen ''Four Seasons of Love'' 1960 * Ella Fitzgerald ''Hello Love'' 1960 * Randy Van Horne Singers ''Sleighride'' 1960 * Lorez Alexandria ''Deep Roots'' 1962 * Vic Damone ''Young & Lively'' 1962 * Anita O'Day with Cal Tjader ''Time for 2'' 1962 * Joanie Sommers ''Sommers' Seasons'' 1963 * Leslie Uggams ''So in Love!'' 1963 * Larry Hovis ''

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Sing the Best of World War II'' (multi-artist album) 1966 *

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''Easy Does It'' 1968 * Lee Wiley ''Back Home Again: All New Performances'' 1971 * Reg Varney ''Reg's Party'' 1973 *

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& Johnny Desmond ''Ben Bagley's Frank Loesser Revisited'' (multi-artist album) 1974 * Patty Weaver ''Patty Weaver Sings "As Time Goes By"'' 1976 *

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with the Pete Moore Orchestra ''Seasons'' 1977 * Anita Ellis with Ellis Larkins ''A Legend Sings'' 1979 *

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''Film Noir'' 1989 * Jo Sullivan Loesser ''Loesser by Loesser - Salute to Frank Loesser by Jo Sullivan Loesser'' (1992) * Abbey Lincoln ''Devil's Got Your Tongue'' 1992 * Sathima Bea Benjamin ''A Morning In Paris'' 1997 (album recorded February 24, 1963) *

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''Film Noir'' 1997 *

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''The Melody Lingers On'' 2002 * Michael Feinstein with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra self-titled album 2003 * Andrea Marcovicci in

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with "I Wish I Didn't Love You So" ''If I Were Bell: The Songs of Frank Loesser'' 2004 * Carol Sloane ''We'll Meet Again'' 2009 * Liz Callaway ''Anywhere I Wander: Liz Callaway Sings Frank Loesser'' 2013 *

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'' No One Ever Tells You'' 2015 * Diana Panton ''blue'' 2022 The song has also been established as a favored piece by pop and jazz instrumentalists, exemplified by recorded versions by (album titles in italics): *Percy Faith Orchestra: 78-rpm single 1944 * Frankie Carle & his Orchestra ''Frankie Carle Plays Frank Loesser'' 1950 *

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''Spring Fever'' 1953 *

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'' 1956 * Sal Salvador Quartet ''Colors in Sound'' 1958 * Red Garland ''All Kinds of Weather'' 1959 * Richard Maltby & his Orchestra ''Swingin' Down the Lane'' 1959 * Roland Kirk '' Domino'' 1962 * Ramsey Lewis Trio ''Sound of Spring'' 1962 * Buddy DeFranco &

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''Pol.Y Tones'' 1963 * Tommy Gwaltney with

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& John Eaton ''Great Jazz'' 1963 * Archie Semple ''The Twilight Cometh'' 1963 * Ronnie Aldrich ''The Romantic Pianos of Ronnie Aldrich'' 1964 * Ferrante & Teicher ''Ferrante & Teicher'' 1971 *

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Trio ''Nice & Easy'' 1998 * Chris Anderson ''From the Heart'' 1998 *

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Quartet''Mutual Admiration Society'' 1999 * David Murray Quartet ''Seasons'' 1999 *

Quartet ''Ralph Sharon Quartet Plays the Frank Loesser Songbook'' 1999 *

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References

{{reflist 1943 songs Songs written for films Songs written by Frank Loesser Bing Crosby songs Vic Damone songs Ella Fitzgerald songs Eydie Gormé songs Carly Simon songs Sarah Vaughan songs