"This Magic Moment" is a song composed by lyricist

Doc Pomus Jerome Solon Felder (June 27, 1925 – March 14, 1991), known professionally as Doc Pomus, was an American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the co-writer of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hal ...

and pianist

Mort Shuman Mortimer Shuman (12 November 1938 – 2 November 1991) was an American singer, pianist and songwriter, best known as co-writer of many 1960s rock and roll hits, including " Viva Las Vegas". He also wrote and sang many songs in French, such a ...

. It was first recorded by

The Drifters The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, formed in 1 ...

, with

Ben E. King Benjamin Earl King (né Nelson; September 28, 1938 – April 30, 2015) was an American soul and R&B singer and record producer. He is best known as the singer and co-composer of " Stand by Me"—a US Top 10 hit, both in 1961 and later i ...

singing lead.

Original Drifters version

It was recorded first by

and

the Drifters The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, formed in 1 ...

, at Bell Sound Studios in New York City. The Drifters version spent 11 weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and reached No. 16 on April 2, 1960. The session musicians

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Lyricist Jerome Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. They found success as the writers of such crossover hit songs as " Hound Dog" ( ...

hired to play on this record were: Phil Bodner on sax,

Ernie Hayes Ernest George Hayes (6 November 1876 – 2 December 1953) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Surrey, Leicestershire and England. Ernie Hayes was a right-handed batsman, usually batting at No 3 and strong at driving and pull ...

on piano, George Barnes and

Bucky Pizzarelli John Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli (January 9, 1926 – April 1, 2020) was an American jazz guitarist. He was the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and double bassist Martin Pizzarelli. He worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett (1971) ...

on guitar,

George Duvivier George Duvivier (August 17, 1920 – July 11, 1985) was an American jazz double-bassist. Biography Duvivier was born in New York City, the son of Leon V. Duvivier and Ismay Blakely Duvivier. He attended the Conservatory of Music and Art, where ...

on bass, and

Shep Shepherd Berisford Shepherd, professionally known as Shep Shepherd (January 19, 1917 – November 25, 2018), was an American multi-instrumental jazz musician, composer and singer. Beginnings Shepherd's father Charlie Shepherd was an engineer from the Wes ...

on drums. The arranger and conductor was

Stan Applebaum Stanley Seymour Applebaum (March 1, 1922 – February 23, 2019) was an American composer, arranger, musician and conductor. He arranged the orchestration on many pop hit records, most notably in the early 1960s, including The Drifters' " Sa ...

Chart history

Jay and the Americans version

In 1968,

Jay and the Americans Jay and the Americans are an American rock group who formed in the late 1950s. Their initial line-up consisted of John "Jay" Traynor, Howard Kane (born Howard Kirschenbaum), Kenny Vance (born Kenneth Rosenberg) and Sandy Deanne (born Sandy Y ...

released a version of the song, which became the song's most widely successful release. Their version spent 14 weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, reaching No. 6 on March 1, 1969, while reaching No. 1 on

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

's "'' RPM'' 100"R.P.M. 100
, '' RPM Weekly'', Volume 11, No. 2, March 10, 1969. Accessed May 21, 2016 and No. 11 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 ...

'''s

Easy Listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, ...

chart.Jay & the Americans – Chart History – Adult Contemporary
''Billboard.com''. Accessed May 21, 2016 The song also debuted at No. 4 in the first issue of ''RPM'''s "Young Adult"

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

chart.Young Adult
, '' RPM Weekly'', Volume 11, No. 4, March 24, 1969. Accessed May 21, 2016 The single earned

gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile meta ...

status from the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

.Gold & Platinum

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

. Accessed May 21, 2016

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

In popular culture

The original version of the song was used in the following productions: * ''

The Sandlot ''The Sandlot'' (released in some countries as ''The Sandlot Kids'') is a 1993 American coming-of-age sports comedy film co-written, directed, and narrated by David Mickey Evans. It tells the story of a group of young baseball players during the s ...

'', the 1993 sports comedy film directed by

David M. Evans David Mickey Evans (born October 20, 1962) is an American film director and screenwriter. His films tend to focus on children and the challenges of childhood. A baseball fan, Evans directed and co-wrote ''The Sandlot'' (1993). Life and caree ...

* "

Soprano Home Movies "Soprano Home Movies" is the 78th episode of the HBO television drama series ''The Sopranos'' and the 13th episode of the sixth season. It served as the midseason premiere to the second part of Season 6, which HBO broadcast in two parts. The e ...

", an episode of ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...

'' * "This Magic Moment", a documentary film from

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's ''

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series un ...

'' about the

Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The franchise was estab ...

* "Selena Gomez/Post Malone", an episode from the 47th season of ''Saturday Night Live'', in a sketch about the invention of the whoopee cushion

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

's version, from a Doc Pomus tribute album, ''Till the Night is Gone'', was featured in

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

's film '' Lost Highway'' (1997).

References

External links

* http://aln2.albumlinernotes.com/Atlantic_-_Volume_Four.html {{Jay and the Americans 1960 singles 1969 singles Songs with lyrics by Doc Pomus Songs with music by Mort Shuman The Drifters songs Jay and the Americans songs Lou Reed songs 1960 songs United Artists Records singles Atlantic Records singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles