Prelude To A Kiss

PROFILE
Composer	Duke Ellington
Lyricist	Irving Gordon, Irving Mills
Year Written	1938
About Prelude to a Kiss
Ted Gioia in The Jazz Standards notes that in the late 1930s, having practically invented swing music, “… at this juncture he does the exact opposite. The Duke uses his fame and great artistic freedom to become more ambitious, more experimental, less beholden to the formulas of swing music. … ‘Prelude To A Kiss’ from 1938 is a case in point.”

Lyrics

If you hear a song in blue
Like a flower crying for the dew
That was my heart serenading you
My prelude to a kiss

And if you hear a song that grows
From my tender sentimental woes
That was my heart trying to compose
A prelude to a kiss

Though it’s just a simple melody
With nothing fancy, nothing much
You could turn it to a symphony
A Schubert tune with a Gershwin touch

Oh, how my love song gently cries
For the tenderness within your eyes
My love is a prelude that never dies
A prelude to a kiss

Though it’s just a simple melody
With nothing fancy, nothing much
You could turn it to a symphony
A Schubert tune with a Gershwin touch

Oh, how my love song gently cries
For the tenderness within your eyes
My love is a prelude that never dies
My prelude to a kiss

“Prelude to a Kiss” was recorded in May 1999 and released that same year on the album Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool. It was arranged by Jorge Calandrelli.

Prelude To A Kiss
Tony Bennett · Bennett Sings Ellington / Hot And Cool · Song · 1999

This recording released on:

1998: Columbia CD: CK 63668 — Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool
2011: Disc #65 in The Tony Bennett Complete Collection (88697874602-JK63) Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool