These Foolish Things (solo bass arrangement) - Karl Clews on bass

If you would like to learn to play this solo bass arrangement of the jazz standard These Foolish Things, you'll find the transcription, along with many more of my arrangements, in both tab and standard notation, on my Patreon page,   / karlclews   My arrangement, for solo 4-string electric bass guitar, of the jazz standard, These Foolish Things. These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You) is a standard with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz, writing under the pseudonym Holt Marvell, and music by Jack Strachey, both Englishmen. Harry Link, an American, sometimes appears as a co-writer; his input was probably limited to an alternative "middle eight" (bridge) which many performers prefer. It is one of a group of "Mayfair songs", like A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. Maschwitz wrote the song under his pen name, Holt Marvell, at the behest of Joan Carr for a late-evening revue broadcast by the BBC. The copyright was lodged in 1936. Although Maschwitz's wife Hermione Gingold speculated in her autobiography that the haunting jazz standard was written for either herself or actress Anna May Wong, Maschwitz himself contradicted such claims. Maschwitz instead cited "fleeting memories of [a] young love" as inspiring the song. Most sources, including the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, posit cabaret singer Jean Ross, with whom Maschwitz had a youthful romantic liaison, as the muse for the song. When the song was written, Maschwitz was Head of Variety at the BBC. It is a list song (Maschwitz calls it a "catalogue song" in his biography), in this case delineating the various things that remind the singer of a lost love. The lyrics – the verse and three choruses – were written by Maschwitz during the course of one Sunday morning at his flat in London between sips of coffee and vodka. Within hours of crafting the lyrics, he dictated them over the phone to Jack Strachey, and they arranged to meet the same evening to discuss the next step. The song was not an immediate success, and Keith Prowse, Maschwitz's agent, refused to publish it, releasing the copyright to Maschwitz himself – a stroke of luck for the lyricist. Writing in 1957, he claimed to have made £40,000 from the song. Despite being featured in Spread it Abroad, a London revue of 1936, it aroused no interest until the famous West Indian pianist and singer Leslie Hutchinson ("Hutch") discovered it on top of a piano in Maschwitz's office at the BBC. "Hutch" liked it and recorded it, whereupon it became a great success and was recorded by musicians all over the world. This first recording by "Hutch" was by HMV in 1936. Popular versions in the USA in 1936 were by Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson with Billie Holiday, Nat Brandywynne, Carroll Gibbons and Joe Sanders. Billie Holiday's rendering of the song with Teddy Wilson's orchestra was a favorite of Philip Larkin, who said, "I have always thought the words were a little pseudo-poetic, but Billie sings them with such passionate conviction that I think they really become poetry." Holiday's version of the song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart. The song was translated in French under the title Ces Petites Choses ("These small things") and recorded by Jean Sablon in 1936 and by Ann Savoy in 2007. Performed on a 2020 Bogart Karl Clews Signature 'Broadsword' bass, with a solo played on a Chowny SWB Pro bass tuned as a piccolo. Recorded directly into Cakewalk Sonar Platinum, via a Presonus Audiobox. Video edited using Wondershare Filmora 12. Karl Clews Signature 'Broadsword' bass by Bogart: https://www.bogart-bass.de Instrument cables by Rigotti: https://www.rigotticables.com Custom leather guitar straps by River Straps: http://www.river-straps.com Gig bags by Harvest Fine Leather: https://www.harvest-guitar.com Gear bags by Lugville: https://www.lugville.com My website: http://www.karlclews.com My channel:    / karlclews   My facebook page:   / karl.clews   My Patreon page, for tabs, audio downloads and more:   / karlclews   Karl Clews / bass / these foolish things remind me of you / ella fitzgerald / billie holiday / etta james / aaron neville / jazz / standard / sarah vaughan / frank sinatra / nat king cole / sam cooke / solo bass / headless bass / carbon fibre bass / carbon fiber bass / bass solo / solo bass arrangement / bass cover / baixo / baixista / bajo / bajista / bassiste / bassist / bass player / Galway / bassist / bass player / bass guitar / River Straps / rigotti cables / Harvest gigbags / Lugville gear bags / Bogart / SKC Bogart / Stefan Hess / Bogart bass / bogart broadsword / how to play these foolish things on bass / 1930s music / piccolo bass / jack strachey / bryan ferry / rod stewart / james brown / yves montand / sammy davis jr / seth macfarlane