Whispering – Simon Want (Cover) 1920 Tribute to: James Francis Cagney, Jr.

Whispering” is a popular song with lyrics by John Schoenberger and Richard Coburn, and music by Vincent Rose. It was originally recorded on August 23, 1920 by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra for Victor as 18690-A. Denver-born ex-army bandleader Whiteman was dubbed “King of Jazz”, an appellation supported largely by a long series of hits beginning in 1920 with his release of “Whispering”, an eleven-week US No. 1 hit, which stayed 20 weeks in the charts and sold in excess of two million copies. The song charted twice in the sixties. In 1963, Irish singers The Bachelors had a hit with it and then the next year American singers and brother and sister act Nino Tempo and April Stevens had a follow-up hit to Deep Purple with the song. According to AllMusic site, there have been over 700 releases of the song. The Pasadena Roof Orchestra has covered the song on at least one album (The Best of the Pasadena Roof Orchestra in 1973). George Gershwin made a piano roll of his own arrangement (really a set of variations) for solo piano which is currently available on a commercial recording, as is an arrangement for voices and piano by the Comedian Harmonists. Harry Belafonte recorded the song during the first year of his recording career, in December 1949. Also, an excerpt of this was part of the 1976 disco song Cherchez La Femme/Se Si Bon by Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band. Most web searches refer to the title as Whispering/Cherchez La Femme/Se Si bon aside from the “Cherchez …