Oh, Look At Me Now

Music, Joe Bushkin (1916–2004); lyrics, John DeVries, (1915–1992)

Arguably, this is the song that launched a young Frank Sinatra’s career. Joe Bushkin was a jazz pianist who wanted to live to 88, since there were 88 keys on the piano. He did it. This was John DeVries’ first lyric, but he was mainly a visual artist and designed some of the very first LP album covers, as well as the interiors of many jazz clubs, like the Famous Door and Eddie Condon’s on West 54th Street. 

I put this song into a sort of galloping hillbilly rhythm (basically, boom-tiddy boom-tiddy). The first country/pop mash-up I heard was by Jo Stafford, in her persona as “Cinderella G. Stump.” As “Cinderella,” she used Fio Rito’s “Temptation” and it became “Tim-Tay-Shun.” It was one of my primal influences.

For this recording, I hillbilly-ized it like I did “Goldfinger” and “Midnight In Paris” a few years ago.