The Story Behind The Song
Lou Levy who owned Leeds Music was an old friend who had published a few of my songs. He called me into his office one day in 1939 and asked me to listen to a melody for which he wanted me to write the lyrics. I liked a lot of the tune and asked him who was the composer? He told me it was Arthur Altman with whom I had written my first published song, "Play Fiddle Play." We wrote quite a number of songs when we were both struggling for recognition, but we had had a falling out over some minor incident. Therefore, Lou had hesitated to tell me who the composer was. I told Lou that I liked the melody — with some reservations. I agreed to write lyrics if I had carte blanche in making any musical changes that occurred to me.
The changes I made were required by the words I dreamed up and the finished song was "All Or Nothing At All." Both Lou and Arthur approved the final product and in short order Lou managed to get three recordings: Jimmy Dorsey with a vocal by Bob Eberly, Freddy Martin, and Harry James with his new vocalist Frank Sinatra. We were all very excited by the James record and his vocalist's stunning rendition, but although our hopes were high, all three records bombed.
Fade out to four years later — 1943. An infectious mania named Frank Sinatra swept through the teenagers of America. Overnight everyone was clamoring to see and hear this new sensation. The police had to control hordes of screaming little bobby-soxers outside and inside the Paramount Theater where Frank was appearing. Columbia Records signed him up immediately, intending to rush his records to the market. But a terrible calamity! Local 802, the Federation of Musicians, had pulled a strike against the record companies for more money and certain benefits.
All the record companies but particularly Columbia were panicked. They tried recordings with a capella groups, with harmonica accompaniment, with kazoos! But nothing worked or satisfied the public. Here was Columbia with the biggest sensation since Crosby and they couldn't cash in on it. But wily Lou Levy came up with a great idea; he convinced Manny Sachs, head of Columbia, to dig up the '39 recording of "All Or Nothing At All." When they listened to it they realized that it was practically a solo by Sinatra so they rushed the record out. The original label read "Harry James Orchestra" in large print and in much smaller print "vocal by Frank Sinatra." Now this new reissue read in large print "FRANK SINATRA" and in smaller type "accompanied by Harry James Orchestra." Overnight we had a hit of major proportions.
In 1944 when Frank was riding the crest, he told Louella Parsons in an interview that "All Or Nothing At All" was the song that gave Harry James and himself their walking papers out of the old Victor Hugo Cafe on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. "The manager came up and waved his hands for us to stop. He said Harry's trumpet playing was too loud for the joint and my singing was just plain lousy. He said the two of us couldn't draw flies as an attraction — and I guess he was right. The room was as empty as a barn. It's a funny thing about that song. The recording we made of it five years ago is now in one of the top spots among the best sellers. But it's the same old recording. It's also the song I used to audition for Tommy Dorsey who signed me on the strength of it. And now it's my first big record."
Well, thank you for those kind words, Frank, and thank you for recording this song in different arrangements through the years. It only goes to show how strange is the music business. Everybody is a maven and nobody can predict.
