Nelson Riddle Plays “I Get Along Without You Very Well”

Master composer and lyricist Hoagy Carmichael wrote "I Get Along Without You Very Well" as a stand alone song in 1939, quickly establishing itself as one of the best remembered pop songs of its time. Bill Miller, Frank Sinatra's longtime pianist and music director, begins Riddle's chart with a perfectly poised piano performance which leads into a the statement of main melodic theme by flutes and muted brass on a lightly swinging beat with sighing strings and the ever familiar heart beat rhythm and a softly sensual tenor sax of Babe Russin. "Sweets" Edison is heard from next with his well remembered fillers between the sax section work and brilliant brass interjections. John Cave next plays a brief French Horn filler that puckishly leads into a hard driving swing on the brass with babe Russin coming in with some fillers in his own style. Bill Miller gets the chance to provide some great intervals on piano before there is a quietly diminished decrescendo that leads into a quiet dissolve.