“One For My Baby (and One More for the Road)” – music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer.

“One For My Baby,” one of my favorite Arlen/Mercer tunes because of its bluesy flavor, was written for the 1943 film The Sky's The Limit, in which the song is premiered by Fred Astair.

Frank Sinatra popularized the song, recording many times. He first recorded it in 1947 for Columbia Records, then in '54 for the film Young At Heart, in '58 for the Capitol album Sinatra Sings Only for the Lonely, again on Live in Paris in '62, Live at the Sands in '66, and lastly Duets in 1993.

(From Wikipedia:) Harold Arlen described the song as "another typical Arlen tapeworm" – a "tapeworm" being the trade slang for any song which went over the conventional 32 bar length. He called it "a wandering song. [Lyricist] Johnny [Mercer] took it and wrote it exactly the way it fell. Not only is it long – forty-eight bars – but it also changes key. Johnny made it work."

The song was used in many films and television shows, including The Twilight Zone, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Meet McGraw (as theme song), plus the films The Shining, Good Night and Good Luck, Ishtar, Roadhouse, and Macao.

Bette Midler sang the song to Johnny Carson on Johnny's last show on television on May 21, 1992, changing the lyric to “and John, I know you're getting anxious to close.” There are hundreds of covers recordings of “One for My Baby.” Here are some of the many artists who have recorded the song: Billie Holiday, Chuck Berry, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Lou Rawls, Lena Horne, Marvin Gaye, Chris Botti, Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino, Willie Nelson, Iggy Pop, Hugh Laurie, Toots Thielemans with Jaime Cullum, and of course Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen each recorded their own versions.

Hear my version on Youtube: https://youtu.be/PRDovCJaTvo