In 1954, when he began to write the song that became "Fly Me to the Moon", Bart Howard had been pursuing a career in music for over 20 years, Howard wrote the song for his partner of 58 years, Thomas Fowler.[2] He played piano to accompany cabaret singers, but also wrote songs with Cole Porter, his idol, in mind.[3]
In response to a publisher's request for a simpler song,[4] Bart Howard wrote a cabaret ballad[5] which he titled "In Other Words". A publisher tried to make him change some words from "fly me to the Moon" to "take me to the Moon," but Howard refused.[6] Many years later Howard commented that "... it took me 20 years to find out how to write a song in 20 minutes."[6]
He used his position as a piano accompanist and presenter at the Blue Angel cabaret venue to promote the song,[4] and it was soon introduced in cabaret performances by Felicia Sanders.[3]
Kaye Ballard made the song's first[8] commercial recording, released by Decca in April 1954.[9] A brief review published on May 8, 1954, in Billboard said that "In Other Words" was "...a love song sung with feeling by Miss Ballard."[10] This recording was released as the flipside of "Lazy Afternoon", which Kaye Ballard was currently performing as star of the stage show The Golden Apple.[11]
In 1960, Peggy Lee released the song on the album Pretty Eyes,[18] then made it more popular when she performed it in front of a large television audience on The Ed Sullivan Show.[3] As the song's popularity increased, it became better known as "Fly Me to the Moon",[19] and in 1963 Peggy Lee convinced Bart Howard to make the name change official.[6]Connie Francis released two non-English versions of the song in 1963: in Italian as "Portami Con Te"[20] and in Spanish as "Llévame a la Luna".[21]
Fly Me to the Moon Bossa Nova 1963 album by Joe Harnell
Julie London included a cover of the song for her 1963 album The End of the World.[32]Paul Anka released a version of "Fly Me To The Moon" in 1963, appearing in his album Our Man Around the World.[33]
Frank Sinatra included the song on his 1964 album It Might as Well Be Swing, accompanied by Count Basie.[34] The music for this album was arranged by Quincy Jones,[34][35] who had worked with Count Basie a year earlier on the album This Time by Basie, which also included a version of "Fly Me to the Moon".[36]Will Friedwald commented that "Jones boosted the tempo and put it into an even four/four" for Basie's version, but "when Sinatra decided to address it with the Basie/Jones combination they recharged it into a straight swinger... [which]...all but explodes with energy".[5] Bart Howard estimated that by the time Frank Sinatra covered the song in 1964, more than 100 other versions had been recorded.[5]
By 1995, the song had been recorded more than 300 times.[11] According to a poll conducted by Japanese music magazine CD&DL Data in 2016 about the most representative songs associated with the Moon, the cover versions by Claire Littley and Yoko Takahashi ranked 7th by 6,203 respondents.[39] The Claire cover version won the Planning Award of Heisei Anisong Grand Prize among the anime theme songs from 1989 to 1999, following its appearance in the end credits of Neon Genesis Evangelion.[40]
Frank Sinatra's 1964 recording of "Fly Me to the Moon" became closely associated with NASA's Apollo space program. A copy of the song was played on a Sony TC-50 portable cassette player on the Apollo 10 mission which orbited the Moon,[41] and also on Apollo 11 before the first landing on the Moon.[42][43] The song's association with Apollo 11 was reprised many years later when Diana Krall sang it at the mission's 40th anniversary commemoration ceremony,[44] and also for mission commander Neil Armstrong's memorial service in 2012.[45]
The Sinatra version was also used in the 2000 NASA related fictional film Space Cowboys.
