Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1923 - January 2, 1977) (some sources say 1921) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard. Scott Yanow of Allmusic calls him "one of the most distinctive of all pianists" and a "brilliant virtuoso". He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6363 Hollywood Blvd.
Born with his twin brother Ernest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to an African American family on June 15, 1923, Erroll began playing piano at the age of three. His elder siblings were taught piano by Miss Bowman. From an early age Erroll would sit down and play anything she'd demonstrated, just like Miss Bowman, his eldest sister Martha said. He attended George Westinghouse High School, as did fellow pianists Billy Strayhorn and Ahmad Jamal. Garner was self-taught and remained an "ear player" all his life – he never learned to read music. At the age of seven, he began appearing on the radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh with a group called the Candy Kids. By the age of 11, he was playing on the Allegheny riverboats. At 14 in 1937, he joined local saxophonist Leroy Brown.
"I Surrender Dear" is a song composed by Harry Barris with lyrics by Gordon Clifford. It was first performed by Bing Crosby and became his first solo hit. It has been covered by a large number of artists, making it a jazz and pop standard. The first jazz vocalist to record the song was Louis Armstrong in 1931.
The song is referenced in the 1949 war film Battleground, which depicts the hardships of American troops attempting to hold the town of Bastogne in late December, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge. German radio is heard broadcasting the song to the entrenched American troops to demoralize them. This psychological warfare is shown to have the opposite effect on the GIs, who hum along (to the old chestnut), but prefer to hear real American radio.
"I Surrender Dear" inspired two motion pictures bearing that title: a 1931 Bing Crosby musical short produced by Mack Sennett, and a 1948 feature film starring one of Crosby's co-stars, singer Gloria Jean.
Cole Porter
Like the beat beat beat of the tom-tom
When the jungle shadows fall,
Like the tick tick tock of the stately clock
As it stands against the wall,
Like the drip drip drip of the raindrops
When the sum'r show'r is through,
So a voice within me keeps repeating
You-You-You
Night and day you are the one,
Only you beneath the moon and sun,
Whether near me or far
It's no matter, darling, where you are,
I think of you, night and day.
Day and night, why is it so
That this longing for you follows wherever I go?
In the roaring traffic's boom,
In the silence of my lonely room,
I think of you, night and day.
Night and day under the hide of me
There's an, oh, such a hungry yearning
Burning inside of me,
And its torment won't be through
Till you let me spent my life making love to you
Day and night, night and day.