The song reached the peak of its chart success in 1968 when it was covered by Cass Elliot with The Mamas and the Papas and later that same year by Anita Harris. It was a top-song on the UK Singles Chart for one week in both cases. It was also popular in other European countries where it peaked at #9 in Germany and #21 in Switzerland.
The lyrics were written by Gus Kahn with music by Fabian Andre and Wilber Schwandt. The two wrote the music during a break at a gig in Paw Paw, Michigan or Milwaukee, Wisconsin according to Schwandt, but there is confusion about when Andre wrote the melody.Purchasing dream a little dream of me from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?The set contains live performances from a Bing Crosby radio show, two numbers recorded at a jazz concert and even some outtakes. All of it is a testament to the fact that Fitzgerald was a great singer and pianist who could take songs that were well outside her comfort zone and make them work.Old jazz standards often make great lullabies. They are written in a more innocent time and so don’t have the potential for inappropriate language. And their melodic sophistication and subtle wordplay balance out all that old-timey earnestness. It’s no wonder that the likes of Louis Armstrong and Doris Day made records of them. In Jim Henson’s Muppet*Vision 3D, Miss Piggy sings a version as a lullaby to the character of Allie played by Katie Sagona. It was also used in the 2010 Jude Law movie Repo Men where it was sung by the character Victor Creel as a means of regaining a grip on reality.
ella fitzgerald dream a little dream of me