[2] The song was possibly written by Rose, but Jolson's popularity as a performer allowed him to claim composer co-credit.

[2] A popular jazz standard, the song has been recorded by many artists, including Cab Calloway (1934), Coleman Hawkins (1935) and Eddie Durham (1936).

The tune's opening melody resembles a part of Giacomo Puccini's aria E lucevan le stelle, from the opera Tosca, but in the major key.

[4] It can also be heard in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)[5] where it is performed by Ann Blyth (dubbed by Gogi Grant) with chorus girls It appears in It's a Wonderful Life ( 1946).

The song is played during the opening credits of Peter Bogdanovich's The Cat's Meow (2001), a film about an ill-fated 1924 voyage along the California coast aboard a yacht belonging to William Randolph Hearst.