Autumn Leaves (1945 song)

[1][2] Kosma was a native of Hungary who was introduced to Prévert in Paris, and they collaborated on the song "Les Feuilles mortes".

[3] The song has its origin in the ballet music written by Kosma for Le Rendez-vous by Roland Petit, performed in Paris at the end of the Second World War.

[8] The most successful commercial recording of "Les Feuilles mortes" was by Yves Montand (Columbia) in 1949, which sold a million copies within 5 years.

Williams released an album The Boy Next Door, which failed to make an impact, and then the song "Autumn Leaves".

[13] Williams played the tune with descending arpeggios its dominant feature, backed by an orchestra conducted by Glenn Osser.

[17] The song was recorded steadily throughout the 1950s by leading pop vocalists including Steve Conway (1950),[20] Bing Crosby (1950), Nat King Cole (included in the 1955 album re-release of Nat King Cole Sings for Two in Love, and used in the 1956 film Autumn Leaves whose title was inspired by the song), Doris Day (1956), and Frank Sinatra (1957).

[3] Following the success of Roger Williams' version of the tune, competing pop versions were released late in 1955 by Steve Allen, the Ray Charles Singers, Jackie Gleason, Mitch Miller, and Victor Young, with only Allen's reaching the Billboard Top 40.

The song was also quickly adopted by many instrumental jazz artists, including Artie Shaw (1950); Stan Getz (1952); Cal Tjader in his 1954 album "Mambo with Tjader" with Cal Tjader's Modern Mambo Quintet;[22] Ahmad Jamal (1955); Erroll Garner in his 1955 album Concert by the Sea, Duke Ellington (1957, Ellington Indigos); Cannonball Adderley in his 1958 album Somethin' Else featuring Miles Davis who also recorded it live for Miles Davis in Europe in 1964; Vince Guaraldi (1958); Bill Evans (1959, Portrait in Jazz); John Coltrane (1962); and Ryo Fukui (1976).

A few jazz vocalists have also recorded the song, including Sarah Vaughan in her 1982 album Crazy and Mixed Up.

[3] Composer Terry Riley has written a contrafact of the song (1965), using the same principle of small repetitive cells of melody and rhythm first put in use in his breakthrough piece, In C (1964).