You Go to My Head

"You Go to My Head" is a 1938 popular song composed by J. Fred Coots with lyrics by Haven Gillespie.

The song starts in a major key, but from the second bar onward, Mr. Coots seems intent on creating a feverish dream quality tending more to the minor mode.

The piece would be noteworthy even if it lacked such an exquisite coda, but those last eight bars convey a sense of resigned closure to the song that fittingly matches the resolution of the lyrics.” [3] Gillespie's lyrics begin: "You go to my head and you linger like a haunting refrain".

[4] It inspired an answer song, "You Went To My Head" (by Joseph Meyer, Bob Emmerich, and Buddy Bernier) that was recorded by Fats Waller on March 11, 1938, and again by Duke Ellington (featuring a vocal by Ivie Anderson) on April 17, 1938.

The song was later recorded in 1938 by Teddy Wilson with a vocal by Nan Wynn, by Billie Holiday,[5] and by Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra.