# Midnight Sun (Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke song)

"Midnight Sun" was originally an instrumental composed by Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke in 1947 and is now considered a jazz standard. Subsequently, Johnny Mercer wrote the words to the song.

## First recording

"Midnight Sun" was first recorded by Lionel Hampton himself and his orchestra in a Los Angeles studio on November 10, 1947, with solos by Hampton and trumpeter Wendell Culley (Decca Matrix L 4546). First releases on the Decca label were on the B-side of 10-inch shellack singles, where the song was coupled with either "Blow-Top Blues", composed by Leonard Feather and played by the Hampton Sextet with "lovely" vocals by Sarah Vaughan (Decca 28059), or "Three Minutes on 52nd Street", another Hampton original recorded with the orchestra (Decca 28059 and Brunswick 03780 in the UK).

## The lyrics

According to Philip Furia, Johnny Mercer was driving along the freeway from Palm Springs to Hollywood, California, when he heard the instrumental on his car radio and started to set words to the song as he drove. The lyrics were first recorded by June Christy for her 1954 album Something Cool. One famous recording of the song with the Mercer lyrics is by Ella Fitzgerald on her album Like Someone in Love from 1957. Fitzgerald recorded the song again in 1964 for her album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook and once more in 1978. "Midnight Sun" also became part of the repertoire of Carmen McRae after she recorded it first in 1955. Tribute albums to both singers by following jazz vocalists such as Dee Dee Bridgewater or Vanessa Rubin included the song associated with them, and Natalie Cole also sang the song in a tribute show called "We Love Ella" at the University of Southern California's Galen Center in 2007.

## Recordings

"V" indicates vocal recordings with the lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Other entries are instrumental interpretations of the composition.
| Date | Artist | Album | V | Notes |
| 1947 | Lionel Hampton Orchestra | single (Decca L 4546) | | first recording of the song; reissued in 1948 on New Movements in Be-Bop |
| 1952 | Coleman Hawkins | single (various 7-inch and 10-inch) | | with Orchestra arranged and conducted by Danny Mendelsohn; album release 1958 on The Hawk Talks |
| 1953 | Les Brown and His Band of Renown | single | | arranged by Frank Comstock |
| 1953 | Les Brown and His Band of Renown | Concert at the Palladium (Vol. 2) | | live recording of the Comstock arrangement, released as 7-inch EP and various LP editions |
| 1953 | Page Cavanaugh Trio | single | | |
| 1954 | June Christy | Something Cool | v | first vocal recording of the song, with orchestra led by Pete Rugolo. The initial mono 10-inch was entirely re-recorded in stereo in 1960. |
| 1954 | Harry James | Dancing in Person with Harry James at the Hollywood Palladium | | arrangement by Neal Hefti |
| 1955 | Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra | Apollo Hall Concert 1954 | | |
| 1955 | Lionel Hampton | single | | featuring Buddy Rich on drums, released on Clef, 1963 album release Here's Gates |
| 1955 | Barney Kessel | Vol. 3: To Swing or Not to Swing | | |
| 1955 | Carmen McRae | Torchy! | v | with orchestra arranged and conducted by Ralph Burns |
| 1955 | Bobby Troup | The Songs of Bobby Troup | v | |
| 1956 | Bob Dorough | Devil May Care | v | |
| 1956 | Jimmy Smith | A New Sound... A New Star... | | |
| 1957 | Ella Fitzgerald | Like Someone in Love | v | |
| 1957 | Art Pepper, Bob Cooper et al. | Showcase for Modern Jazz | | originally credited to guitarist Howard Lucraft who directed the session |
| 1958 | Duke Ellington's Spacemen | The Cosmic Scene | | The melody is played by the horn section with soloing by Clark Terry and Jimmy Hamilton |
| 1958 | Teddy Charles and His Sextet | Salute to Hamp (Flyin' Home) | | with Bob Brookmeyer, Zoot Sims and Art Farmer. |
| 1958 | Julie London | Julie | v | with Jimmy Rowles and His Orchestra |
| 1959 | Maxwell Davis with Members of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra | Compositions of Lionel Hampton and Others... | | also released as The Stereophonic Sound of Lionel Hampton by the Members of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra |
| 1959 | Larry Elgart | Larry Elgart and His Orchestra | | |
| 1960 | June Christy | Road Show | v | |
| 1960 | Lou Donaldson | Midnight Sun | | first released 1980 |
| 1960 | Stan Kenton and His Orchestra | Road Show | | |
| 1960 | Jo Stafford | Jo + Jazz | | |
| 1962 | Tito Puente | The Exciting Tito Puente Band in Hollywood | | Latin version with Puente playing vibraphone |
| 1963 | Jackie Gleason | Today's Romantic Hits | | |
| 1963 | Brother Jack McDuff | The Midnight Sun | | first released in 1968 |
| 1963 | Sarah Vaughan | Sarah Sings Soulfully | v | with a quartet arranged by Gerald Wilson |
| 1964 | Ella Fitzgerald | Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook | v | |
| 1964 | The Four Freshmen | More 4 Freshmen and 5 Trombones | | |
| 1965 | Arthur Lyman | Call of the Midnight Sun | | |
| 1966 | Lou Donaldson | Musty Rusty | | |
| 1966 | Lionel Hampton | Hamp in Japan / Live | | with his orchestra |
| 1967 | Nancy Wilson | Lush Life | v | |
| 1968 | Carmen McRae | "Live" & Wailing | v | |
| 1969 | Willie Mitchell | The Many Moods of Willie Mitchell | | |
| 1972 | Tony Bennett | The Good Things in Life | v | |
| 1975 | Ella Fitzgerald & Oscar Peterson | Ella and Oscar | v | |
| 1978 | Sarah Vaughan | How Long Has This Been Going On? | v | |
| 1980 | Lionel Hampton | Live in Europe | | |
| 1984 | Mark Murphy | Living Room | v | |
| 1985 | Ahmad Jamal | Digital Works | | |
| 1986 | Chuck Brown | Go Go Swing Live | v | |
| 1986 | June Christy | A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening | v | |
| 1987 | Kate Ceberano | Kate Ceberano and her Septet | v | |
| 1987 | Mel Tormé and George Shearing | A Vintage Year | v | |
| 1988 | Flora Purim | Midnight Sun | v | |
| 1994 | Vanessa Rubin | I'm Glad There Is You - A Tribute to Carmen McRae | v | |
| 1997 | Dee Dee Bridgewater | Dear Ella | v | |
| 1998 | Dee Dee Bridgewater | Live at Yoshi's | v | |
| 1998 | Abbey Lincoln | Wholly Earth | v | |
| 2001 | Rebecca Martin | Middlehope | v | |
| 2001 | Diane Schuur and Maynard Ferguson | Swingin' for Schuur | v | |
| 2002 | Cæcilie Norby | First Conversation | v | |
| 2003 | Holly Cole | Shade | v | |
| 2004 | Al Jarreau | Accentuate the Positive | v | arranged by Larry Williams featuring Tollak Ollestad on harmonica |
| 2005 | Renée Fleming | Haunted Heart | v | |
| 2005 | Hugh Masekela | Almost Like Being in Jazz | | |
| 2007 | Elizabeth Shepherd | Besides | v | |
| 2007 | Natalie Cole | We Love Ella! A Tribute to the First Lady of Song | v | tribute show with an orchestra directed by co-host Quincy Jones, released on DVD |
| 2008 | Paul Motian Trio 2000 + Two | On Broadway Volume 5 | | |
| 2008 | Dianne Reeves | When You Know | v | |
| 2009 | Quincy Jones featuring Al Jarreau | The 75th Birthday Celebration | v | |
| 2010 | Esperanza Spalding | Chamber Music Society | v | a solo interpretation, only as a bonus track on the Japanese release. She already played the song at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2008. |
| 2013 | Ellery Eskelin | Trio New York II | | with organist Gary Versace and Gerald Cleaver on drums |
| 2016 | Bria Skonberg | Bria | v | |
| 2019 | Krystyna Stańko | Aquarius - The Orchestral Session | v | orchestrated and directed by Krzysztof Herdzin featuring violinist Mateusz Smoczyński |
| 2021 | Julius Rodriguez | Midnight Sun - EP | | |