For today: one of the great classics of American popular song, written by the German exile Kurt Weill (who bridged the concert hall and Broadway), reportedly in a couple of hours for Walter Huston. (Like “Send in the Clowns,” it was adapted to the original singer’s limitations.)
A great song is more than a tune, of course, it’s also lyrics, and playwright Maxwell Anderson (one of Weill’s many brilliant lyricists) catches that bittersweet, backward looking feel of time passing by.
Here’s Sarah Vaughan’s rendition.
A Few Reasonable Words 