“That Old Black Magic” is a 1942 popular song written by Harold Arlen (music), with the lyrics by Johnny Mercer. They wrote it for the 1942 film Star Spangled Rhythm, when it was sung by Johnny Johnston and danced by Vera Zorina. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1943 but lost out to “You’ll Never Know”.
It was first recorded by Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra on July 9, 1942. Shortly thereafter, on July 26, 1942, Judy Garland recorded her own version, which was released as a single in January 1943 – just after the movie’s release on December 30, 1942. Five other recordings (also made in 1942) were released as singles within the next two weeks.
The song was published in 1942 and has become an often-recorded standard, with versions that include the original single release by Glenn Miller, by the singers Margaret Whiting, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Mercer himself, and others. Mercer wrote the lyrics with Judy Garland in mind. Garland recorded the song for Decca Records in 1942. Mercer recalled wanting to write a song about magic, and while composing, asking Arlen to write more music so the song could go on longer, but that they still wrote the whole song in about three hours. Billy Daniels recorded the song in 1949 and it became his trademark recording.
Song lesson list
I’ve made lessons for literally hundreds of songs for students over the years- all different types of music, different genres and differing levels of complexity. Check out the song list page linked above and see if there’s something there you’d like to cover. Many of them have a combination of chord and lyric sheets, lead sheets, video lessons and style examples. If you’re interested in a song you don’t see, let me know!