In the Great American Songbook, you’ll find songs written about some expected topics: love, youth, beauty, spring. Other common tropes however are a bit unexpected, like for instance, walking. Taking a walk might seem like a simple task … pedestrian, even. But a walk can also be an important time of reflection—or connection, if you’re sharing it with someone else. It’s also the perfect time for a song to be twirling around inside your head.
This hour, we’re taking a stroll with the walking songs of the Great American Songbook, including “I Walk A Little Faster,” “Would You Like To Take A Walk,” and “Love Walked In.”
Walking songs featured on this program:
- Tony Bennett – I Walk A Little Faster (Coleman/Leigh)
- Buddy Clark and His Orchestra, feat. Pee Wee Russell – I Walk With Music (Carmichael/Mercer)
- Hoagy Carmichael – Walk It Off (Carmichael)
- Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – Would You Like To Take A Walk? (Warren/Dixon/Rose)
- Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney – Let’s Take A Walk Around The Block (Arlen/Harburg/Gershwin)
- Nat King Cole – Walkin’ My Baby Back Home (Ahlert/Turk)
- Ella Fitzgerald – When My Sugar Walks Down The Street (McHugh/Austin/Mills)
- Carmen McRae – Walking Happy (Van Heusen/Cahn)
- Billie Holiday – On The Sunny Side Of The Street (McHugh/Fields)
- Thelonious Monk – In Walked Bud (Monk)
- Patsy Cline – Walkin’ After Midnight [Excerpt] (Block/Hecht)
- Nancy Sinatra – These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ [Excerpt] (Hazelwood)
- Bobby Troup – Walkin’ Shoes (Mulligan/Troup)
- Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers – My Walking Stick (Berlin)
- Sarah Vaughan – Love Walked In (Gershwin/Gershwin)
- Jeri Southern – You Walked Out (Craig/Baker)
- Lee Wiley with Billy Butterfield and his Orchestra – I Don’t Want To Walk Without You (Loesser/Styne)
- Louis Armstrong – I’ll Walk Alone (Styne/Cahn)
- Frank Sinatra – You’ll Never Walk Alone (Rodgers/Hammerstein)