Tangerine (1941 song)

"Tangerine" is a popular song. The music was written by Victor Schertzinger, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer.^[1] The song was published in 1941 and soon became a jazz standard.

"Tangerine"
Single by Salsoul Orchestra
from the album The Salsoul Orchestra
B-side	"Salsoul Hustle"
Released	December 1975
Recorded	1975
Studio	Sigma Sound, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[2]
Genre	Disco
Length	2:57 (single version); 4:46 (album version)
Label	Salsoul
Songwriter(s)	Johnny Mercer, Vincent Montana Jr.
Producer(s)	Vincent Montana Jr.
Salsoul Orchestra singles chronology
"Salsoul Hustle" (1975) "Tangerine" (1975) "You're Just the Right Size" (1976)

"Tangerine"
Single by Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra vocals by Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly
Released	January 1942 (1942-01)
Recorded	December 10, 1941 (1941-12-10)
Label	Decca 4123
Composer(s)	Victor Schertzinger
Lyricist(s)	Johnny Mercer
Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra vocals by Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly singles chronology
"Jim" (1941) "Tangerine" (1942)

Background

"Tangerine" was introduced to a broad audience in the 1942 movie The Fleet's In, produced by Paramount Pictures, directed by Schertzinger just before his death, and starring Dorothy Lamour, William Holden, Eddie Bracken, singer Cass Daley, and Betty Hutton in her feature film debut.

The song portrays a South American woman with universally recognized allure: "When she dances by, / Señoritas stare / And caballeros sigh."^[3] As one of Mercer's biographers explained the initial popularity: "Latin America, the one part of the world not engulfed in World War II, became a favorite topic for songs and films for Americans who wanted momentarily to forget about the conflagration."^[4]

Charted recordings

The most popular recorded version of the song was made by the performers who introduced it in the film: the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra with vocalists Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly. The recording was released in January 1942 by Decca Records as catalog number 4123. The record first reached the Billboard charts on April 10, 1942, and it lasted 15 weeks on the chart, including six weeks at #1.^[5] The lyrics in this version differ slightly from those in the movie. On the record, Eberly sings "And I've seen toasts to Tangerine / Raised in every bar across the Argentine,"^[1] the lyric that became standard. In the movie at that point, the line is "And I've seen times when Tangerine / Had the bourgeoisie believing she were queen."

A disco instrumental version by the Salsoul Orchestra brought the song back into the U.S. top 20 in 1976.^[6] It also reached #11 on the US, Easy Listening chart.

Chart performance

The Salsoul Orchestra

Chart (1976)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Easy Listening[7]	11
U.S. Billboard Dance/Disco [8]	6
US Billboard Hot 100[9]	18
US Hot Soul Singles (Billboard)[10]	36

Other notable covers

More than 100 acts have recorded "Tangerine", including such notable artists as: Jimmy Dorsey, Johnny Mercer, Oscar Peterson, Tony Bennett, Dave Brubeck, Herb Alpert, Chet Baker and Paul Desmond, Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins, Jim Hall, Harry Connick Jr., and Benny Goodman

Popular culture

In addition:

• The tune was featured as background music in the films Double Indemnity (1944), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984).
• In 1976, All In the Family gave a nod to the song in the episode "Archie's Operation" when Archie Bunker burst into it repeatedly to interrupt son-in-law Mike's efforts to help pay for Archie's surgery.
• The Pet Milk company used the melody for a 1960s liquid diet product called Sego. The opening line "Tangerine, she is all they say" was replaced by "There she goes, she's a Sego girl."
• The tune later became the jingle for Pillsbury's Figurines, a diet aid, during the 1970s.