How High the Moon
original show tune composed by Morgan Lewis, lyrics by Nancy Hamilton; from the 1940 musical revue "Two for the Show"
"How High the Moon" is a jazz standard with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. It was first featured in the 1940 Broadway revue Two for the Show, where it was sung by Alfred Drake and Frances Comstock.
Recordings
The earliest recorded hit version was by Benny Goodman & His Orchestra, featuring vocalist Helen Forrest. It was recorded on February 7, 1940, and released by Columbia Records as catalog number 35391, with the flip side "Fable of the Rose". The Les Paul Trio recorded a version released as V-Disc 540B with a spoken introduction which was issued in November 1945 by the U.S. War Department. In 1948, bandleader Stan Kenton enjoyed some success with his version of the tune. The recording, with a vocal by June Christy, was released by Capitol Records as catalog number 911 (with the flip side "Willow, Weep for Me") and 15117 (with the flip side "Interlude"). It reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on July 9, 1948, its only week on the chart, at #27.
A recording of the song by Les Paul and Mary Ford was made on January 4, 1951, in their apartment's home studio in Jackson Heights, Queens. This version featured Paul on all guitars (lead, rhythm, muted strings for guitar percussion, and a bass line played on guitar).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “How High the Moon” is original show tune composed by Morgan Lewis, lyrics by Nancy Hamilton; from the 1940 musical revue "Two for the Show". The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through High, Moon and original, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1631676. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940, 1945, 1948 and 1951.
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This entry incorporates text from “How High the Moon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.