“Some of These Days”

Abstract

This chapter focuses on “Some of These Days” (1910), an American songwriting landmark. Its accepted origin story is refuted. In an example of collective innovation, performer-composer-lyricist Shelton Brooks (a Canadian Native American and African American) borrowed his initial motif and words from “Some o’ Dese Days” (1905), by Frank Williams.The lifelong theme of Sophie Tucker, the song is a jazz standard, notably revived by Bobby Darin. It contributed to the evolution of the genre by depicting internal conflict. Analysis of its elements reveals the piece’s complexity; this is also explored in a reception study. Print and performance tradition variants are detailed. Both in Jean-Paul Sartre’s novel Nausea and in movies (Rose-Marie; Only Angels Have Wings; All That Jazz; Beyond the Sea), it is imbued with symbolic importance, explored further in a conclusion drawing on poetry and philosophy.