beabadoobee – “It’s Only A Paper Moon” (Ella Fitzgerald Cover)

Jacob Erland

beabadoobee – “It’s Only A Paper Moon” (Ella Fitzgerald Cover)

Jacob Erland

Week by week, Jack Antonoff’s soundtrack for the Apple TV+ series The New Look continues to roll out. Antonoff curated and produced the soundtrack, which features contemporary artists covering the pop songs of the World War II era. We’ve already posted the contributions from Florence + The Machine, the 1975, Lana Del Rey, Perfume Genius, and Nick Cave. Now, we’ve got beabadoobee taking on another old standard.

Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg, and Billy Rose wrote “It’s Only A Paper Moon” for the 1932 Broadway musical The Great Magoo. The play wasn’t a hit, but the song stuck around. June Knight and Charles “Buddy” Rogers sang “It’s Only A Paper Moon” in the 1933 movie Take A Chance, and Paul Whiteman had a hit with the song that same year. People like Nat King Cole, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, and Paul McCartney have also released versions of the song, but the most famous one is the warm, flirty version that Ella Fitzgerald released in 1945.

With her cover, beabadoobee presumably used the Ella Fitzgerald take on “It’s Only A Paper Moon” as a blueprint. Her Jack Antonoff-produced version is softer and slower, but it shoots for that same understated cuteness. Below, listen to the beabadoobee and Ella Fitzgerald versions of the song.

The first season of The New Look is still airing on Apple TV+, and Jack Antonoff’s new Bleachers album is out on Friday.

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