My Foolish Heart (song)

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"My Foolish Heart" is an Academy Award-nominated popular song that was published in 1949.

The music was written by Victor Young and the lyrics by Ned Washington. The song was introduced by the singer Martha Mears in the 1949 film of the same name. The song failed to escape critics' general laceration of the film; Time wrote in its review that "nothing offsets the blight of such tear-splashed excesses as the bloop-bleep-bloop of a sentimental ballad on the sound track."^[1] Nevertheless, the song was nominated for an Oscar, losing out to "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Frank Loesser.

The song was also a popular success, with two recordings of the song listed among the top 30 on the Billboard charts in 1950. Gordon Jenkins's recording of "My Foolish Heart" reached #22 and Billy Eckstine's version reached #28. Later recordings were made of this standard by numerous artists, including Bill Evans, Joe Williams with George Shearing, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, Carmen McRae, Astrud Gilberto and Mel Tormé. More recently, "My Foolish Heart" has been covered by pianists Liz Story and Keith Jarrett, guitarists John McLaughlin and John Abercrombie, Charlie Haden's Quartet West, singers Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau, Jane Monheit and Ann Hampton Callaway, and a capella quartet The Idea of North.

The song also featured in "The Body in the Library," an episode of the television series Marple.

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