Speak Low
"Speak Low" (1943) is a popular song composed by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Ogden Nash. It was introduced by Mary Martin and Kenny Baker in the Broadway musical One Touch of Venus (1943). The 1944 hit single was by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra, with vocal by Billy Leach. Barbra Streisand recorded a David Foster arrangement of "Speak Low" for her 1993 album, Back to Broadway [1] The tune is a jazz standard that has been widely recorded, both by vocal artists from Billie Holiday to The Miracles to Dee Dee Bridgewater, and such instrumentalists as Bill Evans, Roy Hargrove, Woody Shaw and Brian Bromberg. Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded this in 1983 (on CD Speak Love). Al Caiola's 1961 version reached #105 on Cashbox magazine's "Looking Ahead" survey.
The opening line is a (slight mis)quotation from William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1600), where it is spoken by Don Pedro.