The Best Things in Life Are Free (Ray Henderson song)

"The Best Things in Life Are Free" is a popular song written by the songwriting team of Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown (lyrics) and Ray Henderson (music) for the 1927 musical Good News. It enjoyed a revival during the period from 1947 to 1950, when it was covered by many artists.

Recordings

The vocal group The Ink Spots covered the song in 1948; their version reached #10 on the Billboard U.S. R&B chart.

Dinah Shore also covered the song that same year; her single reached #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

These renditions were followed by Frank Sinatra's and Bing Crosby's, both recorded in 1949, and by Jo Stafford, who recorded the song on the 1950 album Autumn in New York.

Saxophonist Hank Mobley played the song on the 1961 album Workout.

Sam Cooke sang the song on the 1964 live album Sam Cooke at the Copa.

Saxophonist Lou Donaldson played the song on the 1970 live album Fried Buzzard.

In film and television

The song was included in both film adaptations of Good News, in 1930 and 1947; the 1947 film featured the song several times, sung by June Allyson, Mel Tormé, and Peter Lawford.

The film The Best Things in Life Are Free (1956), about DeSylva, Brown and Henderson, was named after the song and featured it.

In an episode of The Muppet Show a group of kleptomaniac prairie dogs sang the song as they looted the set.

The song was sung by Bonnie Bedeila in the 1969 Sydney Pollack film "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"

Robert Morse performed the song in the Mad Men (season 7) episode "Waterloo" (May 25, 2014), in a dream sequence.^[1]

References