"Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" is a popular song published in 1944, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was written for the film Here Come the Waves, directed by Mark Sandrich and starring Bing Crosby and Betty Hutton, and it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 18th Academy Awards in 1945. The song is sung in the style of a sermon. Its original recording was made by Johnny Mercer and The Pied Pipers with Paul Weston's orchestra on October 4, 1944, for Capitol Records. Mercer's record first charted on Billboard on January 4, 1945, stayed there for 13 weeks and peaked at number 2; it also reached number 4 on the Harlem Hit Parade. Mercer's version was added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2015. Within weeks, Bing Crosby with The Andrews Sisters, on Decca, peaked at number 2, and Artie Shaw's band with Imogene Lynn peaked at number 5. Later versions include recordings by Louis Armstrong, Jools Holland, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Ella Fitzgerald and Paul McCartney. It is a jazz standard and part of the Great American Songbook.
