Body and Soul is a jazz standard written in 1930 with music by Johnny Green and lyrics by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour and Frank Eyton. It was written in New York for the British actress Gertrude Lawrence, who introduced it to London audiences, and was first performed in the United States by Libby Holman in the 1930 Broadway revue Three’s a Crowd. Louis Armstrong made the first jazz recording in October 1930, while Paul Whiteman and Jack Fulton helped popularize it in the United States; it would become one of the most recorded jazz standards. The tune is usually in D flat major and follows a 32-bar AABA form with a distinctive bridge that shifts tonal centers, making it a challenging yet flexible piece for improvisation. Notable recordings include Coleman Hawkins in 1939, Frank Sinatra with Bobby Hackett in 1947, and the Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse duet in 2011, the latter benefiting the Amy Winehouse Foundation; the song also features as the musical theme in the 1947 film Body and Soul.
