Indian Summer is an American jazz standard that began as a 1919 piano piece by Victor Herbert, originally titled An American Idyll. Lyrics by Al Dubin were added in 1939, and that same year Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra released the first vocal version with Jack Leonard, a hit that topped the Billboard chart. A Glenn Miller arrangement followed in 1940, and Sidney Bechet issued one of the early jazz takes the same year. The tune is known for its 32-bar form, often described as A-B-A-C, and for bearing no European imprint, helping it become a flexible vehicle for players from Coleman Hawkins to Paul Desmond and for vocalists like Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra with Duke Ellington on the 1968 Francis A. & Edward K. album, and Tony Bennett. Since then it has been recorded countless times in both instrumental and vocal versions, across many albums and live performances.
