It's Only a Paper Moon is a popular song published in 1933, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Yip Harburg and Billy Rose. It was originally titled If You Believed in Me and written for the 1932 Broadway play The Great Magoo set in Coney Island, with Claire Carleton first performing it on December 2, 1932. A 1933 hit came from Paul Whiteman on Victor, featuring Bunny Berigan on trumpet and Peggy Healy on vocals, followed soon after by Henry King and His Pierre Hotel Orchestra on Vocalion and another well‑received version by Cliff Edwards. The tune’s lasting fame comes from its WWII era revivals by Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and Benny Goodman, and it has since become a jazz and pop standard recorded by many artists. It has also appeared in culture, such as Blanche DuBois singing it in A Streetcar Named Desire and as a theme in the 1973 film Paper Moon.
