The Nearness of You is a classic American song written in 1937 by Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics by Ned Washington. It was originally intended for a Paramount film called Romance In The Rough, but it was published in 1940 by Famous Music. The first recording was by Chick Bullock and his Orchestra in 1940, and the best known early version was by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra with Ray Eberle on vocals, recorded April 28, 1940 and released on Bluebird. This Glenn Miller recording reached No. 5 on Billboard's Best Seller chart and helped establish the tune as a jazz standard. Over the decades it has been covered by many artists including Dinah Shore, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on the 1956 album Ella and Louis, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and Norah Jones who included it on the Grammy winning Come Away with Me. The song remains a popular jazz ballad in the pop and jazz repertoire.
