Things Ain't What They Used to Be is a 1942 jazz standard with music by Mercer Ellington and lyrics by Ted Persons. Original artist: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, with Johnny Hodges as a leading soloist, though Mercer Ellington is credited as the composer because of the ASCAP strike in 1941. The tune is usually performed as an instrumental 12-bar blues and Hodges first recorded it with Ellington in 1941; a 1942 Charlie Barnet version helped popularize it. It appears on Duke Ellington's Piano Reflections (1953) and has been recorded by many artists including Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, Oscar Peterson, and Ella Fitzgerald. The piece linked with Duke Ellington's film Cabin in the Sky (1943) and has served as a recognizable closing theme in The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
