You Can Depend on Me is a jazz standard written by Charles Carpenter, Louis Dunlap and Earl Hines. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra in 1931 and released in 1932 on the Columbia label as a 10-inch 78 rpm shellac record - a live version appeared on Armstrong’s 1951 album Satchmo at Pasadena. Do not confuse it with the Smokey Robinson and the Miracles song of the same name from 1959. The tune has been recorded by many artists including Count Basie, Dexter Gordon and Nat King Cole. Brenda Lee released a vocal jazz version as a single in March 1961 from the album Brenda, That’s All, which reached No. 6 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and No. 25 on the Hot R&B Sides chart; it was produced by Owen Bradley and recorded January 1, 1961. The chord changes also inspired Lennie Tristano’s contrafact Wow (1949).
