Video Credit: Frank Sinatra
A whimsical piece about the Chinese Mid Autumn festival. “Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars”
This beautiful song was written in 20 minutes by Bart Howard, a jazz pianist, in 1954. It was originally written as a slow waltz & titled “In Other Words”. Although many singers recorded it, it wasn’t until Peggy Lee sang it during her appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1960 that it became popular. In 1963 Peggy Lee convinced Howard to change the title to “Fly Me to the Moon”.
In 1962 Joe Harnell arranged and recorded an instrumental version of the song in bossa nova style which spent 13 weeks on Billboard’s “Hot 100” list. In 1964 Quincy Jones arranged the song for the album “It Might as Well Be Swing” (Frank Sinatra and Count Basie’s Band), quicken the tempo and that has been the standard for the song ever since. This song became closely associated with NASA’s Apollo Space program and became the first music heard on the Moon when Buzz Aldrin played it on a portable cassette player after he stepped onto the Moon.
Even though Bart said that the song just flowed out naturally from him, I would like to believe that he was inspired after biting into a mooncake that was given to him during mid-Autumn festival. Think I’m pulling your leg ? Read on & see if you agree...
A long long long time ago, lived a Chinese lady called Chang Er, a purported rabbit lover. Chang Er has a hubby named Hou Yi. For some bizarre reason, Hou Yi decided to shoot down nine Suns & instead of being punished, he was instead rewarded with an elixir of immortality presented by none other than the Queen Mother Of The West. (don’t mistaken her for Queen Elizabeth yah...)
Turns out Hou Yi was a slacker. He put off taking the elixir immediately. He was also a lazy bum and decided to pass the security guard job to Chang Er to look after the precious elixir.
Hou Yi was also a failure at being a kung fu master, taking on a disciple Pang Meng who turned out to be an ingrate. Knowing that the elixir was with Chang Er, Pang Meng schemed to get his hands on it.
The opportunity arised when Hou Yi decided to go hunting with all his students. Feigning illness, Pang Meng stayed behind. Actually the legend is not clear if Pang Meng wanted Chang Er or the elixir, but turns out during the struggle. Chang Er swallowed the elixir - Maybe she needed the empty elixir bottle to throw at Pang Meng.
Lo & behold Chang Er felt herself growing lighter and lighter & flying upwards towards Heaven. But I guess she still loved her hubby. So, she opted to stay on the moon instead so that her hubby can still see her. The lady knows that a lady cannot be out of the sight of her guy, else it will be out of his mind pretty soon.
Likewise she knows the adage that ‘distance makes the heart grow fonder’. Ah such a tortuous time for Hou Yi, to see but yet not to touch. I guess good news is they do get to meet once a year where Hou Yi get to eat Chang Er’s mooncakes.
That’s how the story goes...
So Bart must have been inspired when he ate mooncake, remembered the above story and quickly penned the song in 20mins, the time he took to finish eating the mooncake.
If you don’t believe my yarn, the Americans sure do. This snippet of conversation was actually recorded between Houston Capcom & the Apollo 11 crew just before the first Moon landing in 1969:
CAPCOM: Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, is one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-O has been living there for 4,000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not reported.
APOLLO11: Okay. We'll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl !!!
