The Philosophy of Modern Song: It’s all in the game

Posted on May 5, 2026 by Tony Attwood

By Tony Attwood

One of the many great things about Bob’s book, “The Philosophy of Modern Song,” is the astonishing variety of the songs that he chose, and the fact that so many of them have utterly amazing and fascinating stories associated with the origins of song.

And surely few stories are as varied as the history of “It’s all in the game,” which I think moves from the “really unusual” category to the decidedly odd.  For the fact is that the music and the lyrics were written some 40 years apart!

But just in case you don’t like my rambles that try to portray the history of a song, and feel like skipping to the song itself I’m going to put my favourite version of the song first, and then go backwards.  This is from 1987.

So now we can move backwards, and hee we find the music was written in 1911 and published in 1912 as “Melody in A Major.”    Then, after almost 40 years, the lyrics were added, that being in 1951.   But even then, the version that became the best known hit version of the song, was not released for another seven years.   It was recorded by Tommy Edwards in 1958.

So let’s go back to the start and one of the original recordings of the song – I have seen this noted as being recorded in 1921.

Of course, over time, the song has changed according to the wishes of those making the recordings.   This is the Louis Armstrong recording from 1958….

By 1958, the idea of stereo recordings were becoming a matter of interest, even though the technology was still evolving, and an executive at MGM suggested that an updated version of the song could be released in stereo and with an updated arrangement too.

By September of that year, this new version, by Tommy Edwards, was a number one hit, also reaching number one in the UK charts two months later.

The single reached number 1 in the UK singles charts in November of that year, selling over 3.5 million copies globally, with the resultant gold disc presented soon after and subsequently multiple artists took up the song and included it in their on-stage repertoire.

Certainly in the UK, where I was brought up, this song was heard repeatedly, not least because the national broadcaster (the BBC) appeared to have little taste for rock n roll and so preferred this more gentle approach to popular song.

Meanwhile, the co-composer was continuing his own life, first winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 and later becoming Vice President of the United States, working under Calvin Coolidge

So what we have here is, I believe, the only No. 1 single in the history of American music to have been composed by a U.S. Vice President and Nobel Prize winner.  Subsequently, it became a standard and was recorded by a variety of artists worldwide.  In the UK the version by Cliff Richard reached number 2 in the charts in 1963 and it ranked at number 47 in Billboard’s “The Hot 100’s All-Time Top 600 Songs”.

It has continued to be recorded in multiple forms 

Previously in this series

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *