Blog
Feb 01

As Time Goes By

Casablanca is consistently rated as one of the most important and influential movies ever made.   Many of its elements are synonymous with classic Hollywood – black and white film grain, Humphrey Bogart in a trench coat, the oh-so-quotable lines and of course, the indelible soundtrack!

Today’s On This Day is a performance of the song “As Time Goes By”, memorably performed by Sam in the famed nightclub, in honor of composer Herman Hupfeld’s birthday.

Interesting factoids: The “piano player” Dooley Wilson was actually a drummer, so the piano was actually played by someone off screen!  Also interesting, is that one of the lines most often associated with the film (“Play it again, Sam), is actually a misquote!  When Ilsa first enters the Café Americain, she spots Sam and asks him to “Play it once, Sam, for old times’ sake.” After he feigns ignorance, she responds, “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By'”.  Finally, the aforementioned song might have been dropped from the film entirely if not for a haircut Ingrid Bergman got for her next film – making reshoots impossible. So if not for a haircut, we might never have known this song!!

Thanks for watching and “here’s looking at you, Herman!”??‍♂️

Bosendorfer piano sound – For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I’ve ever owned!!