Composer Bart Howard: Iowa Time Machine February 21, 2004

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On February 21, 2204, celebrated composer of “Fly Me to the Moon,” Bart Howard, passed away. Born in Burlington, Howard crafted a musical career that journeyed from the Mississippi River to Manhattan's cabaret scene.

Born Howard Joseph Gustafson in Burlington on June 25, 1915, young Bart grew up in a working-class family. He taught himself piano by ear, playing in local churches and developing an intuitive understanding of melody and harmony that formal training might have obscured. After graduating from high school, Howard headed east to pursue a music career, eventually landing in New York City's competitive cabaret world. He changed his name to Bart Howard, began performing as a pianist and singer, and started composing songs.

The 1950s cabaret scene valued cleverness, wit, and emotional depth, qualities that Howard possessed in abundance. While contemporaries were writing rock and roll hits, Howard continued crafting songs in the classic Tin Pan Alley tradition of Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. Howard composed "In Other Words" in 1954, a waltz-time ballad that expressed romantic longing through celestial metaphors. The song circulated among cabaret performers for years before Felicia Sanders recorded it with lyrics that began "In other words, hold my hand, in other words, darling kiss me." The title "Fly Me to the Moon" emerged later. When Sinatra recorded his definitive swing version with the Count Basie Orchestra in 1964, the song became a permanent fixture in American consciousness.

That same year, NASA played Sinatra's recording before Apollo mission launches, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin carried a cassette of the song to the lunar surface in 1969. Howard lived long enough to see his composition become the first music played on the moon, a distinction no other songwriter can claim. "Fly Me to the Moon" has been recorded more than 1,500 times by artists ranging from Tony Bennett and Nat King Cole to Michael Bublé and Diana Krall, making it one of the most covered songs ever written. #Iowa #OTD #History #Music #Learning