Body And Soul

This Johnny Green 1930 jazz standard almost did not become a jazz standard. Johnny Green, who worked as a stockbroker and had an economics degree, casually played the piano, but was not a professional pianist. British actress Gertrude Lawrence commissioned Body and Soul on a tight recording deadline. However, Lawrence never recorded the song she commissioned and paid for. 

Later, after the piece was copyrighted, NBC radio had a big issue with the title and would not announce the name of the song because they thought that the word "body" was too edgy. The jazz artist who brought this song to the forefront was a saxophonist Coleman Hawkins. Hawkins played the song all the time and verbally fought for its importance as a jazz tune. A young Charlie Parker heard Hawkins play Body and Soul live and a few months later recorded it in Kansas City. Body and Soul has remained part of the standard repertoire through the rise of bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, and other styles of Jazz’.

Source : Nathan Bohach - Marshall University Music Department Presents a Senior Recital, Jazz Vibraphone.