Once in a While is a popular song with music by Michael Edwards and lyrics by Bud Green, published in 1937. Edwards, a classical violinist, organist, and arranger, composed the tune as a sentimental ballad built around a yearning melody and lush harmonies, with lyrics expressing a lover's plea to be remembered during separation. Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra recorded the first hit version in 1937, taking it to number one on the charts. The song went on to become a widely recorded standard across multiple genres, with Patti Page charting a pop version in 1952 and The Chimes reviving it in a doo-wop arrangement that reached the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. In jazz, the tune has attracted a distinguished list of interpreters including Don Byas, Clifford Brown, Nat King Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Sonny Clark, Ella Fitzgerald, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, whose mid-1960s recording helped renew interest in what critic Gary Giddins described as a great, neglected ballad. Clifford Brown's reading with the Art Blakey Quintet at Birdland in 1954 remains one of the most celebrated ballad performances in the hard bop canon. The composition's emotional directness and harmonic richness have made it adaptable to settings ranging from intimate duo performances to full big band arrangements, sustaining its presence in the repertoire across decades.
