Jim is a popular song composed in 1941 by Caesar Petrillo (also credited as James Caesar Petrillo) and Milton Samuels (under the pseudonym Edward Ross), with lyrics by Nelson Shawn. Published by Leeds Music Corp. in New York, the song emerged during the height of the Tin Pan Alley era and quickly entered the jazz and popular music repertoire. Petrillo is perhaps better known for his influential role as president of the American Federation of Musicians, where he led the recording bans of the 1940s, but he was also an active songwriter during this period. The composition has been recognized as a 1940s jazz standard, listed alongside such well-known titles as "How High the Moon" and "A Night in Tunisia" in surveys of the era's repertoire. Jim has attracted an impressive range of vocalists over the decades, with recorded versions by Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Shore, Etta James, and Aretha Franklin, among others. The Oscar Peterson Trio with Clark Terry also produced a notable instrumental interpretation, likely from the Verve catalog under producer Norman Granz. The song's appeal to both jazz-oriented vocalists and instrumentalists reflects a well-constructed melody and harmonic framework that invites varied stylistic approaches, from swing-era vocal treatments to modern jazz reinterpretation.
