"It Happened in Monterey" was written for the 1930 musical film, King of Jazz. The film featured Paul Whiteman and his orchestra, while the song, written in waltz time, was composed by Mabel Wayne, with lyrics by Billy Rose. Though the lyrics refer tothe city of Monterrey in "Old Mexico", the song title was misspelled, leading to popular references to the city of Monterey, California. The song was performed by John Boles and Jeanette Loff in the film. The song appears in a sequence of disparate musical performances, each introduced by a caption card, that appear between the two main production numbers. The Paul Whiteman Orchestra then recorded the song for Columbia Records on March 21, 1930, featuring vocals by Jack Fulton. This recording features significant solos for flute and piccolo performed by Bernie Daly. The recording was a hit. Researcher Joel Whitburn estimates that this record would have charted at number 2 in April 1930.
Cover versions
The song was covered several times following the appearance in King of Jazz, including by George Olsen and Vincent Lopez. Other popular versions were by the Regent Club Orchestra on Brunswick Records, and Ruth Etting. Bing Crosby sang the song with Whiteman's orchestra in a performance at the Seattle Civic Auditorium, which was broadcast nationwide live via the Columbia Broadcasting System in April 1930. Mel Tormé recorded it with his Mel-Tones and Sonny Burke and his orchestra on the Musicraft Records label in 1946. By the 1950s, the song had declined in popularity and was rarely sung until it was revived and popularized again by Frank Sinatra. Sinatra recorded it for his 1956 Capitol release Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, to an arrangement and orchestration by Nelson Riddle. Biographer John Frayn Turner writes: "Not forgetting 'It Happened in Monterey', which had never sounded like that before or since". Biographer Spencer Leigh notes the "looseness of his phrasing in the second chorus". Sinatra began performing it live. It features as the second track on his 1957 live album Sinatra '57 in Concert, and also appeared on the original UK pressing of Come Fly with Me as a replacement track for the banned On the Road to Mandalay. Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney included the song in their 1958 album Fancy Meeting You Here with updated lyrics.
Actor Al Pacino lip-synced the Sinatra version of the song in the final scene of the 1997 filmThe Devil's Advocate. In 2006 Doug Gamble, a corporate and humor writer, penned new lyrics for the song as a way of promoting the city of Monterey, California.
