Johnny Mercer may have written some of the most optimistic song lyrics ("Accentuate the Positive," "Too Marvellous for Words"), but he also--with Harold Arlen--wrote the two best-known crying-in-my-beer saloon songs ("Blues in the Night," "One for My Baby").
And Mercer wrote the most elegiac end-of-summer songs: "Early Autumn," "Autumn Leaves," and, at the very end, "When October Goes."
The lyrics for "When October Goes," perhaps the last Mercer wrote, were found by his widow. She gave them to Barry Manilow, who set them to an appropriately melancholy melody. The song may have been recorded more than once, but the only recording we know is on Rosemary Clooney's album of Mercer songs. Worth a search. "When October Goes"--song of the month.
To hear Mercer, who was also a fun singer, in a cheerier mood, Google his name. Even in October, you can accentuate the positive.
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Several great singers have recorded the song, most memorably Nancy Wilson in a finely nuanced performance in 1991, Barry Manilow (of course) in 1984, and Rosemary Clooney in 1987, but also Robert Goulet (date?) and Lea Silonga in 2003. Although it's a beautiful song, Barry Manilow's melody is much like Michel Legrand's "The Summer Knows" written sideways.
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