Bart Howard

1915–2004 · American songwriter and pianist

Born Howard Joseph Gustafson in Burlington, Iowa, Howard accompanied Mabel Mercer in the late 1940s and spent the 1950s as MC and intermission pianist at New York’s Blue Angel. He wrote this song in 1954 as “In Other Words,” and in 1963 agreed to retitle it after the phrase everyone was already using. By 1964 he reckoned it had been recorded more than a hundred times, and its royalties supported him for the rest of his life. The Songwriters Hall of Fame named it a Towering Song in 1999.

Who recorded it

Songs written by Bart Howard

Fly Me to the Moon

Written by them — first recorded by Kaye Ballard

Did they really say it?

Thought Bart Howard said something else?

Type a quote you think Bart Howard said — we’ll tell you what we know, or point you to the best sources.