Who recorded it first
What a Diff'rence a Day Makes
Not a Dinah Washington original — and not the Spanish record usually named in her place
Dinah Washington’s 1959 Mercury single is so completely hers that the song is routinely treated as starting there. It does not: María Grever wrote it in 1934 as the Spanish song “Cuando vuelva a tu lado,” and Stanley Adams supplied the English lyric the same year. The usual correction — that Orquesta Pedro Vía recorded it first — is where our research parts company with the reference books: Vía’s Victor master was cut in New York on 10 December 1934, six weeks after the Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra, with Bob Crosby singing, had already put the English version on wax for Decca on 29 October 1934. The Dorsey side is the earliest recording of the song we can date to a day; Vía’s is the earliest we can date in Spanish. A 1934 English record by the Cleveland singer Jimmie Ague is reported to be earlier still, but no source we found gives it a date.
The record
Who recorded it first
Released Recorded in New York on 29 October 1934 (matrix 38914) and issued the same year as a 10-inch Decca 78, catalogue number 283, under the English title “What a Diff’rence a Day Made,” with a vocal chorus by Bob Crosby.
Charted A genuine hit: it reached number 5 in the American listings in the autumn of 1934 — the most successful of the song’s early records, and still forgotten within a generation.
The paper trail
The Internet Archive’s catalogue record for the digitised Decca 283 A ↗ dates the Dorsey Brothers’ English recording, with Bob Crosby singing, to 29 October 1934, matrix 38914.
UCSB’s Discography of American Historical Recordings ↗ reconstructs the Spanish session from Victor’s blue history card and ledgers: 10 December 1934, Studio 2, New York, with Pedro Vía on trumpet and leading, a vocalist logged as Chiquito, and Alfredo Cibelli directing — six weeks after the Decca date.
MusicBrainz ↗ holds the composition as a Spanish-language work credited to María Grever as both composer and lyricist, ISWC T-070.028.704-2.
Wikipedia: What a Diff'rence a Day MakesKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
What’s actually true
This one has two errors stacked on top of each other — the popular one, and a second one inside the usual correction.
Dinah Washington originated the song in 1959
Her Mercury single is a cover. The song was written and recorded in 1934, and Washington was born in 1924.
María Grever, with English lyrics by Stanley Adams
Victor’s ledgers and MusicBrainz both credit Grever as composer and lyricist of the Spanish original; Adams wrote the English lyric, published late in 1934.
Orquesta Pedro Vía recorded it first, in 1934
Vía’s Victor master was cut on 10 December 1934. The Dorsey Brothers’ Decca side with Bob Crosby is dated 29 October 1934 — six weeks earlier. Vía’s is the earliest recording in Spanish, not the earliest recording.
Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra, Decca 283 A, 29 October 1934
It is the earliest recording of the song carrying a date we could confirm against a discographical source.
Jimmie Ague recorded the English version before the Dorsey Brothers
Wikipedia and songswithearlierhistories.com both name a 1934 record by the Cleveland singer Jimmie Ague, and another by Freddy Martin’s orchestra the same year, but neither source gives a session or release date. If one turns up earlier than 29 October, this answer changes.
Washington did not originate it — and on the dates we can verify, neither did the Spanish record usually named in her place.
Context
Why the 1959 record swallowed the 1934 ones
The song had a busy 1934 and almost nobody remembers it. Grever wrote it in Spanish, Stanley Adams put an English lyric on it and it was published late that year, and within months there were competing records on two labels in two languages — a Decca side by the Dorsey Brothers with a young Bob Crosby singing in October, a Victor side by Orquesta Pedro Vía in December, and, reportedly, English versions by the Cleveland singer Jimmie Ague and by Freddy Martin’s orchestra that nobody has managed to date. None of them became the song’s permanent address.
Twenty-five years is a long time for a standard to sit around waiting, and what Washington did with it in 1959 was less a cover than a repossession. The Mercury record won a Grammy, put her in the pop top ten for the first time, and fixed a tempo and a mood that every later version answers to. Once a song has a definitive performance, its earlier life stops being audible — which is how a Mexican composer’s 1934 song ends up filed under American R&B.
The documented chronology
- 1934 — María Grever writes “Cuando vuelva a tu lado” in Spanish.
- 1934 — Stanley Adams writes the English lyric; the song is published late in the year under the title “What a Diff’rence a Day Made.”
- 1934 — English recordings by Jimmie Ague and by Freddy Martin’s orchestra are reported this year; no source we found dates either one.
- 29 October 1934 — the Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra records the English version with a vocal chorus by Bob Crosby; issued on Decca 283 A, matrix 38914. It reaches number 5.
- 10 December 1934 — Orquesta Pedro Vía records the Spanish original in Victor’s New York Studio 2, matrix BS-86425, issued on Victor 32361.
- 1959 — Dinah Washington records it for Mercury; the single reaches number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and wins a Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance.
- 1998 — Washington’s recording is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The song was already on two labels in two languages when Washington was ten years old.