Behind the Music: Arthur’s Theme

Behind the Music: Arthur’s Theme and All the Things You Are

As a musician, I’ve been fortunate to be involved in some remarkable projects throughout my career. One that holds a special place in my heart is the Academy Award-winning song The Best That You Can Do (Theme from Arthur), co-written by Christopher Cross and Burt Bacharach. I had the honor of playing keyboards and saxophone on that song, and if you look closely, you might even spot me in the movie trailer!

One of the great stories behind the song’s iconic lyric, 'When you get lost between the moon and New York City, the best that you can do is fall in love', is that it was written by Peter Allen while he was stuck in a plane, circling above New York, waiting to land. I always thought it was such a perfect image, and it really captures that sense of being suspended between two worlds.

I was backstage at the Hollywood Bowl after a performance, talking with Burt Bacharach. I couldn’t resist mentioning how the harmonic structure of Arthur’s Theme reminded me of Jerome Kern’s jazz standard, All the Things You Are. Burt smiled and admitted that he did indeed borrow it—after all, he studied jazz at Juilliard. As Picasso famously said, 'Good artists borrow, great artists steal.'
That distinct harmony goes way back to classical composers like Chopin, and even further to Bach, who is the source of so much of the music we know today. Inspired by this, and at a recent concert of mine, I decided to create a medley of Arthur’s Theme and All the Things You Are, highlighting the common threads between these two beautiful tunes.