After I finished my own songs Harry Akst and Joe Howard asked if I'd try a new one they'd written. And they sang it themselves for me, doing it fast and corny. "Is that the way you want me to sing it?" I asked. Akst and Howard looked at each other. "Why not sing it your own way?" they said. "Take it home. Work it over, kid, then come back and let us hear your version." Now I've always had a strict rule about this. I'll do any new number the way I'm asked to sing it. But once you say, "Do it your way, kid," I sing it my way and won't try any other style that is second-guessed on me. So that day I took that song home and worked on it with Pearl "This is a nice little number, Pearl," I said. << less