"As Time Goes By" - Anyone play it on mando?

[Alex Orr]

I was listening to a Jimmy Durante comp yesterday and was thinking about how nice it would be to learn this. Then I heard it referenced this morning in an NPR story, which just reinforced my interest. So, does anyone play this on mando? Any ideas for arrangements, ways to approach it, etc... ?

[Bruce Clausen]

Wikipedia tells us the song was composed by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. Most of us probably know it from the wartime film Casablanca. Jimmy Durante recorded it in 1963.

I would think the question of how to do it on mandolin depends on what sort of forces you have at your disposal: Will someone be singing? Is there a bass player or rhythm guitar involved? etc. etc. If you're on your own here, does your own level on mandolin encourage you to think of combining the melody and chords into a solo version? Or would you be more comfortable playing one or the other? Maybe play the chords and whistle the tune? All kinds of options.

One of the standard keys for this is C, and that should work fine on mando. But if someone is singing, let them decide on a key.

BC