This was a hit song from the Broadway musical comedy Very Warm for May. It turned out to be one of the few great successes associated with this production, which opened on November 17, 1939, and ran for a modest 59 performances, making it, especially for the team of Jerome Kern and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, a decided disappointment. Still, some critics found much to like in it, as reviews in general were no worse than mixed. At any rate, Very Warm for May was to be Kern's Broadway swan song.

"All the Things that You Are" mixes the big brassy band sound of the late '30s and early '40s with a bluesy love song melody, one of Kern's most attractive. This memorable tune has both an intimacy in the lyrical flow of its vocal line and an extroverted manner in its alternately sassy, alternately demure accompaniment. The rhythm and tempo surrounding the melody are lively, but the melody itself has a carefree, sensuous gait, quite appropriate in mood for Hammerstein's lovestruck text ("You are the promised kiss of springtime/the angel glow that lights a star."). This is a thoroughly enchanting song that will appeal to Broadway music enthusiasts and even to a substantial crossover audience.

© Robert Cummings, Rovi