Tom Waits: Young At Heart (2006)

According to Tom Waits, "My wife just thinks it's hilarious," he said of this cover of Frank Sinatra's popular song. "She says, 'You sound so goddamned depressed singing it . . . I don't believe that bullshit for a minute. Young at heart, my ass!' "

When Waits did cover this lovely if sentimental song -- which was a hit in 1953, so big that the 1954 Sinatra/Doris Day movie was renamed after the song and it was included in the credits -- he was in a particularly grumpy period, according to his wife Kathleen Brennan who apparently laughed out loud when she heard this groaning take on it.

The song has been much covered and Waits' version was included on the Bawlers disc in his Orphans collection, and Waits seems to have taken it very seriously given the crisp arrangement.

"Fairytales can come true, it can happen to you, if you're young at heart . . ."

For more on Tom Waits at Elsewhere (including rare tracks) start here.

For more on-offs or songs with an interesting back-story see From the Vaults