When You're Smiling — Louis Armstrong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOH_mioL3TU

This song conjures around it a soundtrack, complete and self-sufficient, contained and immersive; New York in the 30s, driving across bridges towards the skyline, black-and-white, maybe a Woody Allen movie. Happy and happy and happy, the day after it rains, driving through and through, onwards to Coney Island, a distraction, a destination, and an era to sink into like a big old couch, still as good as the day it was new. There's no urgency at all in this song — it is a treasure, played by people with nothing to prove; deliberate and unambitious and quietly, distinctively brilliant.

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off — Ella Fitzgerald + Louis Armstrong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2oEmPP5dTM

Yesterday morning, before my Calc midterm, one of the guys who sits near me piped up: he'd been going through a breakup; he'd been studying for midterms; things were bad, and this song roused his spirits. He said: there's a part near the end (3:16) where Louis Armstrong just shouts 'tomahter' in the silliest way.

So we're in this math classroom at 9am, with my stomach churning and my head pounding and a math midterm before me: and suddenly the entire class including the teacher is doing Louis Armstrong impressions, shouting tomahter at the top of our lungs.