The 2025 release of the film Blue Moon and, in particular, its Academy Award-nominated performance by Ethan Hawke as lyricist Lorenz Hart, has brought renewed attention to the pre-World War II work of the songwriting duo Rodgers & Hart, overshadowed in more recent times by Richard Rodgers’ subsequent work with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. Composer Rodgers was notoriously a stickler that his songs to be performed precisely as written, but that hasn’t kept contemporary recording artists from recording them in their more individualistic styles. Here are 15 noteworthy examples. [Note: many of the albums they are featured on have been highlighted with a link to purchase via Amazon.]

James Taylor—“My Heart Stood Still”—Introduced in the Rodgers & Hart musical The Girl Friend in 1926, JT included “My Heart Stood Still” on his album American Standard 94 years later. The LP won a Grammy in the category Best Traditional Pop Album in 2021.

Linda Ronstadt—“You Took Advantage of Me”—A selection from the second of Ronstadt’s three collaborations with arranger Nelson Riddle, 1984’s Lush Life, “You Took Advantage of Me” debuted in Rodgers & Hart’s 1928 show Present Arms and was later added to the film version of their The Boys from Syracuse in 1940.

The Supremes—Dancing on the Ceiling—Although written for Rodgers & Hart’s 1930 production Simple Simon, “Dancing on the Ceiling” made its bow in that year’s Ever Green instead. The Supremes featured it on 1967’s The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart, their final album with Florence Ballard.

Boz Scaggs—“She Was Too Good to Me”—Intended for 1930’s Simple Simon but dropped from the show before its Broadway run, “She Was Too Good to Me” has nevertheless gone on to become a standard, heard here in a version from Scaggs’ 2008 album Speak Low, arranged by Gil Goldstein.

Related: 11 Classic Rock (and Pop) Star Recordings of Broadway Show Tunes

Carly Simon—“My Romance”—The title song of Simon’s second album of standards, featuring five Rodgers & Hart songs (and one by Rodgers & Hammerstein as well), in 1990, “My Romance” was introduced in the 1935 show Jumbo.

The Carpenters—“Little Girl Blue”—Another song from Jumbo, “Little Girl Blue” is a selection from the 1989 collection Lovelines, released posthumously after the death of Karen Carpenter and drawn from her performance of it on the television special Space Encounters in 1978.

The Mamas and the Papas—“Glad to Be Unhappy”—A 1967 track released in between the group’s third and fourth albums, “Glad to Be Unhappy” was the last single by the Mamas and the Papas to reach the pop top 30. It was originally heard in the 1936 Rodgers & Hart musical On Your Toes.

Joni Mitchell—“I Wish I Were In Love Again”—From Mitchell’s 2000 album Both Sides Now, a collection of standards including two of her own classic songs, arranged by Vince Mendoza, “I Wish I Were In Love Again” was introduced in the hit-filled 1937 Rodgers & Hart show Babes in Arms.

Queen Latifah—“The Lady Is A Tramp”—Another song from 1937’s Babes in Arms, this one is taken from We All Love Ella—Celebrating the First Lady of Song, a 2007 album produced by Phil Ramone and arranged by Rob Mouncey in tribute to Ella Fitzgerald.

Elvis Costello—“My Funny Valentine”—Yet another standard from Babes in Arms, recorded by Elvis Costello as a Valentine’s Day giveaway in 1979 and ultimately released on Taking Liberties, a 1980 compilation of unreleased outtakes, B-sides and collector’s items and its English equivalent Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How’s Your Fathers.

Dave Edmunds—“Where or When”—One more from Babes in Arms, “Where or When” is on Edmunds’ 1977 album Get It, no doubt inspired by Dion and the Belmonts’ rendition of it, a #3 hit single in 1960. Edmunds later produced the great Dion album Yo Frankie in 1989.

Ray Charles—“I Didn’t Know What Time It Was”—Rodgers & Hart’s 1939 musical Too Many Girls yielded “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” interpreted here by Charles on his 1969 album I’m All Yours Baby, a collection of standards arranged by Sid Feller.

Rickie Lee Jones—“It Never Entered My Mind”—Rickie Lee Jones reunited with Russ Titelman, who co-produced her first two albums, to record Pieces of Treasure in 2023. “It Never Entered My Mind,” from Rodgers & Hart’s 1940 show Higher and Higher, was added to the album as a bonus track from those sessions.

Charlie Watts Quintet—“Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”—The Rolling Stones’ drummer recorded a series of jazz albums late in his career. Here, on Warm and Tender from 1993, accompanied by frequent Stones backing singer Bernard Fowler on vocals, he cuts a Rodgers & Hart standout from 1940’s Pal Joey.

Elvis Presley—“Blue Moon”—The only Rodgers & Hart song not featured in a musical play or revue but a hit many times over nonetheless was cut by Presley for Sun Records in 1954 and finally released on his debut RCA Victor album Elvis Presley in 1956. Special mention must be made however to the Marcels, whose doo-wop version of “Blue Moon” topped the charts in 1961.

Listen: And here’s that same song as sung by the Marcels…