Four top big bands recorded this tune: Will Bradley, Bob Chester, Bob Crosby, and Benny Goodman. Goodman’s 1939 rendition with vocalist Mildred Bailey was the only version to make the charts, rising to #17 in 1940.

“I Thought About You” was among the first tunes that lyricist Johnny Mercer collaborated on with composer Jimmy Van Heusen. Mercer had just become a partner with Edwin H. Morris and formed Mercer-Morris. In Gene Lees’ biography, Portrait of Johnny: The Life of John Herndon Mercer, the author relates Mercer’s tale of writing the tune. Van Heusen played the melody for Mercer, who was leaving that evening for Chicago to appear on a radio program with Benny Goodman. Unable to sleep, Mercer found inspiration for the song from the train trip, seeing the little towns, the moon and landscape along the way. Mercer admitted his writing style was to paint pictures with lyrics, to “transport people to someplace they don’t know.” The story is a marvelous example of how a fine lyricist like Mercer could find inspiration in something many would consider mundane, a train trip.

There’s a bit of serendipity that vocalist Mildred Bailey had a hit with “I Thought About You.” In 1933 Mercer’s first big hit was “Lazybones,” a collaboration with Hoagy Carmichael. Although the number was recorded by a number of artists, it was Bailey’s recording that became the big hit. From that, Mercer got a gig with Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra, with whom Mildred had been singing. Mercer considered this a huge stepping-stone in his career.

The original sheet music to “I Thought About You” shows a drawing of the streamliner, the Burlington Route’s Denver Zephyr, undoubtedly the train Johnny Mercer took from Denver to Chicago when he wrote the tune’s lyrics. The short verse (eight bars) is rarely performed, but the lyric is an especially nice set-up to the chorus, telling that the saying “out-of-sight is out-of-mind” doesn’t ring true with a loved one. The chorus tells about a train trip and all the things that remind us of the special person left behind, especially romantic scenes like “shadowy lanes under the stars.”