how deep is the ocean (how high is the sky?)

Irving Berlin emerged from the depths of his own great depression with this questioning standard.  He had lost his fortune in the stock market crash of 1929 and then his infant son died the next year, leaving Berlin in a personal crisis: “I had gotten rusty as a songwriter. I developed an inferiority complex. No song I wrote seemed right. I struggled to pull off a hit.”

In the midst of this creative slump, he composed 'How Deep is the Ocean? (How High is the Sky?)', recycling the title phrase from another of his songs, 'To My Mammy'.  The song was one of a select few of his songs that was introduced on the radio. Berlin was critical of the new medium:  "We have become a world of listeners, rather than singers. Our songs don’t live anymore. They fail to become part of us. Radio has mechanized them all. In the old days Al Jolson sang the same song for years until it meant something – when records were played until they cracked. Today, Paul Whiteman plays a song hit once or twice or a Hollywood hero sings them once in the films and radio runs them ragged for a couple of weeks – then they’re dead."

That was not the case with 'How Deep is the Ocean? (How High is the Sky?)'.  It charted four times in its first year alone.  The next year it appeared in the film 'The Life of Jimmy Dolan' and has since become a jazz standard.  






www.biography.com/irving-berlin





Jack Fulton introduced the song with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra. 




Bing Crosby




Judy Garland




Billie Holiday




Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee




Ella Fitzgerald




Charlie Parker




Bill Evans Trio




Eric Clapton





How can I tell you what is in my heart?
How can I measure each and every part?
How can I tell you how much I love you?
How can I measure just how much I do?

How much do I love you?
I'll tell you no lie
How deep is the ocean?
How high is the sky?

How many times a day do I think of you?
How many roses are sprinkled with dew?

How far would I travel
To be where you are?
How far is the journey
From here to a star?

And if I ever lost you
How much would I cry?
How deep is the ocean?
How high is the sky?