Twenty years after the release of her debut album Come Away With Me, Norah Jones has released her original demo of the famed song “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most,” which she recorded in her high school band room. Accompanying herself on piano, Jones sings in a familiar beloved voice that offers audiences a window to the past. Listen to Jones’ rendition here: 

The song is a part of the 20th anniversary celebration for her debut album in the form of a newly released super deluxe edition. The new edition features 22 previously unreleased tracks. The album and Jones herself were considered risky to her label because her sound doesn’t neatly fit into a single genre. The risk clearly paid off as the album has sold almost 30 million copies and won Jones eight Grammys in 2003. 

Jones’ “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” is her take on the 1955 song whose lyrics were written by Fran Landesman and whose music is by Tommy Wolf. It has a long history of renditions, from its appearance in the 1959 Broadway musical The Nervous Set to Ella Fitzgerald’s album Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie! In 1961. More recently, Bette Midler sang the song in Some People’s Lives released in 1990. 

While Jones stays true to the tender tone present in several (if not all) of the renditions, her signature breathiness adds something fresh to the mix. The sense of nostalgia adds to the emotion of the song, as fans will be aware of the fact that this demo comes from the chords of a high-school aged Jones with an already star-sized talent. 

Fans have been spoiled by Jones in the last year, first by the release of a holiday album entitled I Dream of Christmas and accompanying music videos, and now by this album full of songs from the vault.

Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna