One for My Baby

About

Written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer for the 1943 musical film The Sky’s the Limit, One for My Baby (and One More for the Road) is one of the most enduring saloon ballads in popular music. Frank Sinatra made it his own across several recordings, transforming a simple barroom soliloquy into an emblem of late-night loneliness. For Swing When You’re Winning, Robbie Williams recorded the song live in Capitol Studios with Bill Miller, Sinatra’s longtime pianist and accompanist.

The intimate session paired Williams’ voice with Miller’s piano exactly as it had been on Sinatra’s original, creating a rare connection across eras. Williams recorded it seated, cigarette in hand, delivering the lyric with smoky understatement. The narrative — a man confiding in a weary bartender as closing time approaches — perfectly suited Williams’ knack for vulnerability beneath showmanship.

I sat there with Bill Miller at Frank’s piano, in the same room where it had all happened. It felt like stepping into history.Robbie Williams

The performance closes on Miller’s gentle chords, followed by a quiet exchange between the two: “That’s the general idea,” Miller remarks, to which Williams softly replies, “Yeah, that’s the general idea.” The moment encapsulates the song’s essence — weary humour amid heartbreak. Though one of the album’s slowest tracks, One for My Baby is among its most poignant, uniting two generations of crooners in the shared language of late-night confession.