Rose Room

Art Hickman wrote the music and Harry Williams the words in 1917. The title comes from the Rose Room at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, where Hickman's orchestra played. The lyric calls it "In Sunny Roseland," but bands nearly always play it as an instrumental.

Duke Ellington revived it with a 1932 recording and used its chords for "In a Mellotone" in 1940. In 1939, Charlie Christian won Benny Goodman over by taking chorus after chorus on it for about 45 minutes. Their October 2, 1939 recording went into the National Recording Registry in 2024.