I wanted to include a song by (Stephen Sondheim) on my 1981 album Torch and I was introduced to him by some friends of mine and spoke to him on the phone and he said he’d love to play his new musical Merrily for me and would I like to come to his apartment in Turtle Bay in New York ? So I said yes, and I went over and it was just Stephen there. He let me in and we sat at the piano and he played the whole score for me, which is interesting because it starts at the end and it goes to the beginning.

While he was doing it I had one of my famous anxiety attacks and in order to make it not so obvious, I did something that I’d never done before, which was to pinch my earlobe really, really hard, and I pinched it so hard so that the pain would be converted from my brain to my ear. And while he was playing this beautiful song «Not a Day Goes By”, blood started to fall on my white shirt, on my crisp, white shirt. After he finished playing the song he couldn’t help but notice it and he said «Are you okay?” and I said «yes, I’m absolutely fine” and I was trying to cover the blood on my white shirt with my hand. He was incredibly kind, and I said «you know, I’ve got an appointment so I’ve got to go”.

But I ended up recording the song on that album and he came to the recording session, and there was an eighty piece orchestra which was conducted by Marty Paich. He (Stephen) was there and I recorded it on my knees because I didn’t want to see him in the recording studio. When I came out, he was in tears, and it was so rewarding for me. It’s one of the songs that I’m most proud of in my own repertoire. [Story]