In the Great American Songbook, you’ll find songs written about some expected topics: love, youth, beauty, spring. Other common tropes however are a bit unexpected, like for instance, walking. Taking a walk might seem like a simple task … pedestrian, even. But a walk can also be an important time of reflection—or connection, if you’re sharing it with someone else. It’s also the perfect time for a song to be twirling around inside your head.

This hour, we’re taking a stroll with the walking songs of the Great American Songbook, including “I Walk A Little Faster,” “Would You Like To Take A Walk,” and “Love Walked In.”

Walking songs featured on this program:

• Tony Bennett – I Walk A Little Faster (Coleman/Leigh)
• Buddy Clark and His Orchestra, feat. Pee Wee Russell – I Walk With Music (Carmichael/Mercer)
• Hoagy Carmichael – Walk It Off (Carmichael)
• Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – Would You Like To Take A Walk? (Warren/Dixon/Rose)
• Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney – Let’s Take A Walk Around The Block (Arlen/Harburg/Gershwin)
• Nat King Cole – Walkin’ My Baby Back Home (Ahlert/Turk)
• Ella Fitzgerald – When My Sugar Walks Down The Street (McHugh/Austin/Mills)
• Carmen McRae – Walking Happy (Van Heusen/Cahn)
• Billie Holiday – On The Sunny Side Of The Street (McHugh/Fields)
• Thelonious Monk – In Walked Bud (Monk)
• Patsy Cline – Walkin’ After Midnight [Excerpt] (Block/Hecht)
• Nancy Sinatra – These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ [Excerpt] (Hazelwood)
• Bobby Troup – Walkin’ Shoes (Mulligan/Troup)
• Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers – My Walking Stick (Berlin)
• Sarah Vaughan – Love Walked In (Gershwin/Gershwin)
• Jeri Southern – You Walked Out (Craig/Baker)
• Lee Wiley with Billy Butterfield and his Orchestra – I Don’t Want To Walk Without You (Loesser/Styne)
• Louis Armstrong – I’ll Walk Alone (Styne/Cahn)
• Frank Sinatra – You’ll Never Walk Alone (Rodgers/Hammerstein)