It is sung in the style of a sermon, and explains that accentuating the positive is key to happiness. In describing his inspiration for the lyric, Mercer told the Pop Chronicles radio documentary "[my] publicity agent ... went to hear Father Divine and he had a sermon and his subject was 'you got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.' And I said 'Wow, that's a colorful phrase!'"[1][2]
Mercer recorded the song, with The Pied Pipers and Paul Weston's orchestra, on October 4, 1944, and it was released by Capitol Records as catalog number 180. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on January 4, 1945, and lasted 13 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 2.[3] On the Harlem Hit Parade chart, it went to number four.[4]
The song was number five on Billboard's Annual High School Survey in 1945.[5]
On March 25, 2015, it was announced that Mercer's version would be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry for the song's "cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation’s audio legacy".[6]
Within a matter of weeks, several other recordings of the song were released by other well-known artists:
Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters made a recording on December 8, 1944, with Vic Schoen and his Orchestra, which was released by Decca Records as catalog number 23379. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on January 25, 1945, and lasted nine weeks on the chart, peaking at number 2.[3]
Kay Kyser made a recording on December 21, 1944, with Dolly Mitchell and a vocal trio. This was released by Columbia as catalog number 36771.
A recording by Artie Shaw was released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-1612. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on January 25, 1945, and lasted five weeks on the chart, peaking at number 5.[3]
Connie Francis added the song in 1960 to her "Swinging Medley" (sometimes also referred to as "Gospel Medley"), where she combined it with three other songs: "Yes, indeed", "Amen", and "Lonesome Road". Three versions of this medley were recorded on different occasions in 1960. The first recording was broadcast in a mock-live radio show of National Guard Radio early that year. The two other recordings were intended for release on Francis's label MGM Records but remained unreleased until 1996 on Bear Family Records.
The song has twice been recorded by Perry Como: once on February 19, 1958, and later in July, 1980. Both were primarily made for albums. Neither version was released as a single in the United States, though the 1958 version was released in GermanybyRCA as a single (catalog number 47-9243-A).
Billy Gorilly released a recording of the song as a single in January 2012. This version was used as the soundtrack for the animated children's cartoon music video released in October 2012.[8]
A version by Peggy Lee recorded in the early 1950s on a radio program she hosted was released on the 2021 album Something Wonderful: Peggy Lee Sings the Great American Songbook.[10]
The song featured in the BBC TV Series Casualty on the 9th October 2010, involving Lenny Lyons and a patient with a brain tumour, who could hear the song in her head when she was about to have a seizure.
The American cable television network The Family Channel (now Freeform) used a reworked version of this song as part of its on-air imaging in the early 1990s, to emphasize the station's "positive," family-friendly image.
It was also used in commercials for Australian health insurance provider HBF in the early 2000s, and UK gas and electricity provider npower in 2008.[14][15][16][17]
In April 2011, the first episode of the second season of Treme was called Accentuate the Positive, with several performances of this song.[18]
