I've been asked to play this at a 50th Wedding Anniversary. No problem as I will just sight read it a couple of times and play it from the score on the night. (I won't bother learning or memorising it).

However the version I have is in E maj (4 sharps) but I'm not sure that Sammy Fain composed the music in this key. A friend said that he had seen a version in the key of E flat(3 flats). OK I suppose it has been transposed into other keys!!, and I could do the same but I'm too lazy. I would, however, prefer to play it in flats rather than sharps.

As I am only a thirty something, do any of you veterans (circa 1950's) out there know the original key in which Fain composed this music??

You could just read it as though it was Eb insread of E (unless there are so many accidentals that it would make it more difficult to do that).
I do it all the time with hymn tunes.

It is written out in Eb in IMP's series of 70 Years of Popular Music The Fifties Part Two. However this series has now been re-printed in less volumes and is now called 100 Years of Popular Music. It should be in Fifties Volume 1.

The version of the song in the "Grease" vocal album is in the same key i.e. E major.

I'd be pretty impressed with anyone who could just transpose this piece down a semitone at sight as suggested above as there are quite a few accidentals and tricky harmonies like E#dim7ths etc and personally I wouldn't like to risk doing "transposing at sight" in a public performance unless it was learnt properly or I was blessed with perfect pitch. Does PP help in a case like this? I t would definately be safer to just re-write it out transposed into the desired key of Eb. It wouldn't take too long as its only two pages long.
Gae

Thanks all for your collective input.

I've given it some thought, overnight, and played it through in E maj, which is the version I have from the "Grease" album. I can play it quite well in this key and I think I will go with it as it stands. I don't much care for the intro which starts on B and crescendos to E in the treble clef and might improvise my own introduction with crescendo. Also there's a funny little "quirk" in the last bar on page 1 starting with F# above middle C in the treble cleff and an F# octave below middle C in the base cleff. I think I will fudge my way round that one also. Apart from that I think this piece has some great harmonies and will either bring a tear to the old couples eyes, or bring the house down with laughter if I "screw up"

I have until the 31st of this month to perfect it.

Thanks once again