What is "pennies from heaven"

Pennies From Heaven is a 1978 BBC musical drama serial written by Dennis Potter. The title is taken from the song " Pennies from Heaven" written by Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston. It was one of several Potter serials (another being The Singing Detective) to mix the reality of the drama with a dark fantasy content, and the earliest of his works where the characters burst into extended performances of popular songs.

Pennies from Heaven may refer to:

• "Pennies from Heaven" (song) (1936), a popular American song by Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston
• Pennies from Heaven (1936 film), starring Bing Crosby and Madge Evans, and introducing the song
• Pennies from Heaven (TV series) (1978), a BBC drama by Dennis Potter
• Pennies from Heaven (1981 film), a musical starring Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters
• Pennies from Heaven (1992 track), a notable House Music record by Inner City

"Pennies from Heaven" is a 1936 American popular song with music by Arthur Johnston and words by Johnny Burke. It was introduced by Bing Crosby in the 1936 film of the same name. It was recorded in the same year by Billie Holiday and afterwards performed by Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Dinah Washington, Clark Terry, Frances Langford, Arthur Tracy, Big Joe Turner, Frank Sinatra, Stan Getz, Dean Martin, Gene Ammons, The Skyliners (a major hit in 1960), Louis Prima, Legion of Mary, Guy Mitchell, Rose Murphy, Harry James, and many other jazz and popular singers.

The 1936 recording by Bing Crosby on Decca Records topped the charts of the day for ten weeks in 1936 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004. Bing Crosby also recorded the song in a performance with Louis Armstrong and Frances Langford with Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra, also on Decca and issued as a 12" 78rpm recording.

Pennies from Heaven is a 1981 musical film adapted from a 1978 BBC television drama. Dennis Potter adapted his own screenplay from the BBC series for American audiences, changing its setting from London and the Forest of Dean to Depression era Chicago and rural Illinois. Potter was nominated for the 1981 Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay, but lost to On Golden Pond. The film starred Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Walken and Jessica Harper. The director was Herbert Ross and the choreographer was Danny Daniels.

The film includes musical numbers consisting of actors lip-syncing and dancing to popular songs of the 1920s and 1930s, such as " Let's Misbehave", " Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries", " Let's Face the Music and Dance", and the title song.

Pennies From Heaven is a 1936 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Bing Crosby, Madge Evans, and Edith Fellows.

Based on the novel The Peacock Feather by Katherine Leslie Moore and a screenplay by Jo Swerling, the film is about a singer wrongly imprisoned who promises a condemned fellow inmate that he will help the family of his victim when he is released. The singer delays his dream of becoming a gondolier in Venice and becomes a street singer in order to help the young girl and her elderly grandfather. His life is further complicated when he meets a beautiful welfare worker who takes a dim view of the young girl's welfare and initiates proceedings to have her put in an orphanage.

Pennies From Heaven remains most noteworthy for Crosby's introduction of the titular song, a Depression-era favorite, since recorded by numerous singers. The film features Louis Armstrong in a supporting role. In 1937, the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song ( Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke).

This was Crosby’s first independent production jointly with Emanuel Cohen’s Major Pictures and he had a share in the profits. The film was distributed by Columbia Pictures.

"Pennies from Heaven" is a 1992 song by Inner City, which was released as a single from their album Praise. Despite the song's title, it is not a cover of the 1936 song of the same name.

It became Inner City's fifth and final number-one single on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, reaching the top of the chart in August 1992 for two weeks. In the United Kingdom, it peaked at number 24.

The music video featured people from all walks of life being invited by the duo for what will be a final meal, which at the end of the video resembled a portrait of The Last Supper.