"This Year's Kisses" is a popular song written in 1936 by Irving Berlin for the musical film On the Avenue (1937) and introduced by Alice Faye. The first recording of the song was on December 30, 1936, by Benny Goodman & His Orchestra (Victor 25505), with a vocal by Margaret McCrae.
Billie Holiday recorded the song on January 25, 1937, accompanied by Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra (Brunswick 7824), an historic session that marked her first collaboration with tenor saxophonist Lester Young. Benny Goodman (clarinet) also performed on the recording, along with several members of the Count Basie Orchestra, including Buck Clayton on trumpet, Freddie Green on guitar, Walter Page on double bass, and Jo Jones on drums. Jazz critic Gary Giddins, writes that the song "inaugurated the uncanny bond between Billie and Lester Young, whose tenor saxophone--borrowed from Hammond's favorite orchestra, the Basie band--invariably complements, echoes, spurs, and inspires her in one of the most gratifying, unusual, and far too brief musical collaborations of the past century."
Lester Young recorded the song again on January 12, 1956, with several musicians from the original 1937 Holiday session, including Teddy Wilson, Freddie Green and Jo Jones, for the album The Jazz Giants '56 on Verve Records.