The first song I learned to play
When I was eight, my piano teacher Tommy Emil would come over to our house in Pittsburgh, and would suffer because I hadn’t practised Beethoven’s Für Elise. Instead, it thrilled me to practise jazz arrangements of Alley Cat, Stairway to the Stars and Deep Purple.
The first song I fell in love with
My dad brought home Misty by Errol Garner, also from Pittsburgh and his favourite piano player. With his block chords and particular rhythm, he makes the piano sound like a whole orchestra, so I fell in love with it, too.
The first single I bought
For Once in My Life by Stevie Wonder.
The song that is my karaoke go-to
I haven’t done much karaoke, although I do like to sing at the drop of a hat. We’re doing a version of (They Long to Be) Close to You by the Carpenters with our big 57-piece orchestra, which I’m very excited about.
The song I inexplicably know every lyric to
We do Lover by Taylor Swift – “We could leave the Christmas lights up till January” – in our show. And of course I know all the lyrics to Ya Got Trouble from The Music Man.
The best song to play at a party
Don’t You Worry ’Bout a Thing by Stevie Wonder fills me with ecstasy. Down to the Nightclub by Tower of Power is a real party song. I love There’s a Party at My House by Randy Newman and This Joint Is Jumpin’ by Fats Waller. And You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry – the one where Uma Thurman and John Travolta dance in Pulp Fiction – drives me wild.
The song that changed my life
After I performed Mona Lisa by Nat King Cole with Gregory Porter on The Graham Norton Show in 2017, I was offered a record contract, so that changed my life in a very literal way.
The best song to cook to
The Frim-Fram Sauce, covered by Nat King Cole, and Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, but I like the Diana Krall version: [Sings] “I want the frim-fram sauce with the oss-en-fay / With shafafa on the side.” It’s great.
The song that gets me up in the morning
My radio alarm clock used to play My Funny Valentine by Miles Davis which is a great thing to wake you when you’re fast asleep.
The song that makes me cry
I’m an easy weeper when it comes to music. On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter, used at the end of Hamnet, had me deep in tears.
The song people request the most
Well, people do seem to like that time I sang my own version of the theme to Jurassic Park: “In Jurassic Park / Scary in the dark / I’m so scared that I’ll be eaten.”
Night Blooms by Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra is out on 5 June. They tour 28 May to 30 June; tour starts Wolverhampton.