Harry James' main motivation for additions to his book was simple: if he liked something, he wanted to play it. He later commented about this in the liner notes to one of his last albums, where he said that his band played country songs if they were good, and that he didn't care about categorization. In putting together his book with strings, James balanced pop songs with original pieces and adaptations of classical music. Arabesque was a popular piano piece by then, composed between 1888 and 1891. Clair de Lune was also arranged for the James orchestra, as well as Golliwog's Cakewalk. It is believed that Jack Matthias arranged Arabesque and Clair de Lune, and Alec Wilder arranged Golliwog's Cakewalk.