Great American Songbook

November is Cole Porter month !

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After Irving Berlin in October we celebrate another of the greatest songwriters of the Great American Songbook with Cole Porter in November. Look out for special playlists of his songs throughout the month.

Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter from Peru, Indiana. His works include the musical comedies Kiss Me, Kate (1948) (based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew), Fifty Million Frenchmen, and Anything Goes, as well as songs like "Night and Day", "I Get a Kick out of You", and "I've Got You Under My Skin". He was noted for his sophisticated (sometimes ribald) lyrics, clever rhymes, and complex forms. He was one of the greatest contributors to the Great American Songbook. Cole Porter is one of the few Tin Pan Alley composers to have written both lyrics and music for his songs.

Major songs and shows.

Shows listed are stage musicals unless otherwise noted. (Where the show was later made into a film, the year refers to the stage version.)

(1916) See America First
(1919) Hitchy Koo Of 1919 — "An Old Fashioned Garden"
(1928) Paris — "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love"
(1929) Wake Up And Dream — "What Is This Thing Called Love?"
(1929) Fifty Million Frenchmen — "You Do Something to Me"
(1930) The New Yorkers — "Love for Sale", "I Happen to Like New York"
(1932) Gay Divorce — "After You, Who?", "Night And Day" (basis for film renamed The Gay Divorcee in 1934)
(1933) Nymph Errant — "Experiment", "The Physician", "It's Bad for Me"
(1934) Anything Goes — "All Through the Night", "Anything Goes", "Blow Gabriel, Blow", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "You're the Top"
(1934) Adios Argentina (un-produced) — "Don't Fence Me In"
(1935) Jubilee — "Begin the Beguine", "Just One of Those Things"
(1936) Red, Hot and Blue — "It's De-Lovely"
(1936) Born to Dance (film) — "Down in the Depths (on the Ninetieth Floor)", "You'd Be So Easy to Love", "I've Got You Under My Skin"
(1937) Rosalie (film) — "In the Still of the Night"
(1937) You Never Know — "At Long Last Love", "From Alpha to Omega", "Let's Misbehave"
(1938) Leave It to Me! — "From Now On", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy"
(1939) Broadway Melody Of 1940 — "Between You And Me", "I Concentrate on You", "I've Got My Eyes on You", "I Happen to Be in Love", "Begin the Beguine"
(1939) Dubarry Was A Lady — "Do I Love You?", "Well, Did You Evah!", "Friendship"
(1940) Panama Hattie — "Let's Be Buddies", "Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please"
(1941) You'll Never Get Rich (film) — "Dream Dancing", "So Near and Yet So Far"
(1941) Let's Face It — "Everything I Love", "I Hate You, Darling"
(1942) Something for the Boys — "Could It Be You"
(1942) Something To Shout About — "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To"
(1943) Mexican Hayride — "I Love You"
(1944) Seven Lively Arts — "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye"
(1946) Around the World in Eighty Days — "Look What I Found"
(1947) The Pirate — "Be a Clown"
(1948) Kiss Me, Kate — "Another Op'nin', Another Show", "Brush Up Your Shakespeare", "I Hate Men", "So in Love", "Too Darn Hot"
(1950) Out Of This World — "From This Moment On", "I Am Loved"
(1953) Can-Can — "I Am in Love", "I Love Paris", "C'est Magnifique"
(1954) Silk Stockings — "All of You", "Paris Loves Lovers"
(1955) High Society — "Mind if I Make Love to You?", "True Love", "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", "You're Sensational"

Cole Porter. (2008, October 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:09, October 30, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cole_Porter&oldid=248148117

October is Irving Berlin month !

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Watch out for special playlists of Irving Berlin songs throughout the month.

Irving Berlin (1888-1989) was one of the most important songwriters in the USA. He was self-taught, but almost everything he wrote was a success. His breakthrough was during WWI with the song "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and one of the battle songs written for his all-soldier show Yip, Yip, Yaphank in 1917: "We're on our way to France".

During the twenties he wrote music for Tin Pan Alley and Broadway, and after the rise of the film musical he also wrote for Hollywood. His songs were sung by Fred Astaire, Al Jolson, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Dick Powell, Alice Faye and many others. During WWII he wrote "Any Bonds Today" for the government and wrote the songs for another all-soldier show, "This is the Army". In the early 60s he retired.

Trivia

Died of natural causes at age 101.

When Berlin married Ellin Mackay, the Comstock Lode heiress, the bride's father wrote her out of his will for marrying a Jew. Berlin then assigned the copyright of his popular song, "Always", to her, which yielded very handsome royalties as the years went by. And true to the sentiments of the song, Berlin devoted himself to his lovely wife for the rest of her long life.

Sang "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" in This Is the Army (1943)

Could not read music.

Only played on the set of black keys. He had a special piano built with pedals that could change the set from F sharp into other keys.

Interred at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York, USA.

Sent a letter to major radio stations requesting that they not play Elvis Presley's version of "White Christmas" because it had been drastically revamped.

During the filming of his singing his composition "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" in This Is the Army (1943), one of the backstage crew was heard to have whispered to another crew worker, "If the guy who wrote this song could hear this guy singing it, he'd roll over in his grave!".

Was denied a Kennedy Center Honor. By the time he was considered for one, he was too ill to fulfill the requirement that an honoree must attend the award ceremony.

Although Berlin wrote what is arguably the most popular secular Christmas song ever written, "White Christmas," Christmas was always a bittersweet time for the Berlin family. Irving and Eileen Berlin's only son, Irving, Jr., died at only a few weeks old, of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, on Christmas Day, 1928. Every year, on Christmas Day, the Berlins would lay a Christmas wreath on his grave, a tradition their heirs carry on today.

Despite the fact that he was one of America's most prolific songwriters, Berlin suffered frequent attacks of writer's block, which could last anywhere from several days to several months.
Wrote his first ballad hit, "When I Lost You," in his grief over the death of his first wife, Dorothy Goetz. She had died of typhoid, contracted on her honeymoon, just four months after their marriage in 1912.

One of the few classic pop songwriters of his era to serve as both composer and lyricist of his songs. Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer were among the others who shared this rare talent.
Brother-in-law of E. Ray Goetz.

Stepson-in-law of Anna Case.

In 1963, won a Special Tony Award "for his distinguished contribution to the musical theatre for these many years."

Father of Mary Ellen Barrett.

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

One of his most popular songs "Easter Parade"(1933) had been published earlier as "Smile and Show Your Dimple".

Daughter, Linda, was named after Cole Porter's wife.

Personal Quotes

"Never hate a song that's sold a half million copies"

Jerome Kern once remarked "Irving Berlin has no place in American music... He IS American Music."

"The song has ended, but the melody lingers on."

"The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success."

About his wife's lavish Christmas spending, to his daughter, "I gave up trying to get your mother to economize. It was easier just to make more money."

[on Fred Astaire] Fred knew the value of a song and his heart was in it before his feet took over.
[on Alice Faye] I'd rather have Alice Faye introduce my songs than anyone else.

Stormy Weather (1933)

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This remarkable torch song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Ted Koehler was introduced by Ethel Waters in the Cotton Club Parade of 1933. It was the first song Waters performed before a white audience and she stopped the show with it every night. In the 1943 movie Stormy Weather it was sung by Lena Horne.

Easter Parade (1933)

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This incredibly popular standard with music and lyrics by the great Irving Berlin was introduced in the 1933 Broadway revue As Thousands Cheer. The tune had been in Berlin's trunk since 1917 with different lyrics "Smile and Show Your Dimple".

As Easter Parade it was an overnight hit further immortalised by Fred Astaire and Judy Garland in the 1948 MGM musical of the same name.

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (1940)

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This Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart classic was introduced by Vivienne Segal in the 1940 Broadway show Pal Joey which starred Gene Kelly in the title role. The song became a quite lengthy demonstration of Hart's skill in creating sophisticated and witty lyrics. Ella Fitzgerald recorded a 7 minute version for her Rodgers and Hart songbook and it was also a favourite of Frank Sinatra.

Night and Day (1932)

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This great Cole Porter song was responsible for keeping alive the show The Gay Divorce (opened November 29th, 1932). It was introduced by Fred Astaire and Claire Luce, later it was featured in the 1934 film The Gay Divorcee (1934) starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Porter is said to have gotten inspiration for the tune from Morocco. Night and Day was one of many songs Frank Sinatra later made his own.

The Man I Love (1924)

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George and Ira Gershwin's great ballad was originally written for the 1924 show Lady Be Good. It was dropped when Adele Astaire's (sister of Fred) performance failed to excite audiences during the Philadelphia tryouts. The brothers attempted to fit it into a few subsequent shows but it failed to set alight the stage, meanwhile vaudeville and nightclub performances were turning it into a standard. Great performances include those by Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald.

I'm Always Chasing Rainbows (1918)

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Harry Carroll's third hit of the 1910s, he took the chorus from Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu in C Minor and the lyrics were by Joseph McCarthy. Harry Fox introduced the song in the show Oh Look! The Dolly Sisters really made it a hit and it was revived in a loose 1945 biopic which starred Betty Grable and June Haver.

That's Entertainment (1953)

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Written by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz for the 1953 MGM film musical The Band Wagon, That's Entertainment became a unofficial anthem for the golden era of the film musical. 20 years later it became the title of a compilation of highlights of the MGM musical.

The original Broadway show of The Band Wagon (opened June 3rd, 1931) had no real resemblance to the 1953 film though both starred Fred Astaire.

Blues In the Night (1941)

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With music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer this song showed both influenced by jazz were willing to experiment with the standard structure of the popular song.

The song has no conventional verse-chorus organisation but is made of three themes : an A section of twelve measures, a B section of twelve measures, a C section of sixteen measures and a return to an extended A section of sixteen measures.

Blues In the Night featured in a forgotten 1941 film became a hit as soon as the movie was released. Dinah Shore had the first million selling record with it.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (1933)

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Roberta (opened November 18th 1933) with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Otto Harbach was a hit filled Broadway show including such evergreens as Yesterdays and The Touch of Your Hand.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes was written originally by Kern with a quick march tempo and only became a hit when changed into a ballad. My fave recording of it is by Dinah Washington.

The film of Roberta in 1935 retained most of the songs of the Broadway original adding I Won't Dance (a memorable performance by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) and Lovely To Look At.

Always (1925)

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When legendary songwriter Irving Berlin (1888-1989), who had more Alley hits than anyone and was Jewish fell for the daughter of a millionaire, Ellin MacKay it scandalised 1920s society.

Berlin poured his longing for Ellin into a series of romantic ballads. Always represents the culmination of their courtship and was Irving's wedding present to Ellin. Written a few years earlier the lyric was originally "I'll Be Loving You, Mona" Berlin simply changed it from Mona to Always.

It had also been set in be included in the score of the Marx Brothers' Broadway show The Cocoanuts (later their first film) though writer George S. Kaufman was indifferent to music. He questioned Irving's first line : "I'll be loving you, Always. Always was a long time for romance, what about I'll be loving you Thursday."

Despite Kaufman's opinion the song became a standard. My favourite recording is a duet with Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan.

Give My Regards of Broadway (1904)

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George M Cohan (1882-1942) was the first complete man of the American musical theatre being a playwright, song and dance man, dramatic actor as well as prolific lyricist and composer. Cohan was the first to write about American characters instead of the prevailing fashion for exotic shows and Viennese operettas.

Cohan's first big show was Little Johnny Jones (opened November 7th, 1904) which featured two big hits : Yankee Doodle Boy (I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy) and Give My Regards of Broadway. The second song is arguably the more lasting standard being memorably performed by Al Jolson, Judy Garland and many others.

James Cagney performed an incredible prancing dance to it in his Academy Award winning performance as Cohan in the film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).

Introduction

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Here I will reveal the origins of the great standards we have enjoyed for years. Stay tuned for some interesting stories involving some of the greatest performers and songwriters of all time.