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Post by tonyloco on May 1, 2018 9:14:46 GMT
Today's date reminds me of the verse of one of the great Rodgers and Hart songs:
On the first of May, it is moving day Spring is here so blow your job Throw your job away. Now's the time to trust To your wanderlust In the city's dust you wait, must you wait Just you wait.
In a mountain greenery Where God paints the scenery etc
What a clever rhymer Larry Hart was.
I see the Bee Gees also have a song called 'First of May' but I don't know it.
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Post by Mr Snow on May 1, 2018 10:13:59 GMT
Sadly my mind is at a much lower place than yours. I awoke with this little ditty running through my head.
Hooray, Hooray, the first of May, Outdoor sex, begins today.
Also as a party bore I can never hear September in the Rain on the radio, without reminding Mrs. Snow (or anyone else trapped in the car with me) that they are playing it in the wrong month.
“Now spring is here…”
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Post by tmesis on May 1, 2018 21:27:54 GMT
Today's date reminds me of the verse of one of the great Rodgers and Hart songs: On the first of May, it is moving day Spring is here so blow your job Throw your job away. Now's the time to trust To your wanderlust In the city's dust you wait, must you wait Just you wait. In a mountain greenery Where God paints the scenery etc What a clever rhymer Larry Hart was. I see the Bee Gees also have a song called 'First of May' but I don't know it. I so agree Tony. A great tune by Rodgers and one of Hart's wittiest lyrics. One of my favourite Hart rhymes is in Dancing on the Ceiling, where he has: I try to hide in vain Underneath my counterpane* - it wouldn't work today now we have duvets! * no one else has ever attempted to rhyme counterpane with anything.
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Post by tonyloco on May 2, 2018 10:25:36 GMT
Today's date reminds me of the verse of one of the great Rodgers and Hart songs: On the first of May, it is moving day Spring is here so blow your job Throw your job away. Now's the time to trust To your wanderlust In the city's dust you wait, must you wait Just you wait. In a mountain greenery Where God paints the scenery etc What a clever rhymer Larry Hart was. I see the Bee Gees also have a song called 'First of May' but I don't know it. I so agree Tony. A great tune by Rodgers and one of Hart's wittiest lyrics. One of my favourite Hart rhymes is in Dancing on the Ceiling, where he has: I try to hide in vain Underneath my counterpane* - it wouldn't work today now we have duvets! * no one else has ever attempted to rhyme counterpane with anything. And, as you know, the amazing thing is that Hart preferred Rodgers to compose the music first and then he would add the lyrics afterwards. I guess that shows a super-clever brain at work. We are also told that once Hart had devised his lyrics it was difficult to persuade him to amend them, even when they were rather on the naughty side! Of course in 'Pal Joey' this is just what was needed and Hart provided naughty lyrics in spades!
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Post by tmesis on Jan 5, 2020 20:41:06 GMT
I was playing a few standards the other day and was struck by how many are close to 100 years old. Some are already there namely:
Berlin - Alexander's Ragtime Band (1911) A Pretty Girl (1919)
Gershwin - Swanee (1919)
Kern - Look for the silver lining (1919) They didn't believe me (1914) - and I think the classiest of the lot amongst the really early songs
So, for those that care, all these songs are coming up for their centenary in the 2020's -
Irving Berlin:
Blue Skies What'll I do Puttin' on the Ritz
George Gershwin:
Fascinating Rhythm Oh Lady be Good! The half of it Dearie Blues Clap Yo' Hands Someone to watch over me S'Wonderful Strike up the band The Man I love
Jerome Kern:
All the songs from 'Showboat '
Cole Porter:
Let's do it You do Something to me What is this thing called Love
Richard Rodgers:
Manhattan Mountain Greenery My Heart Stood Still
Harold Arlen:
Get Happy
Hoagy Carmichael:
Stardust
Vincent Youmans:
Tea for Two I want to be happy Without a song
In the 30's and 40's the absolute bulk of top-drawer songs were written but there's more than enough greats in that little list from the 1920's.
Feel free to add any glaring omissions from my list of Standards that will be 100 this decade ...
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Post by harrietcraig on Jan 5, 2020 21:44:18 GMT
It Had to Be You (1924) — music by Isham Jones, lyrics by Gus Kahn Sweet Georgia Brown (1925) — music by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard, lyrics by Kenneth Casey Bye Bye Blackbird (1926) — music by Ray Henderson, lyrics by Mort Dixon My Blue Heaven (1927) — music by Walter Donaldson, lyrics by George A. Whiting
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Post by tmesis on Jan 6, 2020 8:59:14 GMT
A few more...
Jimmy McHugh: I can't give you anything but love, baby. (1929)
Fats Waller: Honeysuckle Rose (1929) Ain't Misbehavin' (1929)
Harry Ruby: I wanna be loved by you (1928) Who's Sorry now? (1928)
and one of my absolute favourites -
Carol Gibbons: A Garden in the Rain (1928)
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Post by tonyloco on Jan 7, 2020 20:16:00 GMT
It Had to Be You (1924) — music by Isham Jones, lyrics by Gus Kahn Sweet Georgia Brown (1925) — music by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard, lyrics by Kenneth Casey Bye Bye Blackbird (1926) — music by Ray Henderson, lyrics by Mort Dixon My Blue Heaven (1927) — music by Walter Donaldson, lyrics by George A. Whiting I invariably included all of those four wonderful songs on the many occasions I played for sing-along entertainment in the bar of the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, before the show, during the interval and afterwards. When the bell rang announcing the end of the interval, I always launched into '(The bells are ringing) For Me and My Girl', which I am surprised to see was written in 1917, although, come to think of it, one of the most endurable songs of that kind – 'You Made me Love You' – dates from 1913.
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Post by tonyloco on Jan 7, 2020 20:34:50 GMT
And happily watching that wonderful movie Some Like it Hot on TV a few days ago I particularly enjoyed the songs 'Running Wild' (1923), 'Down Among the Sheltering Palms' (1915), 'I'm Through With Love' (1932), 'By the Beautiful Sea' (1914), 'I Wanna Be Loved By You' (1928) and of course that quintessential tango 'La Cumparsita' (1916) – Strictly Come Dancing take note of the correct rhythm for the tango!
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Post by harrietcraig on Jan 7, 2020 21:30:40 GMT
It Had to Be You (1924) — music by Isham Jones, lyrics by Gus Kahn Sweet Georgia Brown (1925) — music by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard, lyrics by Kenneth Casey Bye Bye Blackbird (1926) — music by Ray Henderson, lyrics by Mort Dixon My Blue Heaven (1927) — music by Walter Donaldson, lyrics by George A. Whiting I invariably included all of those four wonderful songs on the many occasions I played for sing-along entertainment in the bar of the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, before the show, during the interval and afterwards. When the bell rang announcing the end of the interval, I always launched into '(The bells are ringing) For Me and My Girl', which I am surprised to see was written in 1917, although, come to think of it, one of the most endurable songs of that kind – 'You Made me Love You' – dates from 1913. Wish I could have heard that, tonyloco!
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Post by tonyloco on Jan 8, 2020 10:55:23 GMT
'You Made me Love You' – dates from 1913. "You made me love you, you woke me up to do it, you woke me up to do it" may date a little later, perhaps? Yes, parodies of popular songs were also commonplace, some quite filthy. One of the clean ones was 'My Melancholy Baby': Come to me my alcoholic baby, Too much gin has made you blue, All your fears are foolish fancies, maybe. You know dear that grog's no good for you, etc and another cleanish one went: The Sultan rings his little bell Calls for his wife whose name is Nell She's only twenty but she knows plenty 'Bout makin' whoopee, etc The dirty ones I will leave to the Monkey to post, since that seems to be one of his special fields of knowledge....along with bananas and the rules of Mornington Crescent.
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Post by tonyloco on Jan 9, 2020 11:54:13 GMT
Actually, if anybody cares, I had misremembered the order of the stanzas in the parody of 'Makin' Whoopee'. I think the whole parody goes as follows, although it ends up rather weakly and I am not absolutely certain about all the words in the later part.
The Sultan rings his little bell, Calls for his wife whose name is Nell. Puts down his bourbon Takes off his turban, Starts makin' whoopee.
Next night he wants a change of scene. Calls for his wife whose name's Irene. She's only twenty But she knows plenty 'Bout makin' whoopee.
Forty wives felt neglected, They thought it wasn't fair. But that's all been corrected, And now they all get their share.
'Cos every night the Sultan's son, Who also likes a bit of fun, Runs through the harem And tries to scare 'em Makin' whoopee.
Not up to Larry Hart's standard of dirt although I particularly like the picture of the bourbon and the turban at the beginning. It was possibly written by the lyricist of the original song, Gus Kahn.
Does anybody else have parodies of classic songs to offer or is it just me and the Monkey who collect such things?
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Post by tmesis on Jan 9, 2020 12:59:37 GMT
I'm sure you don't need me to remind you Tony that the best example of this sort of thing is Noel Coward's rewriting of Let's do it. It's quite something to better the original when Cole Porter is involved but The Master spectacularly achieves this. It's too long to quote in full, and every line is brilliant, but a few lines:
He said the Belgians and Greeks do it Nice young men who sell antiques do it Let's do it, let's fall in love Monkeys whenever you look do it Aly Khan and King Farouk do it Let's do it, let's fall in love Louella Parsons can't quite do it For she's so highly strung Marlene might do it But she looks far too young...
Our famous writers in swarms do it Somerset and all the Maughans do it Let's do it, let's fall in love The Brontes felt that they must do it Ernest Hemingway could just do it Let's do it, let's fall in love E. Allen Poe ho! ho! ho! did it But he did it in verse H. Beecher Stowe did it But she had to rehearse Tennessee Williams self-taught does it Kinsey with a deafening report does it Let's do it, let's fall in love...
We're told every hormone does it Victor Borge all alone does it Let's do it, let's fall in love Each tiny clam you consume does it Even Liberace - we assume - does it Let's do it, let's fall in love.
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Post by TallPaul on Jan 9, 2020 13:23:05 GMT
Until reminded just now, I'd forgotten that I still have, somewhere, Noel Coward's live recording of Let's Do It. My peers would be in HMV buying the latest LP from Duran Duran or Spandau Ballet; I'd be upstairs flicking through the racks of 'real' songs!
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Post by harrietcraig on Jan 9, 2020 22:44:53 GMT
I’m not sure who wrote this parody — it has apparently been attributed to both Lorenz Hart and Buddy De Sylva.
I’ll be loving you Always Both in very big and Small ways. With a love as grand As Paul Whiteman’s band And ‘twill weigh as much as Paul weighs, Always.
In saloons and drab Hallways You are what I’ll grab Always. See how I dispense Rhymes that are immense, But do they make sense? Not always.
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Post by tonyloco on Jan 10, 2020 11:43:12 GMT
Yes, tmesis, Noel Coward's rewriting of Cole Porter's 'Let's Do It' is one of the very best of such comic lyrics, and is greatly enhanced by Coward's pronunciation of some of the words in his iconic 1955 recorded live performance.
I never understood why the last line (about Liberace) got such a big laugh, and one of my Australian writer friends was always wondering whether Coward got a clearance from all those celebrities (or their estates) to include their names in the song or whether he just took a chance that none of them would object or try to sue him? He was of course a pal of Cole Porter and they shared at least one boyfriend so one assumes Coward got a clearance from Porter or his publisher for the parody version of 'Let's Do It'.
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Post by tonyloco on Jan 10, 2020 11:47:14 GMT
I’m not sure who wrote this parody — it has apparently been attributed to both Lorenz Hart and Buddy De Sylva. I’ll be loving you Always Both in very big and Small ways. With a love as grand As Paul Whiteman’s band And ‘twill weigh as much as Paul weighs, Always. In saloons and drab Hallways You are what I’ll grab Always. See how I dispense Rhymes that are immense, But do they make sense? Not always. Many thanks, harrietcraig, for that brilliant parody of 'Always', which is new to me. I love it!
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Post by tmesis on Jan 10, 2020 12:52:44 GMT
Since we've just been mentioning him, all these Coward classics achieve their century this decade:
Poor Little Rich Girl (1925) A room with a View (1928) Dance Little Lady (1928) I'll see you again (1929) Zigeuner (1929) If Love were All (1929)
The latter is possibly my favourite Coward song, never more poignantly sung than by Judy Garland in her live Carnegie Hall concert, where she gives a definitive performance, just accompanied by piano.
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Post by tmesis on Jan 10, 2020 13:18:03 GMT
I think "London Pride" has to be my favourite by the Master, now you mention tmesis . I agree it's an absolutely lovely song with poignant words but also, what sometimes is overlooked in Coward, a stonkingly good tune.
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Post by Mr Snow on Jan 11, 2020 11:34:33 GMT
Great to see one of my favourite threads revived with two new angles.
Sadly I don't play or sing so I haven't committed the following to memory, so I offer snatches in the hope some of you can help with the rest as Google is showing its limitations..
Benny Green used to refer to alternate lyrics that players would pass around. Nightclubs would seem to be the ideal home for these parody's and I'm sure some of them were not suitable for retelling on R2 Sunday Lunchtime's, but one he used to quote was a parody of the 42nd St song which started
"Every day, every night .... You're getting to be a Rabbit with me."
Second time around the Chorus would add the line
"...Can't take it"
(There's also a comedy spoof by Alan Sherman where the object of his affections is a real 'bunny'.)
A couple of decades ago, Andrea Marcovicci used to do an annual stint at Pizza on the Park. One of her encores would feature the Pianist tapping out a familiar riff and her face would drop..
"New York, New York he's playing it again."
Followed by a rewrite anti hymn to her adopted city.
But the most famous rewrite (not really a parody) is surely this rewrite by Sammy Cahn of his own title?
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Post by tonyloco on Jan 12, 2020 14:41:09 GMT
May I selfishly take this thread off on a different direction and ask members to list their favourite old movies that brought together a lot of great old songs either by a single composer or by a particular performer.
Top of my list has to be The Jolson Story (and Jolson Sings Again) in which every song is a winner and sung by the inimitable Al Jolson. Also among my favourites are the following:
My Gal Sal (songs of Paul Dresser) When Irish Eyes are Smiling (songs of Ernest R Ball) Hello Frisco Hello (American vaudeville songs) Alexander's Ragtime Band (songs of Irving Berlin) There's No Business Like Show Business (songs of Irving Berlin) Yankee Doodle Dandy (songs of George M Cohan)
I know this is just the tip of the iceberg, and there are certainly other similar films that will come to mind in due course. And some people might have a special preference for the composer biopics like Words and Music (Rodgers and Hart), Night and Day (Cole Porter), Till the Clouds Roll By (Jerome Kern), etc, although the great merit of these films is that they preserve performances of songs by those composers given by some of their leading interpreters rather than give accurate biographies of the composers.
Anyway, come on folks...let us see your lists!
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Post by harrietcraig on Jan 12, 2020 14:51:38 GMT
Love Me or Leave Me, with Doris Day as Ruth Etting. Among the more memorable songs in the film are: Love Me or Leave Me Shaking the Blues Away Ten Cents a Dance and too many others to list here. The full list can be seen at www.imdb.com/title/tt0048317/soundtrack
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Post by Mr Snow on Jan 12, 2020 15:00:56 GMT
Great idea. Two more.
Just imagine if you were the boss of the Musicals unit of the biggest Studio the world has ever seen, and you had previously been a songwriter, you might conceive of a way of bringing some of those songs together.
I bet you couldn't have imagined it turn out as well as Singing in the Rain.
All but two songs were previously little known items from the back catalogue of ARTHUR FREED and Nacio Herb Brown.
Production was delayed as Gene Kelly was busy at work on another 'portmanteau' musical, An American in Paris.
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Post by tonyloco on Jan 12, 2020 15:06:06 GMT
Love Me or Leave Me, with Doris Day as Ruth Etting. Among the more memorable songs in the film are: Love Me or Leave Me Shaking the Blues Away Ten Cents a Dance and too many others to list here. The full list can be seen at www.imdb.com/title/tt0048317/soundtrackSpot on, harrietcraig! One of the great movie musicals. I have just remembered Three Little Words (songs of Ruby and Kalmar) and The Best Things in Life are Free (De Sylva, Brown and Henderson) although I have no particular recollection of the latter film
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Post by tonyloco on Jan 12, 2020 15:09:52 GMT
Great idea. Two more. Just imagine if you were the boss of the Musicals unit of the biggest Studio the world has ever seen, and you had previously been a songwriter, you might conceive of a way of bringing some of those songs together. I bet you couldn't have imagined it turn out as well as Singing in the Rain. All but two songs were previously little known items from the back catalogue of ARTHUR FREED and Nacio Herb Brown. Production was delayed as Gene Kelly was busy at work on another 'portmanteau' musical, An American in Paris. Also spot on, Mr Snow. I had originally thought of An American in Paris but forgotten about Singin' in the Rain – two of the all-time great movie musicals.
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