Madeline Kerns made her debut at four, performing in a “tent” show radio broadcast. A year later she sang to a captive audience at the NYC House of Detention, her stage a cellblock gallery. This was at the request of the warden, her father’s boss. Vividly she recalls the loud cheers and hands clapping through the bars.
Many years and performances later, Ms. Kerns made her official cabaret debut on April 25, 2010 at the first of two shows at Don’t Tell Mama. The diverse program – Sentimental Sandwich – featured many of her favorite songs and composers, Too Marvelous for Words (Mercer & Whiting,) They Say It’s Wonderful (Berlin,) I Can Dream, Can’t I (Kahal & Fain) and I’ll See You Again (Coward) among others.
Accompanied by Rolf Barnes, Kerns brought decades of performing, life experience, and a huge amount of feeling to her singing. She expressed a personal connection to each of the songs, making for a poignancy that was palpable to the audience. Madeline Kerns has a generous spirit and delightful sense of humor. Along the way she’s made lots of friends and several were present that afternoon. Ms. Kerns said that when the audience responded to her setup within the first minute, she thought “Madeline, do exactly what you were planning to do!”
A natural performer, she has always liked to sing, encouraged by her mother early on. “I just opened my mouth and the voice came out.” Kerns has sung at every possible opportunity, especially on cruise ships. “It was a great way to make new friends.” She’s a graduate of the Singing Experience and performs regularly in the Singers Forum Outreach. Madeline Kerns has no intention of slowing down.
Monday, September 13, 2010
David Hajdu - Heroes and Villains: Essays on Music, Movies, Comics and Culture
David Hajdu has described his first two works as “bookends.” They are, respectively, a study of the most prominent music of the first half of the 20th Century – jazz – via Duke Ellington and his long time collaborator Billy Strayhorn; and its companion piece, an extensive analysis of Bob Dylan, a towering figure comparable to Ellington.
In his third book Hajdu examined the comic book, an indigenous art form that prefigured what would become a thriving and defiant youth oriented culture. The unprecedented popularity of horror and crime comics in the 1950’s among the nation’s post-war youth provoked a near hysteria so pervasive that there were more than fifty acts of legislation banning or restricting the sale of various kinds of comic books, televised Congressional hearings, and years of book burnings by parents, teachers, churches, and children.
Hajdu, an Associate Professor of Journalism at Columbia University, has been writing on all sorts of music and popular culture for thirty years. Besides his monthly column for The New Republic, he’s been a contributor to The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and other publications. His latest book is Heroes and Villains: Essays on Music, Movies, Comics, and Culture, a collection of essays, many published previously.
Having written about a diverse range of popular music and the comic book, a preamble to a cultural revolution, David Hajdu delves into the lives of the artists who mirrored a rapidly changing society. His breadth of coverage is extraordinary. We meet the superstars of yesterday – Billy Eckstine, Richard Rodgers, Sammy Davis, and Dinah Washington, and those of today – Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Kanye West, and Josh Groban, along with many who were part of the long transition, Bobby Darin, Brian Wilson, John Lennon, and Joni Mitchell.
Billy Eckstine, for example, was once the most popular male vocalist in the country, more successful than Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby, with a dozen top ten hits during one three year span. He led a groundbreaking orchestra whose members included Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, and Sarah Vaughn. Hajdu says: “He defied the rules, changed them, and became a new kind of role model for generations of black singers.
Sammy Davis, Jr. gained acceptance as a popular African- American performer due in part to the groundwork laid by Eckstine. Davis, bred solely to perform, played six musical instruments, danced, sang, and possessed an exceptional skill as an impressionist. But, desperate for mainstream acceptance, he had little sense of his own identity. “He could do everything as anyone except himself; Davis was obsessed with proving his worth through performance.”
Whatever insecurities Richard Rodgers may have felt were not evident in his music. He created a huge catalog of songs for the theater, first with Lorenz Hart, later partnering with Oscar Hammerstein. According to David Hajdu, Hart insisted that he and Rodgers write “something of value.” The goal was reached many times over, the team producing “so many pieces of wracking beauty.” But Richard Rodgers was “a man with dark, hidden passions. His benign façade may have been a disguise after all.” He drank to excess and experienced severe bouts of depression. The negative aspects of his personality were concealed from the public, emerging only in the “wrenching music” familiar to generations now irreversibly welded to the American Song Book.
For readers not exposed to David Hajdu’s writing before, Heroes and Villains can be an excellent introduction. His refreshing insights into the creative process and celebrity is illuminating. The broad survey depicts decades of well known performers, illustrating the person behind the persona. After reading this entertaining collection, readers will have a better understanding of what it is that makes a star, and an ability to imagine which of today’s supernovas will be remembered fifty years from today.
In his third book Hajdu examined the comic book, an indigenous art form that prefigured what would become a thriving and defiant youth oriented culture. The unprecedented popularity of horror and crime comics in the 1950’s among the nation’s post-war youth provoked a near hysteria so pervasive that there were more than fifty acts of legislation banning or restricting the sale of various kinds of comic books, televised Congressional hearings, and years of book burnings by parents, teachers, churches, and children.
Hajdu, an Associate Professor of Journalism at Columbia University, has been writing on all sorts of music and popular culture for thirty years. Besides his monthly column for The New Republic, he’s been a contributor to The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and other publications. His latest book is Heroes and Villains: Essays on Music, Movies, Comics, and Culture, a collection of essays, many published previously.
Having written about a diverse range of popular music and the comic book, a preamble to a cultural revolution, David Hajdu delves into the lives of the artists who mirrored a rapidly changing society. His breadth of coverage is extraordinary. We meet the superstars of yesterday – Billy Eckstine, Richard Rodgers, Sammy Davis, and Dinah Washington, and those of today – Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Kanye West, and Josh Groban, along with many who were part of the long transition, Bobby Darin, Brian Wilson, John Lennon, and Joni Mitchell.
Billy Eckstine, for example, was once the most popular male vocalist in the country, more successful than Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby, with a dozen top ten hits during one three year span. He led a groundbreaking orchestra whose members included Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, and Sarah Vaughn. Hajdu says: “He defied the rules, changed them, and became a new kind of role model for generations of black singers.
Sammy Davis, Jr. gained acceptance as a popular African- American performer due in part to the groundwork laid by Eckstine. Davis, bred solely to perform, played six musical instruments, danced, sang, and possessed an exceptional skill as an impressionist. But, desperate for mainstream acceptance, he had little sense of his own identity. “He could do everything as anyone except himself; Davis was obsessed with proving his worth through performance.”
Whatever insecurities Richard Rodgers may have felt were not evident in his music. He created a huge catalog of songs for the theater, first with Lorenz Hart, later partnering with Oscar Hammerstein. According to David Hajdu, Hart insisted that he and Rodgers write “something of value.” The goal was reached many times over, the team producing “so many pieces of wracking beauty.” But Richard Rodgers was “a man with dark, hidden passions. His benign façade may have been a disguise after all.” He drank to excess and experienced severe bouts of depression. The negative aspects of his personality were concealed from the public, emerging only in the “wrenching music” familiar to generations now irreversibly welded to the American Song Book.
For readers not exposed to David Hajdu’s writing before, Heroes and Villains can be an excellent introduction. His refreshing insights into the creative process and celebrity is illuminating. The broad survey depicts decades of well known performers, illustrating the person behind the persona. After reading this entertaining collection, readers will have a better understanding of what it is that makes a star, and an ability to imagine which of today’s supernovas will be remembered fifty years from today.
Sharon Paige Discovers National Treasure - The Life and Songs of Ned Washington
Quick, who wrote The Nearness of You? If you guessed Hoagy Carmichael you’re half right. The answer is Ned Washington, and this is just one of the more than four hundred songs he wrote over a forty year career.
Like many lyricists of the American Song Book, Ned Washington is largely unknown to the public. Everyone knows Johnny Mercer, Oscar Hammerstein, and Sammy Cahn, but even those who are aware of the songwriters of their favorite songs, often know only the name of the composer. Dorothy Hammerstein said: “Until my husband wrote SOME-EN-CHANT-ED-EVE-NING, there was only DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH.”
Singer Sharon Paige, with assistance from her friends – Joe Regan, Jr. and a trio of fine musicians led by Keith Ingham, came to the February meeting to delight NYSMS members about Ned Washington and his wonderful songs. Public Relations Director Laura Slutsky hosted the well attended program with a good deal of humor.
Ms. Paige, who’s been singing since the age of three, performed many of the songs – all by Ned Washington – from her first CD - Love is the Thing, recorded with the Keith Ingham Sextet. Excerpts included The Nearness of You, Got the South in My Soul, Ghost of a Chance, Fire Down Below, and My Foolish Heart, written with Victor Young. My Foolish Heart was composed for the movie of the same name and starred Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward. The movie has the unique distinction of being an adaptation of a short story by J.D. Salinger, and the only film adaptation he ever allowed.
Between songs, Paige shared interesting details of Ned Washington’s life and career, acknowledging that the research had been compiled by Joe Regan, who obviously enjoyed the undertaking. The lyricist was said to be a “seeker” who infused his songs with “hope and faith,” as in “If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme.” Many of his songs have the common theme of “yearning and returning.” Apparently, Washington did yearn for his childhood home - Scranton, Pennsylvania - returning often. He was a strong proponent of giving back, and participated in many fundraisers.
Ned Washington’s lyrics were first heard in the Earl Carroll Vanities of 1929. Soon he was invited to Hollywood, where he wrote his first major hit Singin’ in the Bathtub for a Warner Brothers musical The Show of Shows. But Warner didn’t renew his contract, and he returned to New York, collaborating on several scores for Broadway. In 1934 MGM called, and this time he moved to Hollywood for good.
Having written themes for forty Hollywood films, Washington received twelve nominations, scoring three Oscars, two for Pinocchio, the other for High Noon. Among his frequent writing partners were Victor Young, Dimitri Tiomkin, Max Steiner, and Jimmy McHugh. Victor Young’s Stella by Starlight, the theme of The Univited, was recorded by a number of bands and became popular. As with the beautiful theme from Laura (David Raksin and Johnny Mercer), it became an even bigger hit after Ned Washington added haunting lyrics to the already haunting music.
Sharon Paige’s journey to an album of Ned Washington songs and her appearance at NYSMS began at Trudi Mann’s Fabulous Open Mic for singers. Resuming a career in music, dormant during years of raising a child, obtaining a college degree, and teaching, she returned to singing which had always been a passion. Joe Regan was at Trudi’s the night that Sharon Paige was performing A Woman’s Intuition. Impressed by how she treated the old Lee Wiley number, he suggested that she explore other songs in the Washington catalog. Taking his advice, she approached Keith Ingham, who was quite enthusiastic. Paige and Ingham worked together to craft a superb collection, arranged by Ingham, and backed by an exceptional group of musicians.
NYSMS members may have found it hard to believe that Ms. Paige had been absent from the music scene for years. She demonstrated a strong stage presence, accessibility, and a great rapport with her audience. Sharon Paige has a sweet, warm tone which wraps gently around the lyrics of the song. Although admitting that many of the songs had been unfamiliar to her, Paige performed them as if they had always been part of her repertoire. Every lyric could be understood, including lovely verses unheard for far too long.
Ms. Paige couldn’t have asked for a better group of musicians than Keith Ingham on piano, Murray Wall on bass, and Arnie Wise on drums. The trio performed a crowd pleasing, nostalgic medley of Ned Washington’s hits beginning with When You Wish Upon a Star, with each musician playing an impressive solo. The meeting ended with an interesting Q & A in which Ned Washington’s daughter Catharine Hinen, her publisher Helene Blue, and granddaughter Jenny Davidson participated. The standing room only audience could not have asked for a more enjoyable afternoon.
Like many lyricists of the American Song Book, Ned Washington is largely unknown to the public. Everyone knows Johnny Mercer, Oscar Hammerstein, and Sammy Cahn, but even those who are aware of the songwriters of their favorite songs, often know only the name of the composer. Dorothy Hammerstein said: “Until my husband wrote SOME-EN-CHANT-ED-EVE-NING, there was only DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH.”
Singer Sharon Paige, with assistance from her friends – Joe Regan, Jr. and a trio of fine musicians led by Keith Ingham, came to the February meeting to delight NYSMS members about Ned Washington and his wonderful songs. Public Relations Director Laura Slutsky hosted the well attended program with a good deal of humor.
Ms. Paige, who’s been singing since the age of three, performed many of the songs – all by Ned Washington – from her first CD - Love is the Thing, recorded with the Keith Ingham Sextet. Excerpts included The Nearness of You, Got the South in My Soul, Ghost of a Chance, Fire Down Below, and My Foolish Heart, written with Victor Young. My Foolish Heart was composed for the movie of the same name and starred Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward. The movie has the unique distinction of being an adaptation of a short story by J.D. Salinger, and the only film adaptation he ever allowed.
Between songs, Paige shared interesting details of Ned Washington’s life and career, acknowledging that the research had been compiled by Joe Regan, who obviously enjoyed the undertaking. The lyricist was said to be a “seeker” who infused his songs with “hope and faith,” as in “If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme.” Many of his songs have the common theme of “yearning and returning.” Apparently, Washington did yearn for his childhood home - Scranton, Pennsylvania - returning often. He was a strong proponent of giving back, and participated in many fundraisers.
Ned Washington’s lyrics were first heard in the Earl Carroll Vanities of 1929. Soon he was invited to Hollywood, where he wrote his first major hit Singin’ in the Bathtub for a Warner Brothers musical The Show of Shows. But Warner didn’t renew his contract, and he returned to New York, collaborating on several scores for Broadway. In 1934 MGM called, and this time he moved to Hollywood for good.
Having written themes for forty Hollywood films, Washington received twelve nominations, scoring three Oscars, two for Pinocchio, the other for High Noon. Among his frequent writing partners were Victor Young, Dimitri Tiomkin, Max Steiner, and Jimmy McHugh. Victor Young’s Stella by Starlight, the theme of The Univited, was recorded by a number of bands and became popular. As with the beautiful theme from Laura (David Raksin and Johnny Mercer), it became an even bigger hit after Ned Washington added haunting lyrics to the already haunting music.
Sharon Paige’s journey to an album of Ned Washington songs and her appearance at NYSMS began at Trudi Mann’s Fabulous Open Mic for singers. Resuming a career in music, dormant during years of raising a child, obtaining a college degree, and teaching, she returned to singing which had always been a passion. Joe Regan was at Trudi’s the night that Sharon Paige was performing A Woman’s Intuition. Impressed by how she treated the old Lee Wiley number, he suggested that she explore other songs in the Washington catalog. Taking his advice, she approached Keith Ingham, who was quite enthusiastic. Paige and Ingham worked together to craft a superb collection, arranged by Ingham, and backed by an exceptional group of musicians.
NYSMS members may have found it hard to believe that Ms. Paige had been absent from the music scene for years. She demonstrated a strong stage presence, accessibility, and a great rapport with her audience. Sharon Paige has a sweet, warm tone which wraps gently around the lyrics of the song. Although admitting that many of the songs had been unfamiliar to her, Paige performed them as if they had always been part of her repertoire. Every lyric could be understood, including lovely verses unheard for far too long.
Ms. Paige couldn’t have asked for a better group of musicians than Keith Ingham on piano, Murray Wall on bass, and Arnie Wise on drums. The trio performed a crowd pleasing, nostalgic medley of Ned Washington’s hits beginning with When You Wish Upon a Star, with each musician playing an impressive solo. The meeting ended with an interesting Q & A in which Ned Washington’s daughter Catharine Hinen, her publisher Helene Blue, and granddaughter Jenny Davidson participated. The standing room only audience could not have asked for a more enjoyable afternoon.
Rediscovered Vaudeville Songs - Review of CD by Annie Lebeaux
While cruising down the Mississippi, Annie Lebeaux discovered gold in the form of old sheet music. Written by composers and lyricists who went on to illustrious careers in musical theater, the songs represent the first quarter of the 20th century. The result is her CD: ANNIE LEBEAUX Performs Rare & Ridiculous Vaudeville Songs (1903- 1926,) a delightful and witty collection from the era in which Vaudeville and Broadway co-existed. Included is material by Irving Berlin, Gus Kahn, Bert Kalmar, Sam Lewis, Joe Young, and Harry Von Tilzer; several numbers were originally introduced by Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, and Belle Baker. Each of the sixteen songs tells a story, and few would be considered politically correct. Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday On Saturday Night?, If You Talk In Your Sleep Don’t Mention My Name, and Heinie Waltzed ‘Round On His Hickory Limb, and the rest will bring laughter to your heart. Had Annie Lebeaux presented these lively, funny songs then as she does now, she would have been the Toast of New Orleans. (You may also want to check out another of her CD’s, Am I in Love? featuring several standards, and a number of Lebeaux’s compositions, including Beyond That Fog and Speed Dial.)
Jo Stafford: A Reluctant Star
Rosemary Clooney said of Jo Stafford: “The voice says it all – beautiful, pure, straight forward, no artifice, matchless intonation, instantly recognizable. Those things describe the woman too.”
The third of four daughters, born to an Appalachian hill country couple from Tennessee in 1917 near Fresno, California, she went on to record over 800 songs, including 49 that made the best seller charts. Ms. Stafford was awarded 7 gold records and a platinum disc for selling over 25 million records, a first for a female singer. Her 1952 hit “You Belong to Me” was No. 1 for twelve weeks, selling 2 million records.
With all her success, Jo Stafford never sought it, and when the time came to give it up, she retired to raise her children. Nancy Franklin in a New Yorker piece in 1996 wrote: “One of the things you don’t hear in Stafford’s voice is ambition, a yearning to be recognized. She was a famous singer, but she was never a personality.”
After singing with her older sisters for a short time, she became the first female voice in the seven-man vocal act known as the Pied Pipers at the age of 17. By the time the Pipers joined Tommy Dorsey in 1939, they had become a quartet. Dorsey hired Frank Sinatra, and the Pied Pipers backed him. Stafford left the group and made her first solo recording in 1942 with the Dorsey band, leaving for Capitol Records in 1944, a new label started by Johnny Mercer. When her arranger Paul Weston moved to Columbia Records in 1950, she followed.
Jo Stafford, a major radio star in the 1940’s, recorded a number of V-Discs and toured with the USO. A favorite of serviceman, they named her G.I. Jo. She received a lot of letters from soldiers during WWII. They said that her voice reminded them of home. When asked why this was so, she answered “I’m not smart enough to know why.” In a conversation with NPR’s Terry Gross in 1988, she offered that the songwriters should get the credit not her. Writer Bill Reed, who interviewed her twice, said “She just sang with her heart and her guts. Her style was one of shy invitation, confessions of unbearable longing, a sense of comforting. She expressed a touch of wistful need and yet carried an almost subliminal message that everything would be all right.”
Trained as a classical singer, she’s said: “I’m really a frustrated group singer. My being in show business and the solo star business was a complete accident. Whatever fame came did so not because I wanted it.” Stafford never looked to be the center of attention; she liked to sing, but didn’t like to perform. “I’m basically a singer, period, and I think I’m really lousy in front of an audience – it’s just not me.” She avoided live solo performances, flopping at her only nightclub booking, New York’s Café Martinique, although her appearance at the London Palladium in 1952 was widely acclaimed.
Stafford’s son Tim Weston said: “My mom was proud of her body of work but was a very modest person. She didn’t receive the attention she deserved.” Jo Stafford retired in the late 1960’s when her voice no longer met her standards. Often asked why she stopped singing, she said: “For the same reason that Lana Turner doesn’t pose in bathing suits anymore.”
Cabaret singer Eric Comstock wrote: “Jo Stafford was one of the most gifted vocalists we’ve ever had. Jo just sang her heart out in a no-frills way. It wasn’t overly emotional, but just right.”
The third of four daughters, born to an Appalachian hill country couple from Tennessee in 1917 near Fresno, California, she went on to record over 800 songs, including 49 that made the best seller charts. Ms. Stafford was awarded 7 gold records and a platinum disc for selling over 25 million records, a first for a female singer. Her 1952 hit “You Belong to Me” was No. 1 for twelve weeks, selling 2 million records.
With all her success, Jo Stafford never sought it, and when the time came to give it up, she retired to raise her children. Nancy Franklin in a New Yorker piece in 1996 wrote: “One of the things you don’t hear in Stafford’s voice is ambition, a yearning to be recognized. She was a famous singer, but she was never a personality.”
After singing with her older sisters for a short time, she became the first female voice in the seven-man vocal act known as the Pied Pipers at the age of 17. By the time the Pipers joined Tommy Dorsey in 1939, they had become a quartet. Dorsey hired Frank Sinatra, and the Pied Pipers backed him. Stafford left the group and made her first solo recording in 1942 with the Dorsey band, leaving for Capitol Records in 1944, a new label started by Johnny Mercer. When her arranger Paul Weston moved to Columbia Records in 1950, she followed.
Jo Stafford, a major radio star in the 1940’s, recorded a number of V-Discs and toured with the USO. A favorite of serviceman, they named her G.I. Jo. She received a lot of letters from soldiers during WWII. They said that her voice reminded them of home. When asked why this was so, she answered “I’m not smart enough to know why.” In a conversation with NPR’s Terry Gross in 1988, she offered that the songwriters should get the credit not her. Writer Bill Reed, who interviewed her twice, said “She just sang with her heart and her guts. Her style was one of shy invitation, confessions of unbearable longing, a sense of comforting. She expressed a touch of wistful need and yet carried an almost subliminal message that everything would be all right.”
Trained as a classical singer, she’s said: “I’m really a frustrated group singer. My being in show business and the solo star business was a complete accident. Whatever fame came did so not because I wanted it.” Stafford never looked to be the center of attention; she liked to sing, but didn’t like to perform. “I’m basically a singer, period, and I think I’m really lousy in front of an audience – it’s just not me.” She avoided live solo performances, flopping at her only nightclub booking, New York’s Café Martinique, although her appearance at the London Palladium in 1952 was widely acclaimed.
Stafford’s son Tim Weston said: “My mom was proud of her body of work but was a very modest person. She didn’t receive the attention she deserved.” Jo Stafford retired in the late 1960’s when her voice no longer met her standards. Often asked why she stopped singing, she said: “For the same reason that Lana Turner doesn’t pose in bathing suits anymore.”
Cabaret singer Eric Comstock wrote: “Jo Stafford was one of the most gifted vocalists we’ve ever had. Jo just sang her heart out in a no-frills way. It wasn’t overly emotional, but just right.”
Johnny Mercer: Still With Us After All These Years
“My Aunt Hatty once said that when I was six months old she hummed at me and I hummed right back.” By the age of three or four Johnny Mercer was already listening to records and recalls liking “They Didn’t Believe Me” one of Jerome Kern’s early hits. Thirty years later they would team up to write a couple of big songs at the peak of Mercer’s song writing career in Hollywood.
Perhaps the most prolific lyricist in history, Johnny Mercer’s hugely successful run lasted more than four decades, well into the period when the public’s taste in music had changed. By the time he was no longer writing best sellers, he had produced more than 1,500 songs, many of them in the lexicon of popular music, providing us with another way of expressing our feelings.
John H. Mercer was born in Savannah, Georgia on November 18, 1909, a city so beautiful that during the Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman could not bring himself to destroy it during his infamous “march to the sea.” The Mercer household was fairly well off during his early years, and he spent the first twenty in Savannah before moving to New York City, completely infatuated with music of every kind.
Popular music had become ubiquitous by 1928, and songs that Johnny Mercer especially loved – jazz and blues – were booming in Harlem and on Broadway. On the boards were Rodgers, Gershwin, Duke, Kern, Porter, Youmans, and Schwartz, all of whom would go on to lay the foundation for the American Song Book.
Fresh from college, and flushed with success over the campus reaction to his first song “Sister Susie, Strut Your Stuff,” he arrived with a song written for Eddie Cantor which the star turned down. But Cantor, impressed by Mercer’s obvious talent, encouraged him to keep trying. Before long he wrote “Out of Breath and Scared to Death of You” which was used in the Garick Gaieties of 1930.
Johnny Mercer began his career as a singer and songwriter for Paul Whiteman. He made his recording debut in 1932 with the Whiteman band, and also began an association with Yip Harburg. Assigned to apprentice with the extraordinarily gifted lyric writer, He learned a lot from Harburg. It was around this time he met Hoagy Carmichael, who asked him to write a lyric for a song he had composed some years earlier. After laboring for close to twelve months, he produced “Lazy Bones,” which became an instant hit after its first appearance on the radio. In an interview many years later, Mercer claimed that it took him only twenty minutes to do the job.
Although well established as a song writer in New York, he accepted an offer to go to Hollywood and write for the movies in 1935. RKO, which produced low budget musicals, was his first studio, followed by Warner Brothers, where he collaborated with Richard Whiting. He soon had his first big song “I’m An Old Cowhand” for which he did both words and music, performed by his idol Bing Crosby.
Mercer wrote over twenty songs with Whiting, including “Too Marvelous for Words” recorded by everyone from June Christy to Margaret Whiting. Following Richard Whiting’s premature death, he joined Harry Warren, This pairing resulted in forty numbers, the most successful of which were “Jeepers Creepers” and “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.” Johnny Mercer’s most fertile period was in the early 1940’s. Although he wrote with many composers over the course of his long career, besides
Whiting and Warren, he most frequently partnered with Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, and Henry Mancini.
The World War II years produced “That Old Black Magic (inspired by Porter’s “You Do Something to Me,) “This Time the Dream’s on Me,” “Accentuate the Positive,” “Blues in the Night,” “Come Rain or Come Shine” (his only Broadway hit, written for St. Louis Woman,) “Hit the Road to Dreamland,” and several more, all written with Harold Arlen. Mercer and Carmichael reunited for “Skylark,” “How Little We Know,” and “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” which came a bit later.
The Hollywood community honored his work with no less than nineteen Oscar nominations. He lost the first eight times in spite of entries such as “My Shining Hour” and “Dearly Beloved,” composed by Arlen and Kern, respectively. Oscar Hammerstein, who won the Academy Award in 1942 for the lyrics to “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” another composition by Jerome Kern, sent a telegram to Johnny Mercer which said: “Johnny, you was robbed.” The losing song was “Blues in the Night.”
The charm came in 1947 for Mercer and Warren with “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe,” sung by Judy Garland in The Harvey Girls. Five years earlier he had penned “I Remember You,” a huge hit, telling everyone that it was the most direct expression of his feelings for Garland. Mercer had had a passionate affair with Judy Garland beginning when she was nineteen. While the song became a torch standard for many singers, mostly female, Miss Garland never recorded it.
Johnny Mercer won three more Oscars, for “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” in 1952, “Moon River” in 1961 and “The Days of Wine and Roses” in 1962. “Moon River,” which was almost edited out of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” and “…Days…” were written with Henry Mancini. Such back to back wins were unprecedented in Hollywood.
John H. Mercer died in California on June 25, 1976 and was buried in Savannah. Just before his death he was approached by Paul McCartney who proposed that they collaborate. He always gave credit for his musical talent to his mother, who sang sentimental ballads and his father, who sang mostly old Scottish folk songs. He was once asked how it was possible for one person to write so many great songs. Referring to “One for My Baby” he answered “When you get a tune like Baby, and you find the right mood, it’s the luckiest thing that can happen to a lyric writer.” To which he added “It’s also the extra hour of work that does it.”
“I’ve always written what I think I want to do, and the way I want it to be.” Another of Johnny Mercer’s heroes, Irving Berlin, said of him “Mercer will always write what he wants to write, and then let the public find out about it.”
Perhaps the most prolific lyricist in history, Johnny Mercer’s hugely successful run lasted more than four decades, well into the period when the public’s taste in music had changed. By the time he was no longer writing best sellers, he had produced more than 1,500 songs, many of them in the lexicon of popular music, providing us with another way of expressing our feelings.
John H. Mercer was born in Savannah, Georgia on November 18, 1909, a city so beautiful that during the Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman could not bring himself to destroy it during his infamous “march to the sea.” The Mercer household was fairly well off during his early years, and he spent the first twenty in Savannah before moving to New York City, completely infatuated with music of every kind.
Popular music had become ubiquitous by 1928, and songs that Johnny Mercer especially loved – jazz and blues – were booming in Harlem and on Broadway. On the boards were Rodgers, Gershwin, Duke, Kern, Porter, Youmans, and Schwartz, all of whom would go on to lay the foundation for the American Song Book.
Fresh from college, and flushed with success over the campus reaction to his first song “Sister Susie, Strut Your Stuff,” he arrived with a song written for Eddie Cantor which the star turned down. But Cantor, impressed by Mercer’s obvious talent, encouraged him to keep trying. Before long he wrote “Out of Breath and Scared to Death of You” which was used in the Garick Gaieties of 1930.
Johnny Mercer began his career as a singer and songwriter for Paul Whiteman. He made his recording debut in 1932 with the Whiteman band, and also began an association with Yip Harburg. Assigned to apprentice with the extraordinarily gifted lyric writer, He learned a lot from Harburg. It was around this time he met Hoagy Carmichael, who asked him to write a lyric for a song he had composed some years earlier. After laboring for close to twelve months, he produced “Lazy Bones,” which became an instant hit after its first appearance on the radio. In an interview many years later, Mercer claimed that it took him only twenty minutes to do the job.
Although well established as a song writer in New York, he accepted an offer to go to Hollywood and write for the movies in 1935. RKO, which produced low budget musicals, was his first studio, followed by Warner Brothers, where he collaborated with Richard Whiting. He soon had his first big song “I’m An Old Cowhand” for which he did both words and music, performed by his idol Bing Crosby.
Mercer wrote over twenty songs with Whiting, including “Too Marvelous for Words” recorded by everyone from June Christy to Margaret Whiting. Following Richard Whiting’s premature death, he joined Harry Warren, This pairing resulted in forty numbers, the most successful of which were “Jeepers Creepers” and “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.” Johnny Mercer’s most fertile period was in the early 1940’s. Although he wrote with many composers over the course of his long career, besides
Whiting and Warren, he most frequently partnered with Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, and Henry Mancini.
The World War II years produced “That Old Black Magic (inspired by Porter’s “You Do Something to Me,) “This Time the Dream’s on Me,” “Accentuate the Positive,” “Blues in the Night,” “Come Rain or Come Shine” (his only Broadway hit, written for St. Louis Woman,) “Hit the Road to Dreamland,” and several more, all written with Harold Arlen. Mercer and Carmichael reunited for “Skylark,” “How Little We Know,” and “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” which came a bit later.
The Hollywood community honored his work with no less than nineteen Oscar nominations. He lost the first eight times in spite of entries such as “My Shining Hour” and “Dearly Beloved,” composed by Arlen and Kern, respectively. Oscar Hammerstein, who won the Academy Award in 1942 for the lyrics to “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” another composition by Jerome Kern, sent a telegram to Johnny Mercer which said: “Johnny, you was robbed.” The losing song was “Blues in the Night.”
The charm came in 1947 for Mercer and Warren with “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe,” sung by Judy Garland in The Harvey Girls. Five years earlier he had penned “I Remember You,” a huge hit, telling everyone that it was the most direct expression of his feelings for Garland. Mercer had had a passionate affair with Judy Garland beginning when she was nineteen. While the song became a torch standard for many singers, mostly female, Miss Garland never recorded it.
Johnny Mercer won three more Oscars, for “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” in 1952, “Moon River” in 1961 and “The Days of Wine and Roses” in 1962. “Moon River,” which was almost edited out of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” and “…Days…” were written with Henry Mancini. Such back to back wins were unprecedented in Hollywood.
John H. Mercer died in California on June 25, 1976 and was buried in Savannah. Just before his death he was approached by Paul McCartney who proposed that they collaborate. He always gave credit for his musical talent to his mother, who sang sentimental ballads and his father, who sang mostly old Scottish folk songs. He was once asked how it was possible for one person to write so many great songs. Referring to “One for My Baby” he answered “When you get a tune like Baby, and you find the right mood, it’s the luckiest thing that can happen to a lyric writer.” To which he added “It’s also the extra hour of work that does it.”
“I’ve always written what I think I want to do, and the way I want it to be.” Another of Johnny Mercer’s heroes, Irving Berlin, said of him “Mercer will always write what he wants to write, and then let the public find out about it.”
Singing in the Rain: The Eight Annual Somgwriter Series
On a recent Saturday afternoon the rain poured down while everyone inside the Musicians Union Hall of Local 802 sang Buddy DeSylva’s April Showers with gusto. Gene Kelly was nowhere in sight, nor was Al Jolson. The entire meeting on April 11 was devoted to the 8th Annual Songwriter Series, produced by Sandi Durell, who also acted as the Emcee. The room was packed by the time NYSMS President Linda Amiel Burns welcomed the enthusiastic membership, including cabaret performer Karen Akers, all anxiously waiting to hear more than a dozen talented singers present the new material of equally talented songwriters.
The program began with two songs written by David Conforte: Just Sing, performed by Trisha Rapier; and Take That You Dirty Rat, neatly evoking a memory of Jimmy Cagney, sung by Kevin Reed. Richard Danley accompanied both singers. Just Sing is from Conforte’s latest project, Sing, a musical based on the life of Linda Amiel Burns.
Along the way, there were musical diversions about Christmas, impractical clothes, near extinct dances, Joni Mitchell, dead Hollywood legends, men with too much time on their hands – literally, Obama, blue Chevrolets, and getting old albeit not gracefully. Among the composers and lyricists on hand were William Zeffiro, Brad Ross, Joe Keenan, Ellen Greenfield, Alan Cancelino, and Hector Coris.
Accompanied by Tracy Stark, Marni Nixon took center stage to present a number that may as well have been written for her – You’ll Never See It Again. The lyrics by Peter Napolitano with music by Matthew Ward, addressed Hollywood life during the golden age of the 1950’s, a time when Ms. Nixon could have walked among the stars unrecognized, unless she sang I Could Have Danced All Night, in the voice of Audrey Hepburn, or Shall We Dance, in the persona of Deborah Kerr. Marni graciously signed copies of her autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, a catalog of her own stardom.
Other singers performing included Jennifer Wren, Sierra Rein, Summer Broyhill, Gabrielle Visser, Katherine Pecevich, Dominic Sheahan- Stahl, and Hector Coris, who sang his own composition Obama Button. Another performer doing her own material was Annie Lebeaux. One piece - Beyond That Fog - described how a tour guide leading a church group around the top of the Empire State Building coped on an especially foggy day. Clearly, no pun intended, the visitors would have required a vivid imagination.
Fresh from a well received show at the Metropolitan Room were Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano. Written by Alyce Finell, with assistance from Eric on the music, The Ding Dong Song was delivered by Mr. Comstock who accompanied himself. After acknowledging Finell’s impressive career, Ms. Fasano performed How Does It Happen? Known primarily as an award winning television producer before adding songwriting to her resume, Alyce Finell now serves as co-director of the Mabel Mercer Foundation and Administrator for the popular Cabaret Convention in New York City and elsewhere.
The varied program also included songs such as The Road to Ruin, What the Hell it’s Christmas, Who Wears These Clothes? How Sad No One Waltzes Anymore, I Played With Myself, Speed Dial, and Come Home, sung by Julie Reyburn who was accompanied by Mark Janas, and the winner of numerous awards, including two MAC awards. She’ll be returning to Feinstein’s in the fall for the second time.
Jeff Blumenkranz spent several years as an actor, performing on Broadway and television before turning to songwriting. A recording of his song I Won’t Mind by Audra McDonald provided a huge boast to his career. Since then his songs have been recorded by a number of stars, and he’s captured a Tony nomination for Best Original Score for Urban Cowboy. For the Songwriter Series program he sang Blue Chevrolet, in which the acquisition of an Easy Pass changes things forever, and Hold My Hand.
The grand finale was performed by Trudy Mann, Donna Trinkoff, and Sandi Durell, stepping out of her producer role briefly to perform Getting’ Old Really Sucks and E- Harmony, both written by Kezia Hirsey and June Rachelson-Ospa. The extensive experience of the seasoned trio was much in evidence throughout, and provided a great finish to a most entertaining program, prompting big smiles and loud applause by everyone in the room.
The program began with two songs written by David Conforte: Just Sing, performed by Trisha Rapier; and Take That You Dirty Rat, neatly evoking a memory of Jimmy Cagney, sung by Kevin Reed. Richard Danley accompanied both singers. Just Sing is from Conforte’s latest project, Sing, a musical based on the life of Linda Amiel Burns.
Along the way, there were musical diversions about Christmas, impractical clothes, near extinct dances, Joni Mitchell, dead Hollywood legends, men with too much time on their hands – literally, Obama, blue Chevrolets, and getting old albeit not gracefully. Among the composers and lyricists on hand were William Zeffiro, Brad Ross, Joe Keenan, Ellen Greenfield, Alan Cancelino, and Hector Coris.
Accompanied by Tracy Stark, Marni Nixon took center stage to present a number that may as well have been written for her – You’ll Never See It Again. The lyrics by Peter Napolitano with music by Matthew Ward, addressed Hollywood life during the golden age of the 1950’s, a time when Ms. Nixon could have walked among the stars unrecognized, unless she sang I Could Have Danced All Night, in the voice of Audrey Hepburn, or Shall We Dance, in the persona of Deborah Kerr. Marni graciously signed copies of her autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, a catalog of her own stardom.
Other singers performing included Jennifer Wren, Sierra Rein, Summer Broyhill, Gabrielle Visser, Katherine Pecevich, Dominic Sheahan- Stahl, and Hector Coris, who sang his own composition Obama Button. Another performer doing her own material was Annie Lebeaux. One piece - Beyond That Fog - described how a tour guide leading a church group around the top of the Empire State Building coped on an especially foggy day. Clearly, no pun intended, the visitors would have required a vivid imagination.
Fresh from a well received show at the Metropolitan Room were Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano. Written by Alyce Finell, with assistance from Eric on the music, The Ding Dong Song was delivered by Mr. Comstock who accompanied himself. After acknowledging Finell’s impressive career, Ms. Fasano performed How Does It Happen? Known primarily as an award winning television producer before adding songwriting to her resume, Alyce Finell now serves as co-director of the Mabel Mercer Foundation and Administrator for the popular Cabaret Convention in New York City and elsewhere.
The varied program also included songs such as The Road to Ruin, What the Hell it’s Christmas, Who Wears These Clothes? How Sad No One Waltzes Anymore, I Played With Myself, Speed Dial, and Come Home, sung by Julie Reyburn who was accompanied by Mark Janas, and the winner of numerous awards, including two MAC awards. She’ll be returning to Feinstein’s in the fall for the second time.
Jeff Blumenkranz spent several years as an actor, performing on Broadway and television before turning to songwriting. A recording of his song I Won’t Mind by Audra McDonald provided a huge boast to his career. Since then his songs have been recorded by a number of stars, and he’s captured a Tony nomination for Best Original Score for Urban Cowboy. For the Songwriter Series program he sang Blue Chevrolet, in which the acquisition of an Easy Pass changes things forever, and Hold My Hand.
The grand finale was performed by Trudy Mann, Donna Trinkoff, and Sandi Durell, stepping out of her producer role briefly to perform Getting’ Old Really Sucks and E- Harmony, both written by Kezia Hirsey and June Rachelson-Ospa. The extensive experience of the seasoned trio was much in evidence throughout, and provided a great finish to a most entertaining program, prompting big smiles and loud applause by everyone in the room.
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