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What are some films that did really good arrangements of songs from the Great American Songbook (GAS), but THE MAJORITY ARE NOT ORIGINAL TO THE FILM OR PROPERTY?
Examples that DO NOT QUALIFY:
SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1981) does not qualify because it is not from the Great American Songbook (sorry, rockers).
GIGI: the songs were original to this film.
SOUTH PACIFIC: the songs are original to the show the film is based on.
Examples that qualify:
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN qualifies because all of its songs are NOT written for the film (they were Freed songs written way-back-when).
Ditto with NEW YORK, NEW YORK (my take is that "Happy Endings" is one great big, 11-minute song, so that makes only 4 original songs. And what great arrangements the others got!)
And FOR ME AND MY GAL (mostly vaudeville, but I call that GAS)
****
Put on your thinking caps, fellas....
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If SITR qualifies, I guess two others that automatically spring to mind are AN AMERICAN IN PARIS and THE BAND WAGON, Freed Unit musicals that built on selections from a given song catalog (AAIP used all pre-existing George Gershwin songs and TBW used songs of Schwartz and Dietz.)
Of course, Schwartz and Diietz did collaborate on one more song for the movie which arguably overshadowed most of the others and became an "MGM Anthem" of sorts, "That's Entertainment."
An unproduced musical was written by SITR's Comden and Green, and would have made similar use of Cole Porter's catalog, but Arthur Freed decided against it and pulled the plug. The script is available to read at the Lincoln Center Library. It's called "Wonderland."
. . . How about Irving Berlin's THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS?
. . . and I guess you could add many of the songwriter biopics and show-biz-personality biopics to the list.
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Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) - Irving Berlin catalog
American Pop (1981) - various composers
At Long Last Love (1975) - Cole Porter catalog
Birth of the Blues (1940) - various composers
Blue Skies (1946) - Irving Berlin catalog
By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) - various composers
Easter Parade (1948) - Irving Berlin catalog
Everyone Says I Love You (1996) - various composers
Hit the Deck (1955) - Vincent Youmans catalog
I'll Get By (1950) - various composers
Lullaby of Broadway (1951) - various composers
On Moonlight Bay (1951) - various composers
Pennies From Heaven (1981) - various composers
Pete Kelly's Blues (1955) - various composers
Rose of Washington Square (1939) - various composers
Stormy Weather (1943) - various composers
Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) - Arthur Schwartz and Frank Loesser catalog
This Could Be the Night (1957) - various composers
Tin Pan Alley (1940) - various composers
Young At Heart (1955) - various composers
And the three "Ziegfeld" movies, which are loaded with standards from various composers:
The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
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. . . and I guess you could add many of the songwriter biopics and show-biz-personality biopics to the list.
Let's see, among the songwriter biopics are:
The Best Things in Life Are Free (1956) - Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown & Ray Henderson
Deep In My Heart (1954) - Sigmund Romberg
De-Lovely (2004) - Cole Porter
The Great Victor Herbert (1939) - Victor Herbert
Harmony Lane (1935) - Stephen Foster
I Dream of Jeanie (1952) - Stephen Foster
I'll See You In My Dreams (1952) - Gus Kahn
Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1944) - Ernest R. Ball
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now? (1947) - Joseph E. Howard
My Wild Irish Rose (1947) - Chauncey Olcott
Night and Day (1946) - Cole Porter
Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949) - Fred Fisher
Rhapsody In Blue (1945) - George and Ira Gershwin
Shine on Harvest Moon (1944) - Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth
St. Louis Blues (1958) - W.C. Handy
Swanee River (1939) - Stephen Foster
Three Little Words (1950) - Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby
Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) - Jerome Kern
Words and Music (1948) - Lorenz Hart & Richard Rodgers
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1943) - George M. Cohan
Your Cheatin' Heart (1964) - Hank Williams
And among the show-biz personality biopics are:
The Eddie Cantor Story (1953)
Funny Lady (1975) - Fanny Brice
The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
The I-Don't Care Girl (1953) - Eva Tanguay
The Joker Is Wild (1957) - Joe E. Lewis
The Jolson Story (1947)
Jolson Sings Again (1950)
Lady Sings the Blues (1972) - Billie Holiday
Look for the Silver Lining (1949) - Marilyn Miller
Love Me or Leave Me (1955) - Ruth Etting
The Seven Little Foys (1955) - Eddie Foy
Somebody Loves Me (1952) - Blossom Seeley and Benny Fields
With a Song In My Heart (1952) - Jane Froman
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Thanks, Sigerson, I had not heard of WONDERLAND, but everything you write about it could have also been said about Irving Berlin's SAY IT WITH MUSIC.
***
Incidentally, I once heard Jonathan Schwartz on the radio -- his natural habitat, of course -- interviewing his father Arthur. Among the stories father shared with son was the time a few years previously at a recording session for the latest rendition of "Dancing in the Dark." A young engineer in the control room asked him, "Mr. Schwartz, did you write that song?" "Yes, I did," Arthur answered, to which the kid responded, "Well, good luck with it."
And, one more: Way back when Dietz and Schwartz first wrote most of their hits, they were slaving over a show out-of-town, working together in a hotel room. When a neighbor complained to management about the piano noise, the songwriters were moved to another spot in the hotel. But this happened more than once, and when they were being shunted for the umpteenth time to another suite, Dietz said to his partner, "You notice, they never complain about the lyrics."
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Great stories, Preston. Fun thread.
I'm no expert on movie musicals, but weren't the Busby Berkeley musicals of the thirties...Gold Diggers of various years and so on...mostly composed of existing songs?
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Thanks, Sigerson, I had not heard of WONDERLAND, but everything you write about it could have also been said about Irving Berlin's SAY IT WITH MUSIC.
The saga of the making of SAY IT WITH MUSIC could probably fill a book the size of "Return to Tomorrow," the difference being, of course, that no film resulted.
--Just thought of another: THE STORY OF VERNON AND IRENE CASTLE.
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Sean, I don't know where you get your kooky ideas,
but the golden age WB musicals had very original scores, the lion's share of them from the piano of Harry Warren and the pen of Al Dubin. Not far behind were composer Richard Whiting and lyricist Johnny Mercer. Mind you, by the early 50's, a lot of the studio's musicals were jukeboxes of standards from years past -- many of them cannibalized from the Dubin-Warren songbook of those 30's WB htis.
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Thanks for the correction. I knew there were some new songs, don't know where I got the idea that there were a lot of recycled songs as well.
I read the first part of Ethan Mordden's "Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre" a couple of years ago, and he talks about stage musicals that did feature both new songs along with chestnuts in the early years of the 20th century. I'm probably just conflating that with these 30's movies, along with several of the ones already named....
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Good book; it's on my shelf, too. You'll be fine from here on, Sean, just so long as you watch that conflating.
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I forgot the one solo credit that I know David Raksin to have for a musical, his adaptation of Gershwin songs for
THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM.
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Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) - Irving Berlin catalog....
You are the king of lists, Bob DiMucci. Thank you.
I'm dubious about AMERICAN POP, since I don't think it uses the GAS exclusively.
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Posted: |
Jun 5, 2015 - 12:21 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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I'm dubious about AMERICAN POP, since I don't think it uses the GAS exclusively.
Certainly not exclusively, but in its multigenerational story, for the years covered by the GAS, then yes. Excerpts or performances of all of these songs can be heard in the film:
“As Time Goes By,” composed by Herman Hupfeld;
“Slaughter On Tenth Avenue,” composed by Richard Rodgers;
“A String Of Pearls,” music by Jerry Gray, lyrics by Eddie De Lange;
“I Got Rhythm,” music George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin;
“Maple Leaf Rag,” composed by Scott Joplin; ;
“I Don’t Care,” music by Harry O. Sutton, lyrics by Jean Lenox;
“Palm Leaf Rag,” composed by Scott Joplin;
“Give My Regards To Broadway,” composed by George M. Cohan;
“Smiles,” music by Lee S. Roberts, lyrics by J. Will Callahan;
“Over There,” composed by George M. Cohan, performed by Bob Grant and His Orchestra, courtesy of MCA Records, Inc.;
“Swanee,” music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Irving Caesar; ;
“Look For The Silver Lining,” music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by B. G. De Sylva;
“Anything Goes,” composed by Cole Porter;
“Somebody Loves Me,” music by George Gershwin, lyrics by B. G. De Sylva and Ballard MacDonald;
“When The Saints Go Marching In,” Traditional, arranged by Lee Holridge;
“Charleston,” composed by Cecil Mack and Jimmy Johnson;
“Bill,” music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse and Oscar Hammerstein II, performed by Helen Morgan, courtesy of RCA Records;
“Body And Soul,” composed by John W. Green, Edward Heyman, Robert Sour and Frank Eyton;
“Sweet Georgia Brown,” composed by Ben Bernie, Kenneth Casey and Maceo Pinkard;
“Our Love Is Here To Stay,” music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin;
“Sing, Sing, Sing,” composed by Louis Prima, performed by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, courtesy of RCA Records;
“Nancy (With The Laughing Face),” composed by Jimmy Van Heusen and Phil Silvers;
“Mona Lisa,” composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans;
“Summertime,” music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Du Bose Heyward, performed by Big Brother & The Holding Company with Janis Joplin, courtesy of CBS Records;
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I forgot the one solo credit that I know David Raksin to have for a musical, his adaptation of Gershwin songs for
THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM.
I think in PILGRIM you may have an interesting exception to your rules for this thread. The songs in that score were created after George Gershwin died. by writing lyrics to unused melodies from G.G.'s old melody notebook. So, they were in effect "new" songs, as far as the public was concerned. They were created for the score of the PILGRIM film musical, but did not exist as songs before that.
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I forgot the one solo credit that I know David Raksin to have for a musical, his adaptation of Gershwin songs for
THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM.
I think in PILGRIM you may have an interesting exception to your rules for this thread. The songs in that score were created after George Gershwin died. by writing lyrics to unused melodies from G.G.'s old melody notebook. So, they were in effect "new" songs, as far as the public was concerned. They were created for the score of the PILGRIM film musical, but did not exist as songs before that.
I'll count it in since I make exceptions for David Raksin.
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Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) - Arthur Schwartz and Frank Loesser catalog
I thought these were written for this film. Hmm.
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Borderline: LUCKY LADY
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