Harold Arlen and His Songs

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What makes Harold Arlen one of the great song composers of the twentieth century?

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What makes Harold Arlen one of the great song composers of the twentieth century?

Image courtesy of interviewee. January 21, 2025

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This video discusses the music of Harold Arlen, an influential composer during the golden age of American popular music from the 1920s to the 1960s. Although he is less recognized than contemporaries like George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, Arlen created numerous beloved songs, including the iconic "Over the Rainbow" from *The Wizard of Oz*. He was notable for his collaborations with African American artists and for his innovative approach to song structure, often exceeding conventional lengths with his compositions.

Arlen worked as a staff songwriter at the Cotton Club, where he wrote classics like "Stormy Weather." His ability to blend the Black musical tradition with mainstream American music led to admiration from influential artists, including Ethel Waters, who praised his genuine collaboration with Black musicians.

The discussion also touches on the collaborative nature of songwriting during this era, highlighting how Arlen, in contrast to some contemporaries who wrote both music and lyrics, often collaborated with distinguished lyricists like Yip Harburg and Ira Gershwin. Arlen's unique musical style sometimes resulted in complex compositions, which he referred to as "tapeworm" songs for their unconventional structures.

Additionally, his talents extended beyond composition; Arlen began as a singer and arranger before fully embracing songwriting, and he performed his own music on various platforms, including albums and television shows. His contributions to music continue to be celebrated, with notable figures like Stephen Sondheim regarding him as a significant and moving influence in the world of songwriting. Overall, the text presents Arlen as a profound artistic figure whose work shaped the landscape of American music.

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Here are five key points extracted from the video:

1. **Golden Age of American Popular Song**: The period from the 1920s to the 1960s is recognized as a golden age for American popular music, marked by legendary composers like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Harold Arlen, who contributed significantly to Broadway, Hollywood, and the recording industry.

2. **Harold Arlen's Notable Works**: Although primarily known for "Over the Rainbow" from *The Wizard of Oz*, Arlen wrote nearly 500 songs, including other famous pieces like "Stormy Weather." His music, while perhaps less recognized than that of his contemporaries, is celebrated for its quality and innovation.

3. **Collaboration with African American Artists**: Arlen had a significant and respectful collaboration with Black artists during a time of segregation. He worked at The Cotton Club and partnered with prominent singers like Ethel Waters and Lena Horne, establishing close relationships that highlighted his appreciation for the contributions of African American musicians.

4. **Innovative Song Structure**: Arlen was known for breaking conventional song structures, often writing longer compositions (termed "tapeworm songs") that extended beyond the standard 32-bar format. This innovative approach allowed for greater musical expression, exemplified in songs like "Blues in the Night" and "The Man That Got Away."

5. **Musical Legacy and Influence**: Despite his own success as a performer and composer, Arlen's influence reached generations of musicians, including Stephen Sondheim, who admired his craftsmanship and the emotional depth of his compositions. Arlen's background as a singer and arranger played a crucial role in his musical creations, reflecting his passion for the interplay between music and lyrics.

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Here are some key quotes extracted from the video :

1. "In the early to middle part of the 20th century... considered by many people a golden age of American popular song."

2. "Arlen was... part of that generation. He was born in 1905, and he wrote many big hits."

3. "He never really had a hit show, but he had a great hit film, The Wizard of Oz... which produced... Over the Rainbow."

4. "His name isn't as well known as his music is."

5. "The quality of his work is... equally high... worthy of attention."

6. "He worked at The Cotton Club... which had this kind of built-in segregation."

7. "Many famous, black artists worked there... Arlen was the staff songwriter there for three or four years."

8. "[Ethel Waters] said he was the Negroes of them all," meant as a compliment.

9. "There are issues of appropriation... and inequity that are there."

10. "The connection between music and words is very basic... it runs right through the Madrigal... Opera in the 17th and 18th century."

11. "Music composers and lyricists work together to create something new."

12. "Arlen often found himself breaking the bounds... and that a famous example is the song that he wrote called Blues in the Night."

13. "There's a compositional impulse that he feels to round off a song... that if Beethoven wants to go another eight or nine or 10 bars... Arlen, in his way, is doing the same thing."

14. "One of his collaborators called 'em Spaghetti Tunes."

15. "The way he tended to work... usually the music came first... and then a lyricist would fit the lyrics to it."

16. "He was deeply involved in it and greatly respected by African American musicians."

17. "Sondheim often would say how much he adored Arlen's music, how moving it was..."

18. "He actually began as a singer... and he continued to record some of his songs."

19. "He often pointed to that relationship to that tradition, but also his love of lyrics."

These quotes reflect the main themes of the video, including the significance of Harold Arlen in the American songbook, his collaborations with Black artists, his unique compositional style, and the interplay between music and lyrics.

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In the, early to middle part

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of the 20th century from about 1925 to about 1960s,

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considered by many people a golden age of

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American popular song figures like George Gershwin,

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Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rogers.

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This was a period when that kind of song, whether it was,

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songs for Broadway shows, songs for Hollywood films,

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or just songs for the record industry

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for great artists to sing.

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Artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne

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and Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, who,

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who recorded these things, these songs.

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So, Arlen was, was part of that generation.

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He was born in 1905, and, he wrote many big hits.

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He never really had a hit show,

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but he had a great hit film, the Wizard of Oz,

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which came out in 1939,

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and which produced a song that by some reckoning,

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or in some surveys, was the greatest song

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of the 20th century, if you can really measure that,

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called Over the Rainbow, which is familiar to many people.

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So that's who he was. And, one reason I've been

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so interested in him, well, I think he, he,

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he wrote almost 500 songs.

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Um, that's one of the best known, of course,

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perhaps the best known, another one called Stormy Weather,

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which is a much more jazz based song, jazz influence song.

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But, some, his name isn't as well known

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as his music is.

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And sometimes if I mention to people

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that I've been working on Harold Ar

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and they stare at me a bit blankly

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until I say over the rainbow, stormy weather.

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Uh, so he doesn't have the, some of the same recognition

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as George Gershwin or Irving Berlin,

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or the other people I mentioned.

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But the quality of his work is, is equally high and,

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and, you know, worthy of attention.

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I would say more than most of his contemporary songwriters,

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George Goman to some extent, but Arlen,

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because he was also a pianist

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and arranger, he worked with a lot of,

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black artists at the time,

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starting already in the late 1920s, early 1930s.

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He worked at The Cotton Club, which is a,

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a, a club in Harlem.

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Uh, very famous, particularly during this period, which,

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had this kind of built in segregation.

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Almost all the patrons were white

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and almost all the performers were black.

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And many famous, black artists, worked there.

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Duke Ellington, cab Calloway

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and Arlen was the, in effect, the staff songwriter there

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for three or four years

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with his collaborator Ted Kohler, the lyricist.

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And it was during that time that he wrote Stormy Weather

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and other, standards, things that became standards.

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And, one of the singers he worked

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with there was named Ethel Waters, one of the great,

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black singers, actresses of the 20th century.

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Um, so that started further.

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He also worked with Lena Horn, another great, singer.

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And, so across his career there were a number of,

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of artists that, that, artists of color who,

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who took up his music and, loved, loved performing it.

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Ethel Waters who worked with him at the Cotton Club,

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was so impressed.

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And it, it was generally impressed that

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how well he worked with black artists.

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There's a quote in her autobiography that

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where she says he was the Negroes of them all.

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She says about Harold Harland,

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and she meant that as a compliment, not that he was trying

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to pass as black,

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or that he was sort of, aping them in the mannerisms

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of black singers or pianists.

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So he had this close relationship early on, with many,

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those are two of the ones that come to mind.

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I'm sure there were others. Um,

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and in terms of, well, racial representation, yeah,

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so there was the, the awkwardness, if you will,

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or at least in retrospect of the Cotton Club

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and the way it was set up.

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But again,

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or many African American singers,

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made their careers or, you know, from

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not just Arlen's music,

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but other music of, you know, white, mainly Jewish

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American song composers.

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So there are some paradoxes

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and even some problems there in partly in that, the,

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publishers, the music publishers, most of the money went to,

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the music publishers who were often Jewish,

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businessmen.

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And I mean, I think I heard that Duke Ellington had

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to give 30 or 40% of his profits to mills the publisher.

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And so there are, there are issues of appropriation

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or, you know, inequity that are there,

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but it was a very rich period culturally.

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And as I say, Arlen was, was, was deeply,

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involved in it and greatly respected, by

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African American musicians.

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My, career, my, as a musicologist,

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studying mainly up until more recently,

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classical Western music, German music, the, the link

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between, music and lyrics, or music

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and words goes way back.

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It goes way back to the Middle Ages when,

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sacred texts were set to music and,

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and sung in in the church.

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Well before that, of course, in synagogues,

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Jewish synagogues.

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And, it runs right through,

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the Madrigal in the 16th century Opera in the

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17th and 18th century.

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And so the connection between music

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and words, is very basic, in fact.

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Uh, and, but it,

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this is about maybe a slightly side thing,

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but the idea of sort of a pure instrumental music only arose

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in the later 18th

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and into the 19th centuries, the idea

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that music could exist apart from words.

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So it's, it's, it's sort of built in.

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And many people, or many theorists, I think even dating

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Back to, to Rousseau felt that,

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language is essentially musical

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and language was musical at the very beginning.

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And that,

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but to jump to the 20th century,

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when this repertory comes in, the songs, the, the role

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of lyricists, I mean, in the 19th century, of course,

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there were librettists who wrote, librettos for operas,

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and there were composers of song like Schubert or Brahms

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or others who set classic poets of,

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and then later in France, WC said Len and so forth.

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So that's setting a pre-existent text.

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One of the things that's, wonderful and interesting

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and about the American songbook is that

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music composers

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and lyricists work together to create something new.

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Now, sometimes, of course, it was the same person,

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Irving Berlin and Cole Porter wrote their own music

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and lyrics, and totally brilliantly,

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Arlen did not, for the most part.

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Occasionally he wrote lyrics, but he collaborated with some

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of these really fine, lyricists, Ted Kohler,

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IRA Gershwin after the death

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of George Gershwin, yip Harburg.

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And, these, these are really

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great literary figures.

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Uh, the, there's a book called The Poets

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of Tin Pan Alley by Philip Ria.

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That, and I, it, it's a, it goes through a lot

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of their careers and their lyrics,

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and I think it's an appropriate designation

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because,

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their lyrics are really very poetic and excellent.

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And when they're merged with the music,

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and usually the music came first with Arlen,

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he usually wrote a tune first,

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and then a lyricist would, would fit the lyrics to it,

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and of course, they'd work together to modify it.

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That's the way he tended to work.

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But it, it still comes out as greater than the sum

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of its parts when you hear a, a great song by Arlen.

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But tapeworm is a kind of unfortunate, term.

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Uh, it's kind of gooey,

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medical term, but that's the term.

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He used to refer to songs that he wrote

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that broke the standard forms.

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The standard form of American popular song

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was often 32 bars.

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And, in eight measure segments, was sort of,

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not a formula, but a kind of structure.

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And it, it would have different ways of, of,

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being structured.

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It could be a A, B, A

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or a b, a C if I take the formal units,

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but usually within 32 bars.

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But Arlen often found himself like breaking the bounds,

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going 45, 50, 72, bars,

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even 80 bars, with a song.

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And, that, a famous example is the song

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that he wrote called Blues in the Night,

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which is a great song that uses 12 bar blues forms

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and goes on for, I think, close to 70 measures,

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or maybe that one is close to 60.

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But he wrote,

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there's another song he wrote called The Man That Got Away,

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which came the song by Judy Garland In the film,

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A Star Is Born, the One Made in 1954.

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These, yeah, they sort of pushed beyond the boundaries,

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of the standard form.

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And he said that he didn't,

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he wasn't something he was conscious of of doing,

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he just felt, well, this song needs another eight bars

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or another 12 bars, or another 10 bars.

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And I talk in my book that that's just a sort

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of compositional impulse of his, you know,

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if I may make the analogy, if, if Beethoven wants

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to go another eight or nine

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or 10 bars to fulfill a musical idea,

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to have the harmonies movement a certain way,

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Arlen in his way is doing the same thing.

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He, there's a compositional impulse that he feels to,

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to round off a song,

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or maybe he feels that the melody needs more measures

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to kind of round itself off.

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And so you get these structure, he called them tape worms,

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and other people wrote them.

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Cole Porter Irving Berlin wrote, cheek to Cheek,

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which is I think 108 measures,

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or maybe that's Begin the Beginning by Cole Porter is 108.

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So there, there are other, composers that did this,

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but Arlan did it more than others.

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And, and his songs,

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his tapeworm songs have a kind of special shape.

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And it's interesting that, again, he tended

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to write the music for the lyrics,

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and sometimes he would present these songs

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to these lyricists, really excellent lyricists,

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and they would sort of scratch their head,

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and they said, how am I gonna fit lyrics to this?

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Um, one of his collaborators called 'em Spaghetti Tunes.

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Um, and, but they always managed.

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They, they didn't, they, they say, I think Ira Gerwin,

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someone said, you, you never wanted to tell Harold

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to take it down to 32 bars.

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You worked with it, and you came out with something.

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So they, his collaborators respected this kind

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of compositional urge on Arlen's part.

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I think they really felt that he was such a fine, they,

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they couldn't imagine cutting it down

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or changing the harmony or changing the melody that,

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you know, what he created,

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even though he would sometimes modify it was very

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good in its own way.

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There's a story, this doesn't so much relate to tapes

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for tapeworms, but when he wrote the melody

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for Over the Rainbow, it starts with this octave leap,

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quite famous somwhere.

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It's a, it's a very distinctive,

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almost a trademark of Arlen's.

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And he presents this melody to Ira, her, to,

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yip Harburg, who says, what, what, what kind

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of lyric can I put to that?

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And he, he says, yip harburg in some of his memoirs.

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He says, well, I tried. I'll go over the rainbow.

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No, that won't work. Or, you know, he,

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he tries several things

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and he says, I was even gonna tell Harold to take out

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that octave, take out that first note.

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And, which of course he didn't.

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And then finally he figured out Psalm, where,

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which is a perfect, way of opening that amazing song

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with an amazing lyric.

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So he figured it out.

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So rather than, you know, I'm, I doubt Arlen would've wanted

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to take off the first note,

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but so they worked with it and they admired it.

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Um, but you know, the, the, this sort of leads me to, to say

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that in my book, I, I, I stress that Arlen as a composer,

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yes, his songs are interpreted differently by many pianists,

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singers, bands over the years.

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But what he set down on paper,

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or, you know, is, is, you know,

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does represent a composition, I would say more so

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than many other composers.

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And, and as such, he's gained the respect, not only

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of lyricists, but of many composers.

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Stephen Sondheim, for example,

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Harold Arland was his favorite songwriter, along

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with Jerome Kern, another great one

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who I forgot to mention earlier.

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Um, and our, Sondheim often would, would say

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how much he adored Arlen's music, how moving it was,

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how perfect, what a great craftsman he was.

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Sondheim even said that every show

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of his sondheim's has a song in it that is based

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or somehow inspired by Arlan.

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Sometimes he names them.

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Sometimes you have to go guess them.

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But, you know, that kind of level of, of admiration

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and respect by a composer Sondheim,

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who knew the entire American songbook

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that he focuses on Arlan as this superb craftsman

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and very moving, composer is, is significant.

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I think he is distinctive, if not unique,

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among these song composers for being, a, performer.

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He actually began as a singer.

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He, he, he began as an arranger.

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He would arrange, music for jazz bands.

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He was born in Buffalo, New York,

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and he had several bands that he would arrange for and play,

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and he often fronted for these bands of singing,

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and then started to make some professional recordings.

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He had a rather high tenor voice.

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He would kind of crooner, this was the, the beginning

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of the Croner era, and really lovely voice.

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And he was actually thinking of, you know,

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that as his main career.

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Uh, he, he fronted

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for some pretty prominent bands in the early nine,

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late 1920s, early 1930s.

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But then he wrote the song, get Happy, or he, he,

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and it became such a hit that he sort

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of turned more towards composition, song composing.

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But he continued to, record some of his songs.

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And then when the, long Playing record era came in,

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in the 1950s, he made several LP albums as a pianist

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and singer of his songs that were really quite good and,

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and well respected, playing

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and singing sometimes at the same time.

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And then he appeared a lot on television as well.

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This was the era, the early era of television.

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There was a show, a variety show in the United States called

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the Ed Sullivan Show, famous in this very year that we're in

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for, what is it, 60 years ago?

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The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan,

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but Arlen appeared there and performed his own songs.

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He, there were a number

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of television specials created around him.

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He performed with some other singers.

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So he was, he was just a, a great,

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he played other people's songs,

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but he was a great purveyor of his own music.

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And, when he did it, you could hear,

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but if he did it on the radio, sometimes he was interviewed

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by, there was a, a radio commentator named Dave Garaway

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on NBC in the fifties.

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And I heard this interview,

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didn't hear the original interview,

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but a, a tape of it where he Arlen sings,

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and he, he's just in wonderment.

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Dave Garaway says, you sing like no other person.

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You, you sing like you wrote those lyrics.

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And Arlen says, well, yes.

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You know, I, I really love lyrics. I, I didn't write them.

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And he, he actually points to his father,

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who was a Cantor Harold Arlen's father was a prominent

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cantor in upstate New York.

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And, he's Arlen sang in the temple,

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in the synagogue when he was young.

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And then his father would actually sing some

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of Arlen's songs or improvise on them

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in the synagogue when Arlen became famous.

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But he often pointed to that, this relationship to, to

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that tradition, but also his love of lyrics.

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And, one more quick Sondheim story.

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Sondheim reports that he heard Arlan play

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and sing sometimes at parties, which Arlan would do,

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I guess, you know, in the fifties and sixties.

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And, and Sondheim says,

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you've just never heard anything like it.

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To hear him play and sing makes me cry, says Sondheim.

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And in this interview, which was taking place in the

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eighties, he actually apparently starts

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to tear up when he remembers hearing Arlan sing

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and perform his own song.

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So that's a pretty special compliment too.

Quick Answers

Harold Arlen: A Key Figure in America's Golden Age of Song

00:00:00 - In the, early to middle part of the 20th century from about 1925 to about 1960s, considered by many people a golden age of American popular song figures like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rogers. This was a period when that kind of song, whether it was, songs for Broadway shows, songs for Hollywood films, or just songs for the record industry for great artists to sing. Artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne

00:00:37 - who recorded these things, these songs. So, Arlen was, was part of that generation. He was born in 1905, and, he wrote many big hits. He never really had a hit show, but he had a great hit film, the Wizard of Oz, which came out in 1939, and which produced a song that by some reckoning, or in some surveys, was the greatest song of the 20th century, if you can really measure that, called Over the Rainbow, which is familiar to many people.

00:01:09 - so interested in him, well, I think he, he, he wrote almost 500 songs. that's one of the best known, of course, perhaps the best known, another one called Stormy Weather, which is a much more jazz based song, jazz influence song. But, some, his name isn't as well known as his music is. And sometimes if I mention to people that I've been working on Harold Ar and they stare at me a bit blankly until I say over the rainbow, stormy weather.

Harold Arlen: A Bridge Between Cultures in American Music

00:01:38 - as George Gershwin or Irving Berlin, or the other people I mentioned. But the quality of his work is, is equally high and, and, you know, worthy of attention. I would say more than most of his contemporary songwriters, George Goman to some extent, but Arlen, because he was also a pianist and arranger, he worked with a lot of, black artists at the time, starting already in the late 1920s, early 1930s. He worked at The Cotton Club, which is a,

00:02:10 - very famous, particularly during this period, which, had this kind of built in segregation. Almost all the patrons were white and almost all the performers were black. And many famous, black artists, worked there. Duke Ellington, cab Calloway and Arlen was the, in effect, the staff songwriter there for three or four years with his collaborator Ted Kohler, the lyricist. And it was during that time that he wrote Stormy Weather

00:02:42 - And, one of the singers he worked with there was named Ethel Waters, one of the great, black singers, actresses of the 20th century. so that started further. He also worked with Lena Horn, another great, singer. And, so across his career there were a number of, of artists that, that, artists of color who, who took up his music and, loved, loved performing it.

Harold Arlen: Musical Partnerships and Racial Dynamics

00:03:14 - was so impressed. And it, it was generally impressed that how well he worked with black artists. There's a quote in her autobiography that where she says he was the Negroes of them all. She says about Harold Harland, and she meant that as a compliment, not that he was trying to pass as black, or that he was sort of, aping them in the mannerisms of black singers or pianists. So he had this close relationship early on, with many,

00:03:44 - I'm sure there were others. and in terms of, well, racial representation, yeah, so there was the, the awkwardness, if you will, or at least in retrospect of the Cotton Club and the way it was set up. But again, or many African American singers, made their careers or, you know, from not just Arlen's music, but other music of, you know, white, mainly Jewish

00:04:14 - So there are some paradoxes and even some problems there in partly in that, the, publishers, the music publishers, most of the money went to, the music publishers who were often Jewish, businessmen. And I mean, I think I heard that Duke Ellington had to give 30 or 40% of his profits to mills the publisher. And so there are, there are issues of appropriation or, you know, inequity that are there,

The Enduring Connection Between Music and Lyrics

00:04:45 - And as I say, Arlen was, was, was deeply, involved in it and greatly respected, by African American musicians. My, career, my, as a musicologist, studying mainly up until more recently, classical Western music, German music, the, the link between, music and lyrics, or music and words goes way back. It goes way back to the Middle Ages when,

00:05:18 - and sung in in the church. Well before that, of course, in synagogues, Jewish synagogues. And, it runs right through, the Madrigal in the 16th century Opera in the 17th and 18th century. And so the connection between music and words, is very basic, in fact. and, but it, this is about maybe a slightly side thing, but the idea of sort of a pure instrumental music only arose in the later 18th

00:05:48 - that music could exist apart from words. So it's, it's, it's sort of built in. And many people, or many theorists, I think even dating Back to, to Rousseau felt that, language is essentially musical and language was musical at the very beginning. And that, but to jump to the 20th century, when this repertory comes in, the songs, the, the role of lyricists, I mean, in the 19th century, of course, there were librettists who wrote, librettos for operas,

Collaboration in the American Songbook

00:06:20 - or others who set classic poets of, and then later in France, WC said Len and so forth. So that's setting a pre-existent text. One of the things that's, wonderful and interesting and about the American songbook is that music composers and lyricists work together to create something new. Now, sometimes, of course, it was the same person, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter wrote their own music and lyrics, and totally brilliantly,

00:06:50 - Occasionally he wrote lyrics, but he collaborated with some of these really fine, lyricists, Ted Kohler, IRA Gershwin after the death of George Gershwin, yip Harburg. And, these, these are really great literary figures. the, there's a book called The Poets of Tin Pan Alley by Philip Ria. That, and I, it, it's a, it goes through a lot of their careers and their lyrics, and I think it's an appropriate designation

00:07:20 - their lyrics are really very poetic and excellent. And when they're merged with the music, and usually the music came first with Arlen, he usually wrote a tune first, and then a lyricist would, would fit the lyrics to it, and of course, they'd work together to modify it. That's the way he tended to work. But it, it still comes out as greater than the sum of its parts when you hear a, a great song by Arlen. But tapeworm is a kind of unfortunate, term. it's kind of gooey, medical term, but that's the term.

Breaking Boundaries in American Song Structure

00:07:52 - that broke the standard forms. The standard form of American popular song was often 32 bars. And, in eight measure segments, was sort of, not a formula, but a kind of structure. And it, it would have different ways of, of, being structured. It could be a A, B, A or a b, a C if I take the formal units, but usually within 32 bars. But Arlen often found himself like breaking the bounds, going 45, 50, 72, bars,

00:08:24 - And, that, a famous example is the song that he wrote called Blues in the Night, which is a great song that uses 12 bar blues forms and goes on for, I think, close to 70 measures, or maybe that one is close to 60. But he wrote, there's another song he wrote called The Man That Got Away, which came the song by Judy Garland In the film, A Star Is Born, the One Made in 1954. These, yeah, they sort of pushed beyond the boundaries, of the standard form.

00:08:53 - he wasn't something he was conscious of of doing, he just felt, well, this song needs another eight bars or another 12 bars, or another 10 bars. And I talk in my book that that's just a sort of compositional impulse of his, you know, if I may make the analogy, if, if Beethoven wants to go another eight or nine or 10 bars to fulfill a musical idea, to have the harmonies movement a certain way, Arlen in his way is doing the same thing. He, there's a compositional impulse that he feels to, to round off a song,

Harold Arlen's Unique Compositional Style: The 'Tapeworm' Songs

00:09:25 - to kind of round itself off. And so you get these structure, he called them tape worms, and other people wrote them. Cole Porter Irving Berlin wrote, cheek to Cheek, which is I think 108 measures, or maybe that's Begin the Beginning by Cole Porter is 108. So there, there are other, composers that did this, but Arlan did it more than others. And, and his songs, his tapeworm songs have a kind of special shape. And it's interesting that, again, he tended

00:09:54 - and sometimes he would present these songs to these lyricists, really excellent lyricists, and they would sort of scratch their head, and they said, how am I gonna fit lyrics to this? one of his collaborators called 'em Spaghetti Tunes. and, but they always managed. They, they didn't, they, they say, I think Ira Gerwin, someone said, you, you never wanted to tell Harold to take it down to 32 bars. You worked with it, and you came out with something. So they, his collaborators respected this kind of compositional urge on Arlen's part.

00:10:28 - they couldn't imagine cutting it down or changing the harmony or changing the melody that, you know, what he created, even though he would sometimes modify it was very good in its own way. There's a story, this doesn't so much relate to tapes for tapeworms, but when he wrote the melody for Over the Rainbow, it starts with this octave leap, quite famous somwhere. It's a, it's a very distinctive, almost a trademark of Arlen's. And he presents this melody to Ira, her, to,

Harold Arlen: Master Composer and Lyric Collaborator

00:10:57 - of lyric can I put to that? And he, he says, yip harburg in some of his memoirs. He says, well, I tried. I'll go over the rainbow. No, that won't work. Or, you know, he, he tries several things and he says, I was even gonna tell Harold to take out that octave, take out that first note. And, which of course he didn't. And then finally he figured out Psalm, where, which is a perfect, way of opening that amazing song with an amazing lyric. So he figured it out. So rather than, you know, I'm, I doubt Arlen would've wanted

00:11:29 - but so they worked with it and they admired it. but you know, the, the, this sort of leads me to, to say that in my book, I, I, I stress that Arlen as a composer, yes, his songs are interpreted differently by many pianists, singers, bands over the years. But what he set down on paper, or, you know, is, is, you know, does represent a composition, I would say more so than many other composers. And, and as such, he's gained the respect, not only

00:11:59 - Stephen Sondheim, for example, Harold Arland was his favorite songwriter, along with Jerome Kern, another great one who I forgot to mention earlier. and our, Sondheim often would, would say how much he adored Arlen's music, how moving it was, how perfect, what a great craftsman he was. Sondheim even said that every show of his sondheim's has a song in it that is based or somehow inspired by Arlan. Sometimes he names them. Sometimes you have to go guess them. But, you know, that kind of level of, of admiration

Harold Arlen: A Multifaceted Composer and Performer

00:12:32 - who knew the entire American songbook that he focuses on Arlan as this superb craftsman and very moving, composer is, is significant. I think he is distinctive, if not unique, among these song composers for being, a, performer. He actually began as a singer. He, he, he began as an arranger. He would arrange, music for jazz bands. He was born in Buffalo, New York, and he had several bands that he would arrange for and play, and he often fronted for these bands of singing,

00:13:03 - He had a rather high tenor voice. He would kind of crooner, this was the, the beginning of the Croner era, and really lovely voice. And he was actually thinking of, you know, that as his main career. he, he fronted for some pretty prominent bands in the early nine, late 1920s, early 1930s. But then he wrote the song, get Happy, or he, he, and it became such a hit that he sort of turned more towards composition, song composing. But he continued to, record some of his songs.

00:13:38 - in the 1950s, he made several LP albums as a pianist and singer of his songs that were really quite good and, and well respected, playing and singing sometimes at the same time. And then he appeared a lot on television as well. This was the era, the early era of television. There was a show, a variety show in the United States called the Ed Sullivan Show, famous in this very year that we're in for, what is it, 60 years ago? The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, but Arlen appeared there and performed his own songs.

Harold Arlen: A Legacy of Music and Emotion

00:14:07 - of television specials created around him. He performed with some other singers. So he was, he was just a, a great, he played other people's songs, but he was a great purveyor of his own music. And, when he did it, you could hear, but if he did it on the radio, sometimes he was interviewed by, there was a, a radio commentator named Dave Garaway on NBC in the fifties. And I heard this interview, didn't hear the original interview, but a, a tape of it where he Arlen sings, and he, he's just in wonderment. Dave Garaway says, you sing like no other person.

00:14:40 - And Arlen says, well, yes. You know, I, I really love lyrics. I, I didn't write them. And he, he actually points to his father, who was a Cantor Harold Arlen's father was a prominent cantor in upstate New York. And, he's Arlen sang in the temple, in the synagogue when he was young. And then his father would actually sing some of Arlen's songs or improvise on them in the synagogue when Arlen became famous. But he often pointed to that, this relationship to, to that tradition, but also his love of lyrics.

00:15:36 - Sondheim reports that he heard Arlan play and sing sometimes at parties, which Arlan would do, I guess, you know, in the fifties and sixties. And, and Sondheim says, you've just never heard anything like it. To hear him play and sing makes me cry, says Sondheim. And in this interview, which was taking place in the eighties, he actually apparently starts to tear up when he remembers hearing Arlan sing and perform his own song. So that's a pretty special compliment too.

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