120830bk Rodgers:MASTER BOOK 3+3 NEW 10/12/06 3:42 PM Page 2 1. Manhattan (introducing ‘Sentimental Me’) 7. You Took Advantage Of Me 2:53 13. It’s Easy To Remember 3:12 19. Slaughter On Tenth Avenue 8:00 2:41 From Present Arms From Mississippi From On Your Toes From Garrick Gaities, 1925 Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra; Bing Crosby with The Rhythmettes, 3 Shades Paul Whiteman & His Concert Orchestra Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra Bing Crosby, Jack Fulton, Austin Young & of Blue, and Georgie Stoll’s Orchestra Victor 36183, mx CS 102291-1, 102292-1 Victor 19769, mx BVE 33332-10 Charles Gaylord, vocal Decca 391, mx DLA 95-B Recorded 28 June 1936, New York Recorded 1 September 1925, Camden N.J. Victor 21398; mx BVE 43670-1 Recorded 21 February 1935, Los Angeles Transfers & Production: David Lennick Recorded 25 April 1928, New York 2. The Blue Room 3:15 14. Blue Moon 2:41 Digital Restoration: Graham Newton From The Girl Friend 8. Ten Cents A Dance 3:11 Al Bowlly with Ray Noble & His Orchestra Original recordings from the collections of The Revelers; Frank Black, piano From Simple Simon Victor 24849, mx BS 87358-1 David Lennick & David Jessup Victor 20082, mx BVE 35666-2 Ruth Etting, with orchestra Recorded 12 January 1935, New York Original monochrome photo of Rodgers & Hart Recorded 8 June 1926, New York Columbia 2146-D, mx W 150062-3 15. The Lady Is A Tramp 3:04 from the Michael Ochs Archives / Redferns 3. Mountain Greenery 2:54 Recorded 3 March 1930, New York From Babes in Arms From Garrick Gaities, 1926 9. I’ve Got Five Dollars 2:45 Sophie Tucker with Harry Sosnik & His Frank Crumit; Jack Shilkret, piano From America ’s Sweethea rt Orchestra Victor 20124, mx BVE 35949-2; Lee Morse And Her Bluegrass Boys Decca 1472, mx DLA 949-A Also available from Naxos ... Recorded 29 July 1926, New York Columbia 2417-D, mx W 151335-3 Recorded 21 September 1937, Los Angeles 4. Thou Swell 3:23 Recorded 20 February 1931, New York 16. All Points West 9:46 From A Connecticut Yankee 10. Isn’t It Romantic 3:17 From Musical Narrative Broadway Nitelites (Ben Selvin’s Orchestra); From Love Me Tonight Paul Whiteman & His Concert Orchestra; Franklyn Baur, vocal Jeanette MacDonald; orchestra conducted Bob Lawrence, narrator & singer Columbia 1187-D, mx W 144961-3 by Nat Finston Victor 36198, mx CS 06557-2, 06558-1 Recorded 7 November 1927, New York Victor 24067, mx PBS 68368-2 Recorded 28 March 1937, New York 5. Where’s That Rainbow 2:49 Recorded 5 July 1932, Hollywood 17. I Didn’t Know What Time It Was 2:57 From Peggy-Ann 11. You Are Too Beautiful 3:18 From Too Many Girls Helen Morgan; Leslie A. Hutchinson, piano From Hallelujah I’m A Bum Mary Jane Walsh, with orchestra Brunswick 111 Al Jolson, with Victor Young & His Orchestra Columbia 35236, mx WCO 26104-A Recorded July 1927, London Brunswick 6500, mx B 12762-A Recorded 25 September 1939, New York 8.120828 6. My Heart Stood Still 2:54 Recorded 20 December 1932 18. Ev’rything I’ve Got 2:43 From A Connecticut Yankee 12. Dancing On The Ceiling 3:03 From By Jupiter George Olsen & His Music; Bob Borger, From Evergreen Betty Garrett & Milton Berle, with orchestra Fran Frey & Bob Rice, vocal trio Jessie Matthews, with Carroll Gibbons & conducted by Lehman Engel 8.120829 Victor 21034, mx BVE 40501-5 His Orchestra RCA Victor 45-0017, mx D6-VB-3056-1 Recorded 1 November 1927, New York Columbia DB 1403, mx CA 14473-1 Recorded 15 October 1946, New York These titles are not for retail sale in the USA Recorded 4 May 1934, London 5 8.120830 6 8.120830 120830bk Rodgers:MASTER BOOK 3+3 NEW 10/12/06 3:42 PM Page 1 the prestigious Theatre Guild was producing to But there were some incredible musical gems mocking and went west to California to provide They indicate two things which spelled the EASY TO REMEMBER raise money for the decoration of their new home. hidden inside these shows. Peggy-Ann (1926) the scores for a selection of new ‘talkie’ musicals. end of this once unbeatable partnership. Hart Songs of RODGERS & HART The first tune on this collection, Manhattan, yielded Where’s That Rainbow, sung here by None of the movies they were involved with was an increasingly unstable alcoholic who drank was the one that changed it all. In his the great Helen Morgan. A very young Bing became big hits, but they did yield some lovely to hide his self-disgust over being under five foot Original 1925–1946 Recordings autobiography, Richard Rodgers recalled how at Crosby croons his way through You Took songs, performed here by their original stars: tall, and homosexual. He began to be more and ‘Tuneful and tasty, schmaltzy and smart; Manhattan. Hart, the older, was born in 1895 to a the 17 May 1925 opening performance, ‘the hairs Advantage Of Me from Present Arms (1928) and Jeanette McDonald does Isn’t It Romantic from more unreliable, going on binges for weeks. Music by Rodgers, lyrics by Hart.’ bohemian, artistic family governed by his warm- stood up on the back of my head’ as he sensed Twenties’ favourites Franklyn Baur and George Love Me Tonight (1932), Al Jolson brings his Rodgers frequently had to check into hospitals That famous couplet by Irving Berlin goes a hearted mother, Frieda. Their home was a the audience’s positive response to this number. Olsen offer a pair of hits from A Connecticut unique style to You Are Too Beautiful from alongside Hart to enable them to write. long way towards summing up the enduring combination salon and saloon for artists of the The zesty Paul Whiteman treatment here gives Yankee, Thou Swell and My Heart Stood Still. Hallelujah, I’m A Bum (1932) and Bing Crosby These two works also show Rodgers wanting appeal of the famous songwriting duo of Richard day and Hart grew up in that kind of the music full value, but deprives us, alas, of Rodgers and Hart rode out the rest of the croons It’s Easy To Remember from Mississippi to create in a different direction – something Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. gemütlickheit environment. Hart’s wiseguy lyrics rhyming ‘what street’ with Twenties boom years with trifles like Spring Is (1935). Jessie Matthews also introduced Dancing bigger, more open, more expansive. He couldn’t For almost twenty years, from 1920–1943, Rodgers, on the other hand, was born in 1902 ‘Mott Street’ and ‘fancy’ with ‘Delancey’. Here and Heads Up!, but their first show to follow On The Ceiling in the British film Evergreen. have guessed it at the time, but what he was they personified the savvy yet sentimental kind to a more rigidly conventional household where So impressive was their success and so the great stock market crash was a bizarre Florenz A great showbiz footnote rests with the looking for was Oscar Hammerstein. of tunes that poured off the Broadway stage. his doctor father held the reins. Music was a quickly did the musical theatre world move in Ziegfeld spectacle entitled Simple Simon (1930). popular standard Blue Moon, which originally When the Rodgers–Hart relationship finally Porter was more sophisticated, Kern more part of his growing up, however, and it wasn’t those days that by September they had opened a It began as a kind of fractured Mother Goose appeared in a 1934 movie called Manhattan crumbled, Rodgers turned to Hammerstein and deeply harmonic, the Gershwins considerably long before his parents began encouraging their Revolutionary War musical, Dearest Enemy, best story-book engineered for the talents of Ed Wynn, Melodrama as “The Bad In Every Man”. As such, they wrote Oklahoma!, which opened triumph- jazzier. Still, when you look back on that period prodigy, who could play piano pleasingly by the remembered now for “Here In My Arms”, and by but along the way, Rodgers and Hart kept being it was one of the last things John Dillinger heard antly in March, 1943. To help take the curse off in time, no one captured it better than Rodgers time he was six. March of 1926, they scored an impressive hit urged to add more contemporary numbers. before being gunned to death. With a more upbeat its giant success for Hart, Rodgers remounted one and Hart. They gave voice to the feelings of At fifteen, Rodgers placed a song in a benefit with a perfect piece of period fluff, The Girl What audiences made of a cynical song about lyric change, it became a pop hit. Rodgers and of their greatest hits, A Connecticut Yankee, six everyday guys and gals, but they did it with a show called One Minute Please. Another young Friend. From it, you’ll hear The Revelers (the a taxi-dance can only be left to the imagination, Hart returned to Broadway in 1935 with the circus months later, hoping it would save his former certain streetwise poetry (courtesy of Hart) and man named Phillip Leavitt heard his work and most famous close-harmony group of the period) especially as slurred by the alcoholic Lee Morse, spectacle Jumbo and followed it with ten other collaborator from the grave. It didn’t work. On tuneful invention (thanks to Rodgers) that thought he’d get along fine with an acquaintance with the classic The Blue Room. who was finally fired. The brilliant Ruth Etting shows which included many of their greatest hits.