100 years ago: Paul Whiteman “Say It with Music” hit #1

Say It with Music Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra

Writer(s): Irving Berlin (see lyrics here) First Charted: November 21, 1921 Peak: 15 US, 12 GA, 13 SM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Irving Berlin’s “Say It with Music” originated in the 1921 Music Box Revue. The “exquisitely beautiful theater” TY2 opened that year on Broadway and both it and the revues that ran from 1921 to 1925 were products of Irving Berlin. TY2 It was performed originally as a duet by Wilda Bennett and Joe Santley and got a lukewarm reception. Part of the reason may have been the simple staging because Berlin wanted the focus to be on the song itself, “but the audience, apparently, wanted spectacle.” TY2 However, New York Times critic Alexander Woollcott said of the production that Berlin “has written only one real song. It is called ‘Say It with Music,’ and by February you will have heard it so often that you will gladly shoot…any one who so much as hums it in your hearing.’” TY2 Indeed, the song about what music meant to Berlin did eventually connect with his audience, showing how much “music is a language lovers understand.” SM It even became the theme song for thre rest of the Music Box revues. SM It also became the theme song for a BBC radio program called The Music Goes Round, which ran for 36 years until Desmond Carrington retired at the age of 90. SF The biggest chart success for the song was the instrumental version by Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra. Other chart versions were by Ben Selvin (#6, 1921), John Steel (#11, 1922), and the Columbians (#12, 1922). PM Ethel Merman performed the song for the 1938 movie Alexander’s Ragtime Band. It has also been performed by Pat Boone, Dick Haymes & Carmen Cavallaro, and Jack Payne. It was the signature song for Payne and it was his version played on the final broadcast of The Music Goes Round. SF Resources: SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) SF Songfacts TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 120. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 575. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 1/28/2023.

50 years ago: Gypsy opened on Broadway

Gypsy Jule Styne (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics)

The Musical

Opened on Broadway: May 21, 1959 Number of Performances: 702 Opened at London’s West End: May 29, 1973 Number of Performances: 300 Movie Release: November 1, 1962

Cast Album

Charted: July 20, 1959 Peak: 13 US Sales (in millions): -- Genre: show tunes

Soundtrack

Charted: December 15, 1962 Peak: 10 US Sales (in millions): -- Genre: show tunes

Songs on Cast Album: Song Title (Performers) Overture Let Me Entertain You (JACQUELINE MAYRO/ KAREN MOORE/ ETHEL MERMAN) Some People (ETHEL MERMAN/ STEPHEN SONDHEIM) Small World (ETHEL MERMAN/ JACK KLUGMAN) Baby June and Her Newsboys Mr. Goldstone, I Love You (ETHEL MERMAN) Little Lamb (SANDRA CHURCH) You’ll Never Get Away from Me (ETHEL MERMAN/ JACK KLUGMAN) Dainty June and Her Farmboys If Momma Was Married (SANDRA CHURCH/ LANE BRADBURY) All I Need Is the Girl (PAUL WALLACE/ SANDRA CHURCH) Everything’s Coming Up Roses (ETHEL MERMAN) Together (Wherever We Go) (ETHEL MERMAN/ JACK KLUGMAN/ SANDRA CHURCH) You Gotta Get a Gimmick (FAITH DANE/ CHOTZI FOLEY/ MARIA KARNILOVA) Let Me Entertain You (SANDRA CHURCH) Rose’s Turn (ETHEL MERMAN) Songs on Soundtrack: Overture Small World Some People Baby June And Her Newsboys (Let Me Entertain You) Mr. Goldstone, I Love You Little Lamb You'll Never Get Away From Me Dainty June And Her Farm Boys If Mama Was Married All I Need Is The Girl Everything's Coming Up Roses Together Wherever We Go You Gotta Have A Gimmick Let Me Entertain You Rose's Turn Finale

Rating: 4.502 out of 5.00 (average of 9 ratings for cast album and soundtrack combined) Quotable: “One of the crowning achievements of the mid-20th century’s conventional musical theatre art form” – Wikipedia Awards (Cast Album and Soundtrack): (Click on award to learn more).

About the Show: Critic Ben Brantley said Gypsy may be the greatest of all American musicals.” WK-C Frank Rich said it was “Broadway’s own brassy, unlikely answer to King Lear.” WK-C This 1959 tribute to burlesque was loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of famed striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee. The story “casts an affectionate eye on the hardships of show business life” WK-C by following Gypsy’s mother, Rose, and her efforts to raise her daughters as performers. Producer David Merrick had read a selection of the memoirs in Harper’s Magazine and sought the rights, knowing Ethel Merman was looking for a starring vehicle. Arthur Laurents was tapped to write the book and Stephen Sondheim, with whom Laurents had worked on West Side Story, was brought in to write the lyrics after Irving Berlin and Cole Porter declined. Merman wanted Jule Styne to write the music, but Sondheim initially refused since he wanted to write the music and lyrics – that is, until he was persuaded to take the job by Oscar Hammerstein. WK-C The talents of Styne, who represented broad show business entertainment, and Sondheim, who symbolized more “modern, dark, psychological drama,” MWR made for a perfect balance. It “was considered the definitive Merman performance and the crowning achievement of her long career.” MWR Theater critic Clive Barnes described Rose as “one of the few truly complex characters in the American musical.” WK-C The musical, which ran for 702 performances, introduced “the Merman standard Everything’s Coming Up Roses, and the song that is invariably used to introduce anything having to do with the strip tease, Let Me Entertain You.” MWR In 1962, it was made into a film directed by Mervyn LeRoy. In his book The Musical Film, Douglas McVay said, “Fine as West Side Story is…it is equaled and, arguably, surpassed – in a rather different idiom – by another filmed Broadway hit: Mervyn LeRoy’s Gypsy.” WK-S

Resources and Related Links: MWR Marjorie Elln Ruhlmann & William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide (cast album) WK-C Wikipedia (musical) WK-S All Music Guide (film) Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/22/2011; last updated 12/23/2021.

May 16, 1946: Annie Get Your Gun opened on Broadway

Annie Get Your Gun Irving Berlin (music & lyrics)

Cast Album

Stage Debut: May 16, 1946 Released: July 8, 1946 Peak: 2 US Sales (in millions): -- Genre: show tunes

Soundtrack

Charted: June 10, 1950 Peak: 18 US Sales (in millions): -- Genre: show tunes

Songs on Cast Album: Song Title (Performers) Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly (ETHEL MERMAN) * The Girl That I Marry (RAY MIDDLETON) * You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun (ETHEL MERMAN) * There’s No Business Like Show Business (WILLIAM O’NEAL) * They Say It’s Wonderful (ETHEL MERMAN) * Moonshine Lullaby (ETHEL MERMAN) * c My Defenses Are Down (RAY MIDDLETON) * I’m an Indian, Too (ETHEL MERMAN) * I Got Lost in His Arms (ETHEL MERMAN) * c Who Do You Love, I Hope (ROBERT LENN) * c I Got the Sun in the Morning (ETHEL MERMAN) * Anything You Can Do (ETHEL MERMAN) * Overture (ETHEL MERMAN) Colonel Buffalo Bill (LESLIE FYSON) I’m a Bad, Bad Man (NEILSON TAYLOR) An Old-Fashioned Wedding (ETHEL MERMAN) Above track listing based on 2000 Decca reissue. Songs with an asterisk (*) are on original 1946 cast album. c Songs unique to cast album. Songs on Soundtrack: Song Title (Performers) Main Title (THE MGM STUDIO ORCHESTRA) s Colonel Buffalo Bill (KEENAN WYNN) s Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly (BETTY HUTTON/ CHILDREN’S CHORUS) * The Girl That I Marry (HOWARD KEEL) * You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun (BETTY HUTTON) * There’s No Business Like Show Business (HOWARD KEEL) * They Say It’s Wonderful (HOWARD KEEL) * They Say It’s Wonderful (Reprise) (BETTY HUTTON) s There’s No Business Like Show Business (Reprise) (BETTY HUTTON) s My Defenses Are Down (HOWARD KEEL/ MALE CHORUS) * I’m an Indian, Too (BETTY HUTTON/ MALE CHORUS) European Montage (THE MGM STUDIO ORCHESTRA) s Let’s Go West Again (BETTY HUTTON/ MALE CHORUS) s The Girl That I Marry (Reprise) (BETTY HUTTON) * I Got the Sun in the Morning (BETTY HUTTON/ CHORUS) * Together Again (THE MGM ORCHESTRA) s Anything You Can Do (HOWARD KEEL) * Finale/End Title (BETTY HUTTON) s Above track listing based on 2000 Rhino reissue. Songs with an asterisk (*) are on original 1950 soundtrack. s Songs unique to soundtrack. Singles/Hit Songs: As was common in the pre-rock era, songs from musicals were often recorded by artists not associated with the musical and released as singles. Here are some of the most notable hit singles resulting from the show: ”Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly” – Freddy Martin (#2, 1946), Dinah Shore (#3, 1946), Jimmy Dorsey (#8, 1946) ”They Say It’s Wonderful” – Frank Sinatra (#2, 1946), Perry Como (#4, 1946), Andy Russell (#10, 1946), Bing Crosby (#12, 1946), Ethel Merman (#20, 1946) ”I Got the Sun in the Morning” – Les Brown (#10, 1946), Artie Shaw (#17, 1946) ”The Girl That I Marry” – Frank Sinatra (#11, 1946), Eddy Howard (#23, 1947) ”Who Do You Love, I Hope” – Elliot Lawrence (#9, 1946) ”There’s No Business Like Show Business” – Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters & Dick Haymes (#25, 1947)

Rating: 4.497 out of 5.00 (average of 12 ratings for cast album and soundtrack combined) Awards (Cast Album and Soundtrack): (Click on award to learn more).

About the Show: “Irving Berlin came from the old school of Broadway songwriters who did not write songs specifically for characters and plot points, but rather as independent numbers in shows that were more revues than book musicals per se.” WR-C However, when Jerome Kern died suddenly, Berlin was able to adapt and develop Dorothy and Herbert Fields’ Annie Oakley musical “in the spirit of integrated musicals that producers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had established with Oklahoma! only three years before.” WR-C “Berlin’s songs for Annie Get Your Gun were all about character and plot, from the bawdy Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly, in which Annie affirms the value of a common-sense barnyard education, to the witty Anything You Can Do, which illuminates her final confrontation and reconciliation with love interest Frank Butler. Ordinarily, that should have meant that the songs were less easy to extract for the hit parade, but in fact Berlin’s score produced more chart hits through cover versions than any Broadway score before or since.” WR-C “Oklahoma! had also established the popularity of original cast albums, and only ten days after the…Broadway opening, star Ethel Merman was in a recording studio with other members of the stage production to record 12 songs from the show…For reasons not yet explained, second leads Betty Ann Nyman and Kenny Bowers were not present, and for the recording of their duet Who Do You Love, I Hope?, they were replaced by Robert Lenn and Kathleen Carnes.” WR-C “Merman and her co-star Ray Middleton were Broadway veterans of the pre-microphone era, experts at projecting their voices from the footlights to the rear balcony, and their stage styles carried over to the recording.” WR-C “Merman, of course, possessed a clarion voice that was never better represented than in songs like ‘Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly’ and I Got the Sun in the Morning, while Middleton’s sonorous baritone informed The Girl That I Marry and My Defenses Are Down. And when the two got together on They Say It’s Wonderful and especially ‘Anything You Can Do,’ the belting reached near-bellow status.” WR-C “But that isn’t to say the songs, crafted for the performers, didn’t support their interpretations. Berlin wrote simply and directly, his jokes broad, his emotions direct, and the singers hit his meanings as surely as they did his notes. The result was exactly what a cast album should be, an accurate representation of the music of a show. And since this show was a landmark in Broadway history, that made the cast album an important contribution to musical history as well as an aural delight.” WR-C Four years after the musical, Annie Get Your Gun was turned into a movie. A third of the songs were dropped, but ten remained, including ‘Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly,’ There’s No Business Like Show Business, and ‘Anything You Can Do.’ WR-S MGM initially planned for Judy Garland, its biggest musical star, to step into Ethel Merman’s shoes. However, “her erratic behavior caused her to be suspended from the studio and the production to be shut down until Hutton was borrowed from Paramount.” WR-S “Betty Hutton brought her usual energy and effervescence to her portrayal, and Howard Keel, in his first major movie role, gave her strong support. The result was one of the biggest box-office hits of 1950.” WR-S Notes: The 2000 Decca reissue of the cast album added four new songs. “‘Colonel Buffalo Bill’ and ‘I'm a Bad, Bad Man,’ were not recorded back in 1946, nor was an overture.” WR-C addition, “for the 20th anniversary revival in 1966, Berlin wrote a new song, ‘An Old-Fashioned Wedding’.” WR-C These four songs appear to be from “a 1973 British studio cast recording featuring Merman.” WR-C The 2000 Rhino reissue of the soundtrack rounded out the original paltry 8 songs to a total of 31 songs, including the original recordings by Judy Garland before she was replaced by Betty Hutton.

Resources and Related Links: WR-C William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide WR-S William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 8/11/2008; last updated 12/21/2021.

50 years ago: Red Nichols charted with “I Got Rhythm”

I Got Rhythm Red Nichols

Writer(s): George Gershwin/ Ira Gershwin (see lyrics here) First Charted: December 6, 1930 Peak: 5 US, 16 GA, 6 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.04 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “I Got Rhythm” was originally written for 1928’s Treasure Girl, but didn’t get used. SB George Gershwin took the initial slower melody and upped the tempo. TY1 The song surfaced again in the 1930 show Girl Crazy, featuring a 21-year-old Ethel Merman TM in her Broadway debut. MM “With a clarion contralto that could shatter glass and shoo away the blues,” TM she made the song into a “perky spirit rouser in the first year of the Great Depression.” TM Merman also reportedly stole the limelight from Ginger Rogers, who was featured in her first leading role singing two of the show’s other classics, “Embraceable You” and “But Not for Me.” SB Merman would serve as the “sassy muse” in Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, and Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim’s Gypsy. TM Red Nichols, who led the show’s all-star orchestra including Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, and Glenn Miller, SB also charted with the song, taking it to #5. Ethel Waters and Louis Armstrong each took the song to #17. The Happenings revived it in 1967 with their #3 DJ million-selling version. SB Others to tackle it include Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Erroll Garner, Lena Horne, Django Reinhadt, Sarah Vaughn, Fats Waller, Roger Williams, and Teddy Wilson. MM The song is “probably the most widely heard Gershwin song and the one most commonly recorded by instrumentalists.” SB It is “a standout for jazz performers” DJ who “must know intuitively its changes and its plain AABA architecture, a matrix for improvisation as essential as the twelve-bar blues.” MM Jazz artists Sidney Bechet, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker all used variations of the song’s rhythm changes for improvisation. SB Will Friedwald, author of Stardust Melodies, says, “It would be impossible to name a melody or set of chord sequences that has withstood more interpretations and variations.” SB Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Red Nichols DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 84. MM Max Morath (2002). The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Popular Standards. New York, NY; Penguin Putnam Inc. Page 164. SB Songbook1.wordpress.com TM Time magazine (10/24/2011). “All Time 100 Songs” TY1 Don Tyler (1985). Hit Parade 1920-1955. Quill: New York, NY. Page 55. Related Links: Last updated 4/10/2023.