Jerome Kern: Top 40 Songs

Jerome Kern Top 40 Songs

Musical theater composer Jerome Kern was born on 1/27/1885 in New York City, NY. He died 11/11/1945. He composed more than 700 songs used in more than 100 stage works. He collaborated with many of his era’s greatest lyricists, including Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, Yip Harburg, and Johnny Mercer. Created dozens of Broadway musicals and Hollywood films over a career lasting more than four decades. “The Way You Look Tonight,” “All the Things You Are,” “Ol’ Man River,” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” are featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953. Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Jerome Kern DMDB profile page for Jerome Kern Dave’s Music Database: “Acts’ Profile Pages and Best-of Lists”

Awards:

Top 40 Songs Dave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists, appearances on compilations and live albums by the featured act, and songs’ chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards. DMDB Top 1%: 1. The Way You Look Tonight (Fred Astaire with Johnny Greer’s Orchestra, 1936) #1 US, HP 2. All the Things You Are (Tommy Dorsey with Jack Leonard, 1939) #1 US, HP 3. Ol’ Man River (Paul Robeson with Paul Whiteman, 1927) 4. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Paul Whiteman with Bob Lawrence, 1933) #1 US 5. They Didn’t Believe Me (Harry MacDonough with Olive Kline, 1915) #1 US 6. Look for the Silver Lining (Marion Harris, 1921) #1 US 7. Who? (George Olsen, 1926) #1 US 8. Till the Clouds Roll By (Anna Wheaton with James Harrod, 1917) #1 US 9. A Fine Romance (A Sarcastic Love Song) (Fred Astaire with Johnny Greer’s Orchestra, 1936) #1 US, HP 10. Long Ago and Far Away (Dick Haymes & Helen Forrest with Carmarata’s Orchestra, 1944) #1 HP 11. Yesterdays (Leo Reisman with Frank Luther, 1933) DMDB Top 5%: 12. Lovely to Look At (Eddy Duchin with Lew Sherwood, 1935) #1 US, HP 13. I Won’t Dance (Eddy Duchin with Lew Sherwood, 1935) #1 US 14. Bill (Helen Morgan, 1928) 15. Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man (Ben Bernie with Vaughn Deleath, 1928) 16. Why Was I Born? (Libby Holman, 1930) 17. I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star (Jack Denny with Paul Small, 1932) 18. Why Do I Love You? (Nat Shilkret, 1928) 19. The Last Time I Saw Paris (Kate Smith, 1940) 20. The Song Is You (Jack Denny with Paul Small, 1932) 21. Make Believe (Paul Whiteman with Bing Crosby, 1928) 22. She Didn’t Say “Yes” (Leo Reisman, 1932) 23. Sunny (George Olsen, 1926) 24. The Touch of Your Hand (Leo Reisman, 1926) 25. Babes in the Wood (Harry MacDonough with Lucy Isabelle Marsh as Anna Howard, 1917) DMDB Top 10%: 26. Dearly Beloved (Glenn Miller with Skip Nelson, 1942) 27. The Folks Who Live on the Hill (Guy Lombardo, 1937) 28. All Through the Day (Perry Como, 1946) #1 HP 29. You Couldn’t Be Cuter (Tommy Dorsey, 1938) 30. Pick Yourself Up (Fred Astaire with Johnny Greer’s Orchestra, 1936) 31. Wild Rose (1920) 32. Don’t Ever Leave Me (1929) 33. You Are Love (1927) DMDB Top 20%: 34. I’m Old-Fashioned (Fred Astaire with John Scott Trotter’s Orchestra, 1943) 35. Blue Danube Blues (Carl Fenton, 1922) 36. Never Gonna Dance (Fred Astaire with Johnny Greer’s Orchestra, 1936) 37. In Love in Vain (Dick Haymes with Helen Forest and Earle Hagen’s Orchestra, 1946) Beyond the DMDB Top 20%: 38. All in Fun (Jack Whiting with Frances Mercer, 1939) 39. Sure Thing (1944) 40. Nobody Else But Me (1945) Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Jerome Kern DMDB profile page for Jerome Kern Dave’s Music Database: “Acts’ Profile Pages and Best-of Lists” First posted 1/23/2024.

 

100 years ago: “They Didn’t Believe Me” hit #1

They Didn’t Believe Me Harry MacDonough with Olive Kline (as Alice Green)

Writer(s): Herbert Reynolds, Jerome Kern (see lyrics here) First Charted: November 13, 1915 Peak: 17 US (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Jerome Kern, best known for the landmark musical Show Boat, was “one of the most important pioneering composers of American Popular Song.” PS Born in New York City in 1885, Kern was the son of an upper-middle class family. He got a Master of Music degree at Germany’s Heidleberg University and started writing for Broadway shows by the time he was 19. PS Over the next eight years, he wrote about 100 songs for roughly thirty Broadway musicals and wrote three full, unsuccessful musical scores. SS His style integrated “vaudeville, minstrel songs, ragtime and ‘coon’ songs” LW “into Broadway theatre songs, something new and intrinsicially American.” LW He hit paydirt in 1914 with The Girl from Utah after several failed stage productions. He wrote eight songs for the adaptation of an English opera, one of which was “They Didn’t Believe Me.” It was Kern’s first hit song and “may well be his best,” PS marking his “graduation to the status of major composer from that of a ‘mere’ pop tunesmith.” SS “The song is held to be the earliest on the cannon of showtunes, or standards, which have become to be known as ‘American Popular Song.’” LW David Ewen said this song “stands out with beacon-like brilliance. Kern no longer submitted meekly to the song conventions of the day, but bent them to his own creative needs.” SS The song is “a model for the “thirty-two bar Tin Pan Alley ballad that became standard for the time. While not exactly slangy it is written in a conversational tone, [such as] ‘And I’m cert’nly goin’ to tell them;’ it is almost spoken yet remains sung.” RCG Michael Rourke wrote the lyrics for “They Didn’t Believe Me.” He was born in England and moved to the United States to become a press agaent. Around the start of World War I, he changed his name to Herbert Reynolds for unknown reasons. He had provided lyrics to a dozen or so of Kern’s earlier songs under his original name. This was written under his new name and “the words work perfectly with Kern’s melody, which feels tender, and natural, and still sounds fresh today.” LW The song became a #1 song in 1915 in the hands of Harry MacDonough and Olive Kline. In 1916, Grace Kerns & Reed Miller took it to #8 and Walter Van Brunt & Gladys Rice reached #9. Morton Downey had a #15 hit with it in 1934. PM Dinah Shore sang it in the 1946 Kern biopic Till the Clouds Roll By and Mario Lanza and Kathryn Grayson tackled it in the 1949 movie, That Midnight Kiss. PS Bing Crosby, Tommy Dorsey, Johnny Mercer, and Barbra Streisand were among the others who recorded the song. RCG Resources: LW Alan Lewens (2001). Popular Song – Soundtrack of the Century. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Pages 36-7. PS ParlorSongs.com Lessons in America’s Popular Music History RCG RimChiGuy.com The Old Songs (1900-1929) SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 353. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Menomonee Falls, WI; Record Research, Inc. Page 594. Related Links: First posted 11/20/2014; last updated 11/23/2022.