Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!

With the arrival of spring, comes a spring in the step and a song in the heart.  Everyone enjoys that beautiful feeling. Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ is the opening song from the musical Oklahoma! Oklahoma! was the first collaboration and hit for composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. Oklahoma! on the Broadway Read More

Lullaby of Broadway

Lullaby of Broadway was a popular Doris Day song in the 1950s. However, it was first published in 1935.  The words were written by Harry Warren and the lyrics by Al Dubin. The song was written for Gold Diggers of 1935, a musical film. The song was also used that same year as background music Read More

It Might As Well Be Spring

Spring time is in the air and we are restless and jumpy knowing it’s springtime. The song It Might As Well be Spring was written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for their musical State Fair. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1945, the year it was written. State Read More

April in Paris

The term April in Paris originated with the Broadway song. The song was composed in 1932, by Vernon Duke {music} and E. Y. Harbug {lyrics}.  April in Paris first premiered in that year’s play, Walk a Little Faster. The following year, Freddy Martin recorded the song.  Almost two decades later, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, recorded the Read More

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is from the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical Oklahoma! Richard Rodgers wrote the music and Oscar Hammerstein II the lyrics. The song “describes the landscape and prairie weather in positive language. It further emphasizes the wholesome aspects of rural life, and the steadfast dedication of the region’s inhabitants, against the overtly stated formal backdrop Read More

Broadway Players: Florenz Ziegfeld

If you’ve heard of the Ziegfeld follies than you at least have an idea of the man behind the famed group. He is considered to have “glorified of the American girl.” Florenz Edward Ziegfeld, Jr. was born on March 21, 1867 in Chicago, Illinois.  He was the son of Florenz and Rosalie Hez Ziegfeld. He Read More

Profile of a Composer: Cole Porter

Anyone that is a fan of Frank Sinatra or the music of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s will recognize songs by the talented composer and songwriter Cole Porter. His songs include I’ve Got You Under My Skin, I Get a Kick Out of You, You’re the Top, Night and Day, Begin the Beguine, Anything Goes, Read More

Profile of a Composer: Jerome Kern

Before Rodgers and Hammerstein changed the book of the musical theatre, Kern and Hammerstein created that book with the production of Show Boat. But, who was the Kern in the duo? Jerome David Kern was born on January 27, 1885 in New York to Henry and Fannie Kakeles Kern. From a young age, Kern is Read More

Song Story: Blue Moon

Blue Moon was written by the popular songwriting duo Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934. The duo was contracted in May 1933 by MGM to write songs for an upcoming movie called Hollywood Party.  Richard Rodgers later recalled, “One of our ideas was to include a scene in which Jean Harlow is shown as Read More

Carolina in the Morning

The song Carolina in the Morning was running through my mind and since I live in Carolina, I thought it would be great to explore this song. The song was written by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson. The original lyrics, which were published in 1922 by Jerome H. Remick &  Co., are now in the Read More