Remembering Johnny Mercer

For our monthly musical post, the respectful top hat tip goes to Johnny Mercer, singer-songwriter and founder of Capitol Records, born on Savannah, Georgia on November 18, 1909. Here, Johnny and Henry Mancini win the Academy Award for Moon River.



This writer finds the task of paying tribute to Johnny Mercer, founder of the Songwriters Hall Of Fame and celebrated by the Georgia Historical Society, a bit daunting due to the sheer quantity and breadth of material on him.

Classic movie tunes that feature Johnny Mercer lyrics - 19 were nominated for Academy Awards - in addition to "Moon River" (which was first seen in Breakfast At Tiffany's) include "Hooray for Hollywood" sung by Johnny "Scat" Davis and Frances Langford in HOLLYWOOD HOTEL)



And the ditty for which Mercer received a second Oscar, "In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening (music by Hoagy Carmichael)," sung by Bing and Jane Wyman in Here Comes The Groom. . .



AND "On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" (music by Harry Warren), sung by Judy Garland in The Harvey Girls.



Johnny Mercer was a poetic lyricist on 1500+ songs in which he collaborated with a slew of top composers - the aforementioned Hoagy Carmichael, Harry Warren and Henry Mancini, as well as Richard Whiting, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Jimmy McHugh, and Jimmy Van Heusen - interpreted by dozens of the greatest vocalists and instrumentalists.











Johnny's friend Louis Armstrong introduced his tune Jeepers Creepers in the 1938 Dick Powell musical Going Places. Pops would subsequently hit many Johnny Mercer songs out of the park for the musical grand slam.



The bourbon-soaked lost love lament ONE FOR MY BABY (AND ONE FOR THE ROAD) was introduced by Fred Astaire in The Sky's The Limit (1943), but became (along with Earl Brent & Matt Dennis' Angel Eyes) among the signature tunes for Frank Sinatra.



Yes, crooners dig Johnny Mercer's lyrics the most.



Two Of A Kind, a meeting of the musical minds between Bobby Darin and Johnny Mercer, with arrangements by Billy May, is one of this music aficionado's favorite albums. They are such a terrific team that I am a bit disappointed to have not found TV show appearances featuring the dynamic duo.



Today's cornucopia of clips continues with Johnny Mercer, the rare songwriter who was also an incredible performer.



Johnny and Steverino alternate tunes on The Steve Allen Show.



Pondered posting the outstanding Louis Armstrong, Mel Tormé and Ella Fitzgerald versions of Blues In The Night, but then realized that Johnny's rendition is fantastic.



As is Johnny's vocal on Something's Gotta Give.



Here's Johnny, singin' with Bing on The Kraft Music Hall.



And with Nat King Cole, a master musician who Johnny, as Capitol Records executive, signed as a cornerstone for the label.



Singing with Sinatra on The Chairman Of The Board's radio show in 1947.



Where do we end this tribute to Johnny Mercer? With performances and reflections on the songwriter's legacy by guitarist-vocalist John Pizzarelli, who devoted an album to Johnny Mercer tunes.

Mozart, Kern, Ruby, Elmore

January 27 always means a music post, as all-time great composers, songwriters and musicians share a 1/27 birthday, starting with . . .



Here's some high grade Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart goodness, interpreted brilliantly by a pianist who has been among the best of the very best for decades, Martha Argerich.







For more, strongly suggest delving into the following playlist of Mozart masterpieces, performed with panache by The Guarneri String Quartet.



Regarding the incredible Jerome Kern, composer and collaborator of lyricists George Grossmith Jr., Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg, born on January 27, 1885, the question is where does one start? With classic movie musicals, of course.









Bringing their original ideas to Kern's universe: crooners Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra and Nat "King" Cole.











Never to be outdone, EVER, Ella Fitzgerald recorded an entire album of Jerome Kern songs.



And, speaking of jazz, the gifted virtuoso pianist Bud Powell (1924-1966) waxed a memorable, heartfelt and Art Tatum-esque version of Kern's The Last Time I Saw Paris.



Five years ago, this blog spotlighted the incomparable Broadway and Hollywood songwriter (and screenwriter) Harry Ruby.



Notably, Harry Ruby wrote the lyrics to one of my absolute favorite songs!



Groucho Marx' pal and favorite songwriter, Harry was a cornerstone of many outstanding entertainments, not the least of were several classic comedy films of the 1930's.







Groucho continued performing these songs right up to the end of his lengthy showbiz career.



The dynamic duo of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby were responsible for writing countless great tunes.



Among the amazing covers of songs by Kalmar & Ruby is this one by Louis Armstrong. No doubt Sinatra and Nat took notes regarding Satchmo's uncanny ability to absolutely nail songs from both jazz and Broadway.



Millions of us would-be musicians attempted, with complete and utter lack of success, to emulate the playing of genius slide guitarist and vocalist Elmore James (1918-1963). Since blues remains both simple and very, very difficult to play - even more difficult to excel at - few guitaristas come close to James' original phrasing, timing, feeling, intensity, dynamics and nuance.



Have been listening to Elmore James play "Dust My Broom" for decades and still ask "HOW does he do it?" So did Howlin' Wolf, Earl Hooker, Johnny Winter, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer.



Even more amazing: James' incendiary solo and vocal on Tampa Red's It Hurts Me, Too.



Chicago's own Luther Allison is a blues vocalist-guitarist who gets it regarding Elmore James.



In closing, we note that there is an astonishingly good guitarist who pulls this approach to the instrument off beautifully . . . and he happens to be Elmore's son.

And This Blog Loves Hoagy Carmichael

"I'm a bit disappointed in myself. I know I could have accomplished a hell of a lot more... I could write anything any time I wanted to. But I let other things get in the way.... I've been floating around in the breeze." Hoagy Carmichael






While writing about Harry Ruby and about Musicians In The Movies, couldn't help thinking of the Indiana-born songwriter, pianist, composer, character actor, radio star and lawyer-turned-musician Hoagy Carmichael. When this blogger, amateur musician and jazz geek thinks of 1920's and 1930's music, Hoagy invariably comes to mind, so it's about time we give this Songwriters Hall of Fame member his post!



Many in the same age group as this blogger were introduced to the great songwriter via his memorable appearance on "The Hit Songwriters" episode of ABC-TV's The Flintstones as prehistoric tunesmith "Stoney Carmichael" on September 15, 1961.



This wasn't the first time a Hoagy Carmichael song appeared in an animated cartoon. His 1938 song Small Fry was made by the Fleischer Studio into a Color Classic cartoon about a juvenile delinquent fish!



Just consider a mere few of the many great songs from the Hoagy Carmichael backlog, created in collaboration with lyricists Johnny Mercer, Frank Loesser, Mitchell Parish, Sidney Arodin, Jack Brooks, Harold Adamson, Stuart Gorrell, Jo Trent, Connie Dane, Paul Francis Webster, Robert De Leon and Dick Voynow.

Washboard Blues (1925, lyric with Fred B. Callahan)



Star Dust (1928, lyric by Mitchell Parish)


Rockin' Chair (1929)


Georgia On My Mind (1930, lyric by Stuart Gorrell)


Up The Lazy River (1931, lyric with Sidney Arodin)


Lazybones (1931, lyric written with Johnny Mercer)


The Nearness Of You (1937, lyric by Ned Washington)


Two Sleepy People (1938, lyric by Frank Loesser)


Heart and Soul (1938, lyric by Frank Loesser)


I Get Along Without You Very Well (1938)


Skylark (1941, lyric by Johnny Mercer)



Hoagy found his way into songwriting as a law student who became enthralled by the music of Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong.





Carmichael performed many of his songs in movies. His first silver screen appearance was in Topper. Tough to top a movie in which Hoagy sings and Cary Grant stars.



As much as we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog love Bogey and Bacall in To Have And Have Not, the musical interludes by Hoagy - Hong Kong Blues, Am I Blue and Baltimore Oriole - are immensely entertaining and add a lot to this unbeatable classic movie.







The George Raft - Claire Trevor film noir Johnny Angel included the evocative "Memphis In June" (1945, lyric by Paul Francis Webster).




"Ole Buttermilk Sky" was featured in the movie Canyon Passage and released as a single.



It received an Oscar nomination for Best Song of 1946, but did not win.



Carmichael and lyricist Johnny Mercer did win the 1951 Academy Award for Best Song for "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," from the Bing Crosby-Jane Wyman vehicle Here Comes The Groom.



Another feature which makes good use of Carmichael's musical talents is Las Vegas Story.





We'll take the Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog (and Lazybones) route and quote the excellent Songwriters' Hall Of Fame entry for Hoagy verbatim. This tells the story more effectively than this writer could. Kudos to whoever wrote this for Songwriters' Hall Of Fame and we shall illustrate the bio with judiciously chosen clips! In addition, there are also the two books Carmichael wrote about his career in music.



"Hoagy Carmichael was one of the most inventive and adventurous of the great American songwriters. Much of his best work reflects his love of the jazz of the 1920s, most notably one of the greatest standards from the era, “Stardust”.





He was born Hoagland Howard Carmichael in Bloomington, Indiana on November 22, 1899. His father was an electrician and his mother played the piano for dances and silent films. Although his ambition was to become a lawyer, Carmichael showed an early interest in music. When his family moved to Indianapolis in 1916, he took lessons from an African-American pianist Reginald DuValle (1893-1953).

He attended Indiana University, and, while there, he organized his own jazz band. When the great jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, then at the very beginning of his brief career, paid a visit to Indiana University in the spring of 1924, he and Carmichael quickly became friends, and it was for Beiderbecke that Carmichael wrote his first piece. Not long afterward, Beiderbecke and the Wolverines recorded it under the title "Riverboat Shuffle".



Carmichael went on to the Indiana University Law School, and continued to perform and write music while there. He graduated in 1926, and began to practice law in West Palm Beach, Florida. However, the discovery that another of his early tunes "Washboard Blues" had been recorded prompted him to abandon law for music. He briefly returned to Indiana, and then in 1929 he arrived in New York. He resumed his contact with Beiderbecke and was introduced with some of the most talented young musicians of the day, including Louis Armstrong, the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, and Jack Teagarden. Another important lifelong friendship during this time was also established with lyricist Johnny Mercer.





Gradually, musicians heard Carmichael’s songs and he became increasingly well known as a songwriter. In addition, his performing career flourished and he made many recordings. One of his early recordings featured him with the Paul Whiteman band playing and singing his own "Washboard Blues".



In 1936 he moved to Hollywood and continued to write independent songs for publication and songs for movies. In 1937 he began what was to become a significant secondary career as an actor, appearing in a bit part in the film Topper. Roles, which usually involved singing parts, followed in many other movies, including To Have and Have Not (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Canyon Passage (1945), and Young Man With a Horn (1950). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he became a regular on television in the western series Laramie. In the 1940s, he was also a popular radio personality."

Among Hoagy's last TV appearances was the PBS children's show Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop.



A kids' show featuring Hoagy is not necessarily at all far-fetched, especially considering that the music director on the long-running flagship PBS children's show Mister Rogers Neighborhood was none other than jazz pianist and composer Johnny Costa, like Art Tatum, Jaki Byard, Hazel Scott and Oscar Peterson a fleet-fingered speed demon on the keys.



The song here, "Everybody's Bustin' Out Of Doors" is both covered by the man himself in classic Hoagy style but also by vibraphonist Monty Stark's rock-jazz fusion band The Stark Reality, who created an album of 1970 style versions of Hoagy Carmichael songs. Sometimes the blend is a bit jarring, but for the most part it works. Unfortunately, now that we are in 2017 and every human upon this earth is glued to their smart phones, nobody is busting to get out of doors, not even children.



Fred Rogers also hosted a show a few years later, Old Friends, New Friends in which Hoagy appeared. Unfortunately, this blogger has not been able to locate any clips from the latter 1978 show. Perhaps they will turn up eventually on the Fred Rogers tribute website.

Carmichael sang and played "Rockin' Chair" on the piano on Annie Ross and Georgie Fame's United Kingdom-recorded tribute album In Hoagland (1981). Hoagy's last public appearance occurred when he filmed Country Comes Home with country music recording artist Crystal Gayle for CBS in 1981.



Hoagy Carmichael died of heart failure at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California on December 27, 1981. His remains are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Bloomington, Indiana.

In 1986 Carmichael's family donated his archives, piano, and memorabilia to his alma mater, Indiana University, which established a Hoagy Carmichael Collection in its Archives of Traditional Music and the Hoagy Carmichael Room to permanently display selections from the collection.

Finishing up this tribute to Hoagy: the following great covers of his classic tunes. Leading off: Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden!



Chet Baker and Frank Sinatra delve deeply into the Hoagy Carmichael songs about love lost.





Sinatra contributed his share of classic Carmichael covers.



Hong Kong Blues has inspired covers by a wide range of musicians.



Here's one by The Killer himself, Jerry Lee Lewis!



George Harrison was a Hoagy Carmichael fan and recorded Hong Kong Blues and Baltimore Oriole on his Somewhere In England album.





There are many incredible covers of Hoagy's classic "The Nearness Of You," but a favorite of this music loving blogger is by ace guitarists Tommy Emmanuel and Martin Taylor.



Hoagy Carmichael was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960. Hoagy's sidewalk star tribute can be found at 1720 Vine Street in Hollywood.

Happy 84th Birthday, Tom Lehrer!

Rejoice and Hallelujah, there is a YouTube channel devoted entirely to the wonderful satiric songs of Tom Lehrer.

Mr. Lehrer, professor, mathematician, poet and writer-performer today celebrates his 84th birthday.



Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog enthusiastically salutes Tom Lehrer: still subversive after all these years.



Brilliant turns of phrase, advanced wordplay, witty one-liners and trenchant satire have given Tom's songs staying power, as well as the ability, after repeated listenings, to still surprise and delight.



All subsequent efforts to pattern musical comedy acts on the Tom Lehrer model (Mark Russell in particular) pale in comparison.

My (New) Favorite Frank Loesser - Make That Hoagy N' Frank -Tune

Hogay Carmichael (1899-1981), in his natural habitat

"Two Sleepy People" was written by Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser when the latter was working as studio lot lyricist for Paramount Pictures. The powers that be at Paramount hoped that Hoagy could, like clockwork, crank out another hit to equal "Thanks For The Memories", the boffo Bob Hope and Shirley Ross duet penned by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger for The Big Broadcast Of 1938. While not the overwhelming hit that Bob's theme song was, "Two Sleepy People" added another doozy of a charmer to Carmichael's repertoire, and also provided a key career break for Loesser (who even then had his sights on Broadway).

IMO, this is the most genuinely romantic of pop standards; the lyrics are actually about the relationship and tangible experiences between two people, as opposed to the lame-brained romantic mythology, adolescent fantasies and/or infatuation drivel that make many "love songs" range from merely false to positively cringe-worthy.

So, here, Bob n' Shirley present "Two Sleepy People":



Hoagy himself got a shot at recording "Two Sleepy People" in his inimitable laid-back style in 1958.




The incomparable songwriter, stride pianist, vocalist, cut-up and all-around raconteur Thomas "Fats" Waller waxed this into a hit in December 1938. The multi-talented Waller passed away from an extended stretch of hard living (A.K.A. too much fun + too little rest) in 1943, just as he was breaking into a new career as songwriter for Broadway.




Enjoy the ever-sultry Julie London's Marilyn Monroe-ish take on "Two Sleepy People", which begs the question, was Marilyn ripping off Julie?



Offering proof positive that this Hoagy n' Frank ditty sounds fantastic in the 21st century, here's a sweet performance of "Two Sleepy People" from Joe's Pub in fabulous New York City on July 22, 2008. Take it away, Howard and Nellie!

Happy 100th Birthday, Frank Loesser

Frank Loesser, author of literally hundreds of songs and numerous enduring standards, was born on June 29, 1910. Loesser, who could write both lyrics and music with panache, deserves credit for giving that Gershwin-Porter metropolitan musical tradition an original spin drenched with genuine 1950's style Americana.

To represent the Damon Runyon-esque part of that mix, I submit the following:

Pianist, vocalist and walking encyclopedia of American musical theater, Michael Feinstein, spoke at length about Loesser (whose classic Broadway shows include Where's Charley, Guys And Dolls, The Most Happy Fella and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying) in this interview by Terry Gross that aired as part of a tribute on the Fresh Air show.

The following trailer plugs Walter Gottlieb's 2006 documentary about the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning author of Broadway shows and movie scores.

My favorite Loesser tune? Let's Get Lost! And while I have a tough time choosing between Sinatra's and Chet Baker's versions of it, for today's blog entry, I go with Chet - but promise to crank up Frank's killer version of "Luck Be A Lady" from Sinatra At The Sands later.



My second favorite? Tough call, since there are so many cool songs to choose from, but I just love the simmering salaciousness of Baby, It's Cold Outside. Here are two highly entertaining covers - with big time thanks to Dino, Satchmo and Velma - of that fine song: