Michael g cunningham has contributed to gilded songs (berlin to bacharach) : the gig instrumentalist's guide to the golden era of american popular song (1920 to 1979) as an author.Cunningham was born in michigan and holds music degrees from wayne state university, the university of michigan and indiana university. Composition has been one of his * activities, and since 1958 he has concentrated on creating a large music catalog of various types of music. He is professor of theory/composition at the university of wisconsin-eau claire.

GILDED SONGS (Berlin through Bacharach)

THE GIG INSTRUMENTALIST'S GUIDE TO THE Songs of the Golden Era of American Popular Song (1920 to 1979)By Michael G. Cunningham

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Michael G. Cunningham
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-4527-6

Contents

Introduction.....................................................................1The 20th Century's aughts and teens: OPERETTA....................................Page 3World War I period and Tin Pan Alley.............................................page 5Independent songs (1910 to 1919).................................................page 6The First Rank of Composers......................................................page 18Second-Rank of Composers.........................................................page 20Third Rank of Composers..........................................................page 27The 1920s and 30s................................................................page 33Outstanding Independent Songs by half-decade (`20s and `30s).....................page 36Outstanding Independent Songs by half-decade ('40s and '50s).....................page 41The Silver Era 1960s and 70s.....................................................page 43Outstanding Independent Songs by half-decade ('60s and '70s).....................page 50Closing Comments page............................................................52APPENDIX: The Great List of popular songs by half-decades........................page 55

Chapter One

The 20th Century's aughts and teens:

OPERETTA

Until the 1950s, there seemed to be a significant audience for operetta productions and singers. The biggest money earners on Broadway were often operettas. (Take away the lyrics from the songs of Frederick Loewe, and what remains is operetta music.) While this kind of popular music, with its many waltzes, seemed at odds with Golden Era music, it turned out that, if this genre was not safe as a money making style, neither were the songs of the Golden Era. So, ironically, the demise in popularity of operetta in the late 1950s signaled the demise of the Golden Era not too many years later. Thus the listed songs here would cease being "major market." In retrospect, perhaps there was some unusual symbiotic relationship between the two styles.

Of the operetta songs listed in this book, little will be said concerning their style. While many of them have profoundly beautiful melodies, they lose their character without staid basic triadic harmony. (In Music Theory parlance, I-IV-V-I). Contrarily, Golden-era songs were more easily adapted to alternate and substitute harmonizations. Very few of the operetta songs were given a jazz treatment. Only one readily comes to mind, and it is Romberg's "Lover, Come Back to Me." It may be that the thought of operetta so turned off jazz performers that they usually passed up likely possibilities. Still, for today's world, many of the most popular operetta songs are outright waltzes that remain easily memorized. There may even be an occasional request for one of these pieces in the 21st century.

The most important operetta composers in the U. S. were Victor Herbert, Rudolph Friml, Noel Coward, and Sigmund Romberg. Each of these composers, while having occasional stage flops, earned much money from their stage successes and attendant songs.

Victor Herbert (1859 to 1924)

The Victor Herbert songs, sweet though they are, seemed to have passed into history. Television broadcasts of classic movies still keep some alive.

HERBERT'S surviving songs:

Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life Gypsy Love Song I'm falling in Love With Someone Indian Summer (l940s pop song derived from his Cello Sonata) Italian Street Song Kiss in the Dark, A Kiss Me Again March of the Toys Neapolitan Love Song Streets of New York, The Sweethearts Thine Alone Toyland Tramp, Tramp, Tramp When You're Away

Herbert worked with a number of lyricists, most of whom eventually lost fame. The most prominent of them was probably Buddy DeSylva, who later headed Paramount Pictures in the early l940s.

Rudolph Friml (1879 to 1972)

Friml's surviving famous songs are smaller in number, and his success resulted from a very few blockbuster stage productions that were also later filmed.

FRIML'S surviving songs: Donkey Serenade, The Giannina Mia Indian Love Call L'amour, Toujours, L'amour Only a Rose Rose Marie Some Day Of the American lyricists who worked with him, Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II are the most famous.

British Noel Coward (1899 to 1973)

Coward was a theatrical genius who could do it all, creating his own stage scripts and lyrics. As a composer he could also occasionally create top-notch operetta songs. Some stage commentators have referred to him as the British Cole Porter, but surely that refers only to the clever quality of his lyrics. The following list is short but potent. Four of them are clearly operetta waltzes.

COWARD SONGS

I'll Follow My Secret Heart I'll See You Again Mad About the Boy Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun. Someday I'll Find You Ziguener (a Gypsy song)

Sigmund Romberg (1887 to 1951)

The last of this group of operetta composers was of a later generation, with a high public profile as late as the mid 1950s. He was also probably the most successful of those listed here. As was mentioned above, at least one of his songs* was/is often used by jazz performers.

ROMBERG SONGS

Close as Pages in a Book Deep in my Heart Desert Song, The Drinking Song, The Golden Days Lost in Loveliness Lover, Come Back to Me * JAZZ FAVORITE One Alone One Kiss Riff Song, The Romance Serenade Silver Moon Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise Stouthearted Men Wanting You When I Grow Too Old to Dream Will You Remember? (Sweethearts)

Among his various lyricists the most famous are Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Leo Robin and Dorothy Fields.

BROADWAY AND TIN PAN ALLEY SONGS CONTEMPORENOUS WITH THE HIGHLY INTENSE OPERETTA PERIOD (Including WWI years)

Other sources of popular songs that preceded the Golden Era, are the Broadway Theater, Vaudeville theaters nationwide, and their "song feeder" source, the early Manhattan song publishing trade (located in a few lower Manhattan buildings) known as Tin Pan Alley. Song fame can deteriorate over time, and any song survival list is arguable. With that proviso in mind, the following songs are perhaps the most popular over the greater part of the 20th Century. Certainly each of the following composers produced many more songs than the lists would imply.

George Michael Cohan (1878 to 1942)

The songs of this Broadway legendary figure (the only person with a statue on Broadway) date from approximately 1900 to 1920. Apparently he was his own lyricist. Give My Regards to Broadway Harrigan Mary's a Grand Old Name Over There Yankee Doodle Boy You're a Grand Old Flag

Ernest R. Ball (1878 to 1927)

(working with various lyricists) Dear Little Boy of Mine Let the Rest of the World Go By Little Bit of Heaven, A Mother Macree When Irish Eyes are Smiling

Harry von Tilzer (1872 to 1946)

(Various lyricists) Bird in a Gilded Cage, A I Want a Girl On a Sunday Afternoon Under the Anheuser Bush Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie When My Baby Smiles at Me

Albert von Tilzer (1878 to 1956)

(Lew Brown is his most famous lyricist.) I'll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time I'm the Lonesomest Gal in Town My Little Girl Oh, By Jingo Put Your Arms Around...