Hooray for Hollywood

By Richard A. Whiting and Johnny Mercer
1937

The unofficial theme song of the entire film industry, much of the song's enduring popularity can be attributed to Mercer's clever lyric lampooning the notion of celebrity. Since being introduced by Johnnie Davis and Frances Langford (with the Benny Goodman Orchestra) in the musical comedy Hollywood Hotel, it has gone on to become the regular soundtrack for the Academy Awards and other movie award shows. It was also notably the closing theme of Jack Benny's enormously popular radio show.

Lyrics:

Hooray for Hollywood
That screwy ballyhooey Hollywood
Where any office boy or young mechanic can be a panic
With just a good looking pan
And any barmaid can be a star maid
If she dances with or without a fan

Hooray for Hollywood,
Where you're terrific if you're even good
Where anyone at all from Shirley Temple to Aimee Semple
Is equally understood
Go out and try your luck, you might be Donald Duck
Hooray for Hollywood

Hooray for Hollywood
That phoney super-Coney Hollywood
They come from Chillicothes and Paducas with their bazookas
To get their names up in lights
All armed with photos from local rotos
With their hair in ribbon and legs in tights

Hooray for Hollywood
You may be homely in your neighbourhood
But if you think that you can be an actor, see Mr. Factor
He'll make a monkey look good
Within a half an hour you'll look like Tyrone Power
Hooray for Hollywood!

Recorded By:

Doris Day
Anita O'Day
Rosemary Clooney
Nancy Sinatra
Don Swan

When Did You Leave Heaven?

By Richard Whiting & Walter Bullock
1936

A schmaltzy yet irresistible number from the 20th Century Fox musical Sing, Baby, Sing--in which it was introduced by the recently departed Tony Martin, making his film debut at the time. The song became an instant favorite of the big band orchestras of the day. In later decades, it became a lesser heard but beloved standard among a wide range of performers.

Lyrics:

When did you leave Heaven?
How could they let you go?
How's ev'rything in Heaven?
I'd like to know.

Why did you trade Heaven
For all these earthly things?
Where did you hide your halo?
Where did you lose your wings?

Have they missed you?
Can you get back in?
If I kissed you,
Would it be a sin?

I am only human,
But you are so divine.
When did you leave Heaven,
Angel mine?

Recorded By: 

Guy Lombardo Orchestra

Joe Williams

Bob Dylan

Renee Fleming

Louis Armstrong

The Japanese Sandman

By Richard A. Whiting & Raymond B. Egan
1919

Did you know that this song single-handedly kicked off the modern phenomenon of popular music recording? It's true, and I only discovered it after researching the song, which I recently came across in the new Terry Gilliam film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Apparently, prior to Paul Whiteman's introduction of the tune, basically only classical music and some local folk material was deemed worthy of recording for posterity. But this pop song became the first platinum record, and in so doing ushered in the notion that there was a viable market for recorded performances of pop songs. Prior to that, the main market for pop was in the sale of sheet music.

Lyrics:

Won't you stretch imagination for the moment and come with me
Let us hasten to a nation lying over the western sea
Hide behind the cherry blossoms here's a sight that will please your eyes
There's a baby with a lady of Japan singing lullabies
Night winds breath her sighs here's the Japanese

Just as silent as we came we'll leave the land of the painted fan
Wander lightly or you'll wake the little people of old Japan
May repose and pleasant dreaming be their share while the hours are small
Like an echo of the song I hear the Japanese Sandman
call new days near for all here's the Japanese

Sandman sneaking on with the dew just an old second hand man
He'll buy your old day from you
he will take every sorrow of the day that is through
and he'll give you tomorrow just to start a life anew
then you'll be a bit older in the dawn when you wake
and you'll be a bit bolder with the new day you make
here's the Japanese Sandman trade him silver for gold
just an old second hand man trading new days for old.

Recorded By:

The Andrew Sisters
Artie Shaw
Bix Beiderbecke
Django Reinhardt
Mandy Patinkin

My Ideal

By Richard Whiting, Newell Chase & Leo Robin
1930

A classic example of the kind of sweet love songs that populated early Hollywood musicals, this one was sung by Maurice Chevalier to Frances Dee in the rare Paramount film The Playboy of Paris. Universal bought the picture from Paramount as part of a major deal in 1958, yet never released it on video, and it is currently in the public domain. Whiting, on of the composers, was the father of vocalist Margaret Whiting.

Lyrics:

Long ago, my heart and mind
Got together and designed
The wonderful girl for me--
Oh, what a fantasy!

Thought the ideal of my heart
Can't be ordered a la carte.
I wonder if she will be
Always a fantasy?

Will I ever find the girl in my mind,
The one who is my ideal?
Maybe she's a dream, and yet she might be
Just around the corner waiting for me.

Will I recognize the light in her eyes
That no other eyes reveal?
Or will I pass her by, and never even know
That she was my ideal?

Recorded By:

Chet Baker
Wynton Marsalis
Art Tatum
John Coltrane
Dinah Washington

Too Marvelous for Words

By Richard Whiting & Johnny Mercer
1936

Praised often for its sophisticated synchronization of melody and lyrics, this song was composed for the 1937 Warner Bros. musical Ready, Willing and Able, in which it was introduced by Ross Alexander (pictured), who sadly committed suicide before the film was released. The tune was used again ten years later in the Bogey/Bacall flick Dark Passage, in which it was sung by Jo Stafford. Mercer claimed to have been lyrically influenced by Ira Gershwin on this extremely popular standard, which has at least 50 major recordings to its credit.

Lyrics:

I search for phrases,
To sing your praises,
But there aren't any magic adjectives
To tell you all you are.

You're just too marvelous,
Too marvelous for words
Like glorious, glamorous,
And that old standby, amorous.

It's all too wonderful,
I'll never find the words
That say enough, tell enough,
I mean, they just aren't swell enough.

You're much too much,
And just too very very
To ever be in Webster's Dictionary.

And so, I'm borrowing
A love song from the birds,
To tell you that you're marvelous,
Too marvelous for words.

Recorded By:

Frank Sinatra
Artie Shaw
Ella Fitzgerald
June Christy
Rosemary Clooney