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 As one of the
most significant songwriters of
the modern era,
Harold Arlen
composed such memorable tunes
as "Over the Rainbow," "Stormy
Weather," "It's
Only a Paper Moon," "I
Gotta Right to Sing the Blues," "A
Sleepin' Bee," and "Come
Rain Or Come Shine." During
his extraordinary career, Harold
collaborated with such celebrated
lyricists as Ira Gershwin, Johnny
Mercer, E.Y. "Yip" Harburg,
Ted Koehler, Dorothy Fields and
Truman Capote, creating true
classics that have been recorded
by every major artist – and
today are among the best-known
songs in the world.
Born "Hyman Arluck" on
February 15, 1905 in Buffalo, New
York, Arlen started piano lessons
at the age of nine and rapidly
advanced in his study of classical
music. As a teenager, he developed
a deep passion for jazz and took
jobs playing the piano in local
bands, movie houses, vaudeville
troupes, and cabarets.
In 1929, Arlen was introduced to
lyricist Ted Koehler. The two joined
forces as a songwriting team and
turned one of Harold's song
ideas into the classic hit, "Get
Happy". The song's
incredible success landed the team
a job writing music for the renowned
Cotton Club in Harlem. They wrote
five shows for the club from 1930-34,
turning out some of the year's
biggest hits: "Stormy Weather," "I've
Got the World on a String," "Ill
Wind," "I Love a Parade," and "Between the Devil and
the Deep Blue Sea." During
his years with the Cotton Club,
Arlen continued to perform in shows,
record his own compositions and
write songs for Broadway musicals
and revues.
He married model Anya Taranda,
and after several years in New
York, they moved to Hollywood,
where Arlen wrote the music for
thirty-one films from 1934 through
1963, including A Star is Born, The Sky's the Limit, and
most notably, The Wizard of Oz.
This timeless film and its Academy
Award-winning song, "Over
the Rainbow," became much-loved
classics. After The Wizard of Oz,
Arlen continued composing for Hollywood
pictures, introducing a multitude
of great American popular standards. "My
Shining Hour," "Blues
in the Night," "One
for My Baby (And One More for the
Road)," "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate
the Positive," "Lydia
the Tattooed Lady," "That
Old Black Magic," "Hit
the Road to Dreamland," and "The
Man That Got Away" are a
few of his most popular film songs.
During the years 1934 to 1968,
Arlen wrote scores for twenty-three
musical revues and Broadway theater
works, including Bloomer Girl,
St. Louis Woman, and House of Flowers.
Among his achievements, Arlen created
nearly 500 songs, nine of which
were nominated for Academy Awards.
He was inducted into the Songwriters
Hall of Fame in 1971, was a member
of ASCAP from 1930, and served
as a member of the ASCAP Board
of Directors from 1969 to 1975.
He died on April 23, 1986.
In 2000, Harold's most memorable
song, "Over the Rainbow," was recognized
as the Number One Song of the 20th
Century from a list of 365 tunes.
In 2004, members of the American
Film Institute voted the song Number
One from a list of 400 songs, with
four other Arlen compositions also
recognized in the top 100 films
songs of the last century.
In celebration of the centennial
of Arlen's birth, his son,
Sam, and his wife, Joan, have made
a generous contribution to the
ASCAP Foundation to help further
the careers of composers and songwriters
in both film and television music
and musical theater.
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