Harold Arlen

The composer of such classics as "Let's Fall in Love," "Stormy Weather," "One for My Baby (One More for the Road)" and others created some of the most beloved and enduring music of the 20th century. Here, his son Sam talks to Playback about his father's upcoming centennial.

February 15, 2005 will mark a red-letter day in American musical history: the 100th anniversary of the birth in Buffalo, New York, of one of America's greatest composers, Harold Arlen. Though Arlen's name doesn't resonate as much as it should with the general public, his songs certainly do. Among the treasures in the Arlen songbook are: "That Old Black Magic," "Let's Fall in Love," "It's Only a Paper Moon" "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive," "I've Got the World on a String," "Blues in the Night," "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues," "The Man That Got Away," "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)," "Stormy Weather" and the song score of The Wizard of Oz. His Broadway scores include St. Louis Woman, Bloomer Girl, House of Flowers and Jamaica. In anticipation of the Arlen centennial year, Playback spoke recently with the musical giant's son, Sam Arlen, who shared some insights into the man and the music that was Harold Arlen.

Playback: Let's start off with a very hypothetical kind of question. Do you think that Harold would be surprised by the way his work has endured?

Sam Arlen: Yes, he would. He felt that with the era of rock & roll and as we got into the music of the '60s and '70s, he really didn't know where he and the composers of his era would fit into musical culture. Deep down, based upon our conversations, he felt that his music - his era of music - would not survive. So Harold would be very, very shocked to know that the music has really endured.

What would you say there was in Harold's upbringing and, perhaps, in his personal temperament that helped him become such a great songwriter?

He grew up the son of a cantor in Buffalo and started singing in the synagogue at a very young age. He listened to a lot of the cantorial chants and also to a lot of classical music, because my grandparents played a lot of classical music in the house. My grandparents lived on the second floor, and they rented the first floor to an African-American family. Harold was encouraged by his parents to spend time with the family and likewise had that family up to their home. So Harold had early on, aside from being raised in the Jewish faith, an understanding of a Christian upbringing. But more of the impact was the music that this family would listen to, which, at the time, people would refer to as "hot" music.

What led Harold to relocate to New York City?

It was a combination of events: Playing with some small groups; forming his own group; starting to get the bug to tour; and wanting to go to New York which, obviously, was a music center.

Didn't he go to New York to become an entertainer ?

Harold's first love was singing. Early on, he performed other people's works. Even later in his career, he would get together with friends like the Gershwins and Irving Berlin and other illustrious songwriters, lyricists and he would sing their works. So he loved to perform. He originally had no intention or desire to be a songwriter.

What happened?

When he was in New York, Harold's first jobs were working as a rehearsal pianist. At one show, he was playing rehearsal piano for the dancers, and they had the same opening vamp for each number. So Harold would start working around the vamp and trying to do a little improv. Ultimately, he came up with the beginning of what we now know as "Get Happy" in 1929. Harold was subsequently introduced to lyricist Ted Koehler. They sat down together and created "Get Happy," which was introduced in The 9:15 Review in 1930.

Once he met Ted, then, the songwriting began in earnest.

Right. After they had worked on a couple other shows, they were called in to be the writers for the Cotton Club reviews in Harlem. Some of Harold's most enduring standards came out of that period - "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," "Stormy Weather," "I've Got the World on a String," among others.

Ted Koehler was his first important songwriting partner, but he had others.

Harold worked with about 30 different lyricists over the years and collaborated primarily with sixteen, including Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, Dorothy Fields and E.Y "Yip" Harburg. He was open to working with other people. During the heyday of Harold in Hollywood, Let's Fall in Love was the first motion picture that Harold was assigned to do with Ted Koehler. That opened the door for him, and led, some years later, to The Wizard of Oz collaboration with Yip Harburg. One reason for Harold not being as well known as some of the other composers is the fact that he worked with so many different lyricists.

Did he ever talk about people who influenced him ?

George Gershwin was a big influence. Gershwin took a lot of people under his wing and they used to have what they called the Gershwin Salon, where once a week a lot of the young budding composers would get together and George would listen to their songs and critique them, so to speak. But then again if Harold had listened to George, Harold wouldn't have written many, most or all of his greatest songs. Because George always felt – as did others -- that Harold's melodies were just too complex for the average listener.

Were there any unique facets as to how he'd work?

He always walked around with a piece of manuscript paper in his pocket and he would jot down ideas. Some of them became songs; some of them did not. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was written on a jot paper while he was on his way to Grauman's Chinese Theatre in L.A. His wife, Anya, was actually driving the car -- all of a sudden in front of the famous Schwab Drug Store, Harold asked Anya to pull the car over, and he sat there - grabbed his jot paper - and penned the first eight bars of what became "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Did he know when he wrote it that it would become the film's signature song?

He had no idea. There is a famous story of how during the first three showings of the film at MGM Studios, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was deleted. Neither Harold nor Yip had any idea that was happening. One of the producers, Arthur Freed, fought to put it back in. Louis B. Mayer, the studio head, felt the ballad was too advanced and intense for a girl Judy Garland's age.

Of course, it made Judy Garland's career.

It made Judy Garland; it was recently voted Number One in a list of top 100 songs of the past hundred years; it's one of the most widely-recorded songs around the world.

If Harold could have picked one song to be remembered by, what do you think it would be?

One of his favorite songs was "Last Night When We Were Young," with lyrics by Yip Harburg. The song was from 1935 and was not written for a specific show. George Gershwin heard the song early on and thought it was one of those Arlen songs that was too complex. But Yip quietly took it upon himself and wrote beautiful lyrics to it and presented it to Harold one day. Harold never understood why the song wasn't more acclaimed. It really is a poignant ballad with beautiful melody and lyrics.

As we enter Harold's centennial year, you probably have lots of activities planned around Harold's music.

There will be some major benefit concerts in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Also, a new stage presentation is in the works along with a biographical movie about Harold. Some of the big record companies are planning centennial compilations and I will be releasing an album of instrumental versions of Harold's songs. It will be available early in 2005 and will be called Arlen Plays Arlen. For additional information on Harold Arlen and the Arlen Centennial year, please visit www.haroldarlen.com and www.haroldarlen2005.com.

Arlen Centennial Concert On February 14th, 2005, on the eve of what would have been Arlen's 100th birthday, a centennial concert will be presented in his honor at Carnegie Hall in New York City featuring singers from the worlds of TV, film, stage, jazz, pop and cabaret plus an all-star band. At press time, those scheduled to perform include Tom Wopat, Faith Prince, Simone, Maureen McGovern, Ann Hampton Callaway, Barbara Morrison, Loston Harris, Eric Comstock, Jessica Molaskey, Barbara Fasano and more. Featured musicians include Tedd Firth (piano), Steve LaSpina (bass), Steve Johns (drums), Mark Whitfield (guitar) and Red Holloway (saxophone). For information on tickets, contact the Carnegie Hall box office.

— Jim Steinblatt


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