Harry Warren

Sharing the sounds of the classic big bands

Music of Harry Warren

The Big Band Era


A Monthly Online Journal Discussing America's Most popular Music from 1935 - 1945
Illustrated With Classic Big Band MP3s

Vol VII June 2008 No. 2
This page dedicated to composer Harry Warren (1893 - 1981) and his music. Alec Wilder in his American Popular Song called Warren one the most underrated of Twentieth Century popular song writers. The following is but a hint of the great songs he produced. More Number One Chart hits than perhaps any other songwriter! He was legendary dance director Busby Berkeley's favorite composer. Warren composed favorite songs for the hey-day of musicals at Warner brothers (Dick Powell Ruby Keeler); Twentieth Century Fox (both Glenn Miller films) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Judy Garland, etc.). All of these songs except the first one, his first real hit, became Number One Chart records. In addition, he Wrote two of the anthems of the film musical genre: "The Lullaby of Broadway" and "Forty-second Street." Although he wrote almost exclusively for the movies and had one notable Broadway flop, the later Broadway success of confirms that his film music would have been just as successful on the Great White Way. For a fuller exposition of Warren's music, including 700 exclusive hand-made MIDI files by David Jenkins, go to the Harry Warren tribute site.

Song Number ONE: Although he was to gain fame as the writer of many of Hollywood filmdom's greatest musical hits, Harry Warren began his career in New York's tin-pan alley. There he began by turning out place name songs such as the hit "Nagasaki." A forerunner in 1922, was this tune, his first hit, which he composed with Edgar Leslie and Ross Gorman. Charted Number Three by vocalist Marion Harris vocal in 1923, That it remains as vibrant as ever is demonstrated by this version recorded in 1938 by Duke Ellington in a swinging up tempo rendition with singer Ivie Anderson, "Rose Of The Rio Grande."

Song Number TWO: Furia* notes that Warren brought his New York energy to Hollywood musicals and elevated their lyrics thereby. When Warren joined Warner Brothers he enlivened the lyrics of Al Dubbin who was able to match them to Warren's insistent melodies. Here is a near-classic instrumental version by George Shearing of a Harry Warren melody which was introduced by tenor James Melton with words by Al Dubin in the 1937 Warner's film, Melody for Two. It became a Number One Chart recording for Guy Lombardo and his Orchestra in that year. Shearing's piano captures the rhythms of falling raindrops splashing among fallen leaves on an autumnal day inherent in the Warren melody."September In The Rain."

Song Number THREE: Warren summed up his view of his role in the movie business by saying that in Hollywood, "a songwriter was always the lowest form of animal life." Introduced by Louis Armstrong in the 1938 Warner's film Going Places starring Dick Powell [and featuring Ronald Reagan], it is heard here in a later, live Armstrong performance. This Harry Warren - Johnny Mercer song was a Number One Chart recording in 1939 for Al Donahue and his Orchestra. The melody expresses the exuberant enthusiasm described in the lyric. "Jeepers Creepers."

Song Number FOUR: This 1944 Number One Chart recording is from Warren's period at Twentieth-Century Fox Pictures. Again, Warren lifted the level of his lyricist. Furia* says, "Teamed with Harry Warren, however, Mack Gordon, like Dubin before him, showed new resources ...." Sung here by beauteous Eugenie Baird, this Glen Gray Casa Loma Orchestra recording of a song with words by Mack Gordon was introduced by Betty Grable in the film Sweet Rosie O'Grady. Warren's long melodic line is ideal for the lovelorn romantic words as sung by each lady. "My Heart Tells Me."

"Song Number FIVE: In 1945 Warren once again changed studios, moving to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Warren won three Academy Awards with three different film companies and three different lyricists, "the Lullaby of Broadway" with Al Dubin in 1935, You'll Never Know" with Mack Gordon in 1943 and this one with Johnny Mercer in 1946. In this Number One Chart recording by Paul Weston and his orchestra. the vocal is by the Pied Pipers and the song's lyricist, Johnny Mercer. As both lyticist and vocalist, Mercer captures the chug-a, chug-a train travel rhythms of the warren melody. The was introduced by Judy Garland and The Ensemble in the 1946 film The Harvey Girls "On The Atchison Topeka And The Santa Fe."

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