Beyond the Notes, the phenomenal new Boyer Noontime Concert Series at Paley Library is back! Come for a relaxing and engaging musical experience at the library, very informal. Eat lunch, meet friends, relax, and let the music delight you. Light refreshments provided.
John Johnson, Temple University’s Boyer College beloved professor of Music Theory, scholar, and performer again joins us presenting his immensely popular Great American Songwriter Series with Rodgers & Hart, Thursday, February 19th, 12-1.
The creative team of Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and Lorenz Hart (1895-1943) wrote immensely popular songs and were incredibly prolific during their short collaborative time together. The team met at Columbia University where they started writing songs for student productions. Their first commercially successful song was “Any Old Place with You” in 1919. From then until Lorenz Hart’s untimely death in 1943 at the age of 48, Rodgers & Hart wrote almost 500 songs for more than 29 theatrical productions, 8 films, and other nightclub entertainment.
Highlights of Songs for Broadway Shows
Poor Little Ritz Girl (1920)
The Garrick Gaieties (1925) – Manhattan, Do You Love Me?
Dearest Enemy (1925) – Here In My Arms
Peggy Ann (1926) – Where’s That Rainbow?, A Tree in the Park
A Connecticut Yankee (1927) – My Heart Stood Still, Thou Swell
Jumbo (1935) – (featured Jimmy Durante and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra) – My Romance, Little Girl Blue, The Most Beautiful Girl In the World
On Your Toes (1936) (Starred Ray Bolger. First George Balanchine ballet choreography for a Broadway musical.) – There’s a Small Hotel, Glad To Be Unhappy
Babes In Arms (1937) – Where Or When, The Lady Is a Tramp, My Funny Valentine, Johnny One Note, I Wish I Were In Love Again, Babes in Arms
I’d Rather Be Right (1937) (starred George M. Cohan) – Have You Met Miss Jones?
I Married an Angel (1938) – Spring is Hree, I Married an Angel
The Boys From Syracuse (1938) – This Can’t Be Love, Falling In Love With Love, Sing For Your Supper
Too Many Girls (1939) – (featured Desi Arnaz) – I Didn’t Know What Time it Was
Pal Joey (1940) (starred Gene Kelly) – I Could Write a Book, Bewitched, Zip
By Jupiter (1942) (stared Ray Bolger) – Wait Till You See her, Nobody’s Heart, Ev’rything I’ve Got
Highlights of Songs from Films
Love Me Tonight (1932) (starred Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald) — Mimi, Lover, Isn’t It Romantic
Hallelujah, I’m a Bum (1933) (starred Al Jolson) — You are Too Beautiful, Hallelujah I’m a Bum
Mississippi (1935) (starred Bin Crosby) – It’s Easy to Remember, Soon, Down By the River.
More songs:
Blue Moon (1934), Blue Room (1926), Dancing on the Ceiling (1930), I’ve Got Five Dollars (1931), It Never Entered My Mind (1940), Ten Cents a Dance (1930), To Keep My Love Alive (1943), With a Song in My Heart (1929), You Took Advantage of Me (1928)
Find out More!
Sears, Ann. “Rodgers and Hart.” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 4. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000, 256-258. Gale Virtual Reference Library, Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
Books
Hyland, William. Richard Rodgers. New Haven [Conn.] ; London : Yale University Press, c1998.
Keyser, Herbert H. Geniuses of the American Musical Theatre: the composers & lyricists. New York : Applause Theatre and Cinema Books , 2009.
Nolan, Frederick. Lorenz Hart : a Poet on Broadway. New York : Oxford University Press, 1994.
Marmorstein, Gary. A Ship Without a Sail : the Life of Lorenz Hart. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2012.
Rodgers, Richard. Musical stages : an Autobiography. New York : Random House, [1975]
Secrest, Meryle. Somewhere for Me : a Biography of Richard Rodgers. New York : Applause Theatre & Cinema, c2001.
Listen to Music by Rodgers & Hart!
Ella Fitzgerald [sings] the Rodgers and Hart songbook. [electronic resource] / music by Richard Rodgers ; lyrics by
Lorenz Hart. [U.S.] : Verve Records, p1985.
The Jazz Giants Play Rodgers & Hart. [electronic resource] Berkeley, CA : Prestige, p1998.
Rodgers & Hart Songbook [electronic resource ]. New York, NY : GRP : Distributed in the USA by Universal Music &
Video Distribution, p1998.
Check Out these Videos at Media Services!
Babes in Arms. Based on the play by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart ; directed by Busby
Berkeley. Burbank, CA : Turner Entertainment Co., [2007]
Hallelujah I’m a Bum. Songs and musical dialogue by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Santa Monica, CA : MGM Home Entertainment, [2002]
Pal Joey. Music by Richard Rodgers ; Lyrics by Lorenz Hart. [United States] : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2010.
-Anne Harlow