PDA

View Full Version : Semi-OT: Harold Arlen Centennial

frizfrelengfan
02-14-2005, 10:28 AM
Tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of the birth of composer Harold Arlen. He wrote or co-wrote about 500 songs for theatre and movies. Best known for "Over the Rainbow," his 1929 song "Get Happy" was the first Merrie Melodies theme.
ohmahaaha
02-14-2005, 05:15 PM
The "Wizard of Oz" DVD has an interview with him in one of it's bonus features where he describes how he came to write the song. Didn't feel good one day, went for a ride with someone, asked them to pull over and he just wrote the music there and then. Or something like that. Still can't get over just how beautiful that song is. Does anyone remember hearing it for the first time in that movie?
Ray Pointer
02-14-2005, 10:59 PM
The "Wizard of Oz" DVD has an interview with him in one of it's bonus features where he describes how he came to write the song. Didn't feel good one day, went for a ride with someone, asked them to pull over and he just wrote the music there and then. Or something like that. Still can't get over just how beautiful that song is. Does anyone remember hearing it for the first time in that movie?
Yes. It was when I first discovered the movie on TV in 1958. As I'm getting older, I am more emotionally touched by its spirit, and it seems to become more more personal for me as the years go by as it has for so many others. Perhaps this is why OVER THE RAINBOW was voted, "The Song of the 20th Century."
guy incognito
02-16-2005, 03:54 PM
Arlen was also responsible for "Come Rain Or Come Shine", my all-time favorite among "standards" songs. Ray Charles's rendition of that one is nothing short of magnificent; you can hear it over the opening credits of Scorcese's movie The King of Comedy.
mmtper
02-16-2005, 11:30 PM
Arlen also wrote the march "I Love a Parade" which was featured in one of the early Merrie Melodies cartoons.
Jaime_Weinman
02-17-2005, 01:11 AM
And of course, Harold Arlen was the composer of "I Love To Singa" (with E.Y. "Yip" Harburg writing the lyrics).
frizfrelengfan
02-17-2005, 10:53 AM
And of course, Harold Arlen was the composer of "I Love To Singa" (with E.Y. "Yip" Harburg writing the lyrics).Wow. I didn't know that. I do know that Harburg was a frequent collaborator of Arlen.