If Happy Little Blue Birds Fly Beyond The Rainbow, Why, Oh Why Can't I?

Today in 1905, Harold Arlen was born. He was not gay, but important to gay life for writing a certain special song. For me, after Stephen Sondheim, Arlen is our greatest composer of theatre & film musicals. Arlen composed over 500 songs, but is best known writing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including Over the Rainbow, named #1 of the "Songs of the Century" list compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America & the National Endowment for the Arts. The American Film Institute also ranked Over The Rainbow the greatest movie song of all time on the list of AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs. It was adopted by American troops in Europe in World War II as a symbol of the USA.

Arlen is one of the most important contributors to the Great American Songbook. His Broadway shows include:  Hooray for What!, Bloomer Girl, St. Louis Woman, House of Flowers, Mr. Imperium, Jamaica, & Saratoga.

Arlen wrote extraordinarily complex melodies & harmonies that somehow remained accessible to a broad popular audience.  He collaborated with the greatest of the Tin Pan Alley lyricists: E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, Johnny Mercer, Ted Koehler, Leo Robin, Ira Gershwin, Dorothy Fields & Truman Capote.

Arlen also acted producer of some of the greatest film musicals of the Golden era: The Wizard of Oz, Let’s Fall In Love, Blues In the Night, Star Spangled Rhythm, Cabin In the Sky, Up in Arms, Kismet, My Blue Heaven, Gay Purr-ee, & Judy Garland’s version of A Star Is Born.

The Arlen catalog boast the standards: Sweet & Hot, Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea, I Got A Right To Sing the Blues, Stormy Weather, Fun To Be Fooled, Last Night When We Were Young, Blues in the Night, That Old Black Magic, Happiness is a Thing Called Joe, One For My Baby, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive, Out Of This World, Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home, Come Rain or Come Shine, The Man That Got Away, It’s Only A Paper Moon, I’ve Got The World On A String.

For all his work writing smart songs for 6 decades, the standout in his legacy continues to be the unforgettable score for the 1939 ‘s The Wizard of Oz.  Even that score reflects Arlen’s true loves- jazz & blues. Listen to how swingin’ Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead can be.

Try Ella Fitzgerald’s 2 volumes- Ella Sings The Harold Arlen Songbook from 1960, on Verve.

Besides Over The Rainbow, of course, my favorite Arlen tune is probably the greatest salon song of all time- One For My Baby, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer.