If you’ve been following my posts on American Popular Songbook composers and lyricists during the past months, you may have noticed that many of these well-known creative artists adopted stage names. The two lyricists who collaborated with Harold Arlen (as you know, a stage name) to create today’s featured song selection, It’s Only a Paper Moon, were Bill Rose (William Samuel Rosenberg 1899-1966) and Yip Harburg (Isidore Hochberg 1896 -1981).
Although Rose received partial credit for writing the words to this song (as well as a few others in collaboration with other lyricists and composers), it was never clear how much he actually contributed to the creation (usually, just an occasional word or idea). Because he was so successful at promoting songs that he had a hand in writing, lyricists and publishers were willing to include his name in conjunction with that of the actual professional lyricist. Yip Harburg, on the other hand, was a prolific and successful wordsmith.
Harburg’s partnerships with composers Vernon Duke (Autumn in NY), Jerome Kern (I’m Old Fashioned & My Romance), Julie Styne and Burton Lane as well as Harold Arlen produced many well-known successful songs. In fact, beginning with Satan’s Little Lamb (1932), Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg worked together on songs for more than 40 years. Of course, their most famous collaboration was for the Wizard of Oz including Over the Rainbow (1939).
Like several songs that have been featured in my previous posts, It’s Only a Paper Moon (1932) has become recognized as one of the great standards in the American Popular Songbook despite the fact that it was written for an unsuccessful Broadway play called The Great Magoo and even included the 1933 film Take a Chance. Once again, we have a case of a song’s popularity resulting from recordings that were made by jazz musicians including Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole. It’s certainly a wonderful vehicle for improvisation as is evidenced by the number of instrumentalists and vocalists who have made quite a variety of versions of this terrific tune.
By sticking with the standard 32 bar A-A-B-A structure (verse 1-verse 2-bridge-verse 3), Harold Arlen created a musical composition that makes it easy for jazz players to follow when improvising. At the same time, the syncopated rhythm of the melody shifts the standard strong beat accent away from the first beat (and often third beat of many of the measures) in a way that keeps the music interesting.
Often when I explain the concept of musical accents to one of my students, she seems to have an aha moment. For the most part, my piano student has focused on learning to count so she can play in tempo. So being able to switch from 4/4 to 3/4 time and vice versa become yet another challenge. But when she understands the idea that the first beat of every measure ALWAYS gets the Strong accent, the light goes on. Counting and playing with correct rhythm become easier for her.
Now here’s Harold Arlen creating a jazzy effect by shifting the melody notes AWAY from the first beat of so many of the measures. What fun! In fact, it seems to me that the lyrics have a very fanciful character which the composer has enhanced so very well. As you must know by now, I really enjoy playing and listening to the standards from the American Popular Songbook. Although I know the words to many of the songs (remember, my mother always sang the songs while playing them on the piano), my focus is on the music itself. However, in the case of It’s Only a Paper Moon, I continue to be amazed at Yip Harburg’s fanciful lyrics.
Once, about 15 years ago, I was watching a TV program on which Buffalo Bob was being interviewed. He explained that for the first three weeks that the Howdy Doody show was on the air, there was no actual puppet. Buffalo Bob simply spoke as if Howdy was there in the desk draw. His comment to the interviewer was, “Can you imagine the kids today waiting three weeks before they actually saw the character on the screen?” And so in a parallel way, I ask a similar question, “Can you imagine a pop song today with words like ‘sailing over a cardboard sea….hanging over a muslin tree…’?”
In keeping with this, many interpretations of It’s Only a Paper Moon reflect the fanciful and fun nature of its lyrics. Tony Bennett’s vocal version casts the tune as a jazz waltz. Very clever! A San Francisco based bassist and composer by the name of Kurt Ribak leads his piano-bass-drums trio in a catchy Latin rhythm rendition which captures up an island flavor. Former Wynton Marsalis sideman pianist Marcus Roberts offers a cool cut as part of his CD tribute to the keyboard style of Nat King Cole. There are too many others to share with you today, but I’d recommend that you do an online search and get ready to put a smile on your face.
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