Screenland (Jul-Dec 1948)

Call this work? Guy Madison takes it easy in a scene from Robert S. Colden's "Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven," a United Artists picture. In role opposite, Diana Lynn believes him an escaped robber. Sing, America/ Sing! Continued from page 45 patchpantsed youngster known to the Lower East Side of New York as "Izzy," exactly 37 cents. But you were to travel, and rapidly, the classic "from rags to riches" road that is the American Way. Four years later, you wrote Alexander's Ragtime Band which shot you, overnight, into the front ranks of Tin Pan Alley's troubadours. Since then you have written more than 800 songs. You've written the songs for seventeen Broadway musicals and for eleven Hollywood movies. If you, the acknowledged dean of American songwriters, would give advice to songwriters and to the singers of songs it would be, every word of it, and so I said to you, pure gold. No one, in all the length and breadth of your God Bless America could, very certainly, give it better. But — "I try to avoid giving advice," you told us. You added, with a grin, "I could lay out half a dozen rules for aspiring songwriters and every one of them could be broken by an amateur who would come out with a hit song by not taking my advice! "It is the easiest thing in the world to write a song. It is the hardest thing in the world to write a hit song. Which is tantamount to repeating the old formula that you can teach a man to play the violin, you cannot make a Menuhin of him; that you can teach a man the mechanics of piano, you cannot make a Paderewski of him, and so on." You added "Which, in my opinion, is true. I believe you're born with a talent; must be born with it; if not born with it, it cannot be put there. Being born with it, then you apply it, work at it, never stop 74 "I can only say to songwriters— and this isn't advice, it's a statement of fact — that if you have it, then eventually you make the grade. A natural songwriter, a born songwriter will find a way to a song hit without benefit of training, without agents or radio or Irving Berlin or anyone else. "I am very realistic about my work. I think songwriting is a great art. When I write a song, I have nothing in mind but the song. Some of my songs don't sell a million copies. Many of the songs I was enthusiastic about died a natural death. I still, when I write a song, have nothing in mind but the song. "Among the songs I've written in my forty years of songwriting While Christmas, because it comes around every year but mainly because it was sung, after it was introduced by Bing, by the people, is the most important, commercially. Among my most outstanding if not, who knows, my best songs are. going by results, Alexander's Ragtime Band. God, Bless America, Oh. How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning. Always, and No Business Like Show Business — which, of the songs I wrote for Annie Get Your Gun' is, in my opinion, the most important. "Often, of course, people turn up their noses at a song just because it is popular. Or they turn their noses up because," you laughed, having your bit of fun, "they have noses that turn up! Speaking seriously, who is to say that the most obvious popular song of today may not be the classic of tomorrow? The songs of Stephen Foster were popular songs in Foster's day. The songs of Shu SCREENLAND bert were, while he lived, the 'people's' songs — they are as alive today as they were yesterday because today, as yesterday you, the people, love them and sing them. You, the people, keep our songs alive, by singing them, and continuing to sing them you can, indeed, bring to life again a song long dead. "The interpretation of a song is. of course, important; is very important. But as the song must appeal, so must the singer. Among the interpretations of my songs I love Judy Garland's interpretation of Better Luck Next Time, in "Faster Parade.' Judy Garland's and Fred Astaire's interpretation, singing it together, (also in "Easter Parade') of It Only Happens When I Dance With You. I love Kate Smith's interpretation of God Bless America. Perry Como made a record of What'll I Do? that I think is just wonderful. No one sings a song the Mary Martin way. She has a conception. You Can't Get A Man With A Gun from 'Annie Get Your Gun' — it can't be sung any better than Mary Martin sings it. In 'As Thousands Cheer' Ethel Waters introduced Heat Wave and Harlem on My Mind — interpretations that were savage and superb. The recording Bing Crosby and Al Jolson made together of Alexander's Ragtime Band is a terrific thing. Sinatra sings Always as Always should always be sung. "I repeat," you repeated, "that the interpretation of a song is very important, is more than half the success of the song. Which is why it is important to have a Bing, a Como, a Garland introduce a song. On the other hand, a John Schnook can come along and interpret a song so much better than a Crosby, yes, even than a Crosby, that it's frightening. "What it means is simply that a singer is only as good as the song he sings. And that goes," you said emphatically, "for Garland, for Como, for Crosby. The finest singer that ever raised his voice in song can sing a bad song and although he may give it life, it will be a short life, and eventually it will die. The worst singer that ever offended by lifting his voice in song can sing a dark horse into the race and it will make the Hit Parade. The song," you said then, and meant, "is the thing! "By way of graphic illustration, we get around now," you smiled, looking up-tono-good, "to my singing. / think I'm a wonderful singer. I wish others agreed with me. Unfortunately, they do not. Among those who do not is an electrician who was working on the set of 'This Is The Army,' the movie Warner Brothers made several years ago. For this picture I made a recording of Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning. When it was used as a playback for the part I played in the picture, as it was, our electrician said, // the guy that wrote that song could hear this fellow sing it, he'd turn over in his grave.1' " You added, laughing. "In spite of me, the song lives on — because you, the people, are singing it. Which proves the two points I set out to prove — that the song's the thing and that, for singing songs, you, the people, have the best voice." PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY THE CUNEO PRF«5<5. INC.