Swift (1897-1993) achieved a certain level of fame relatively early on with a number of songs that continue to maintain their appeal.
But at the same time she was writing those songs with her husband - financier and amateur lyricist Paul Warburg ("Paul James") - she was engaged in an intense relationship with George Gershwin that would define a good part of her life, even after Gershwin's 1937 death.
In this post, we'll examine the songs that made Swift famous, along with a few others that she wrote over the years, her music for the stage, and other miscellaneous works - encompassing all the music associated with her that I could locate.
The discussion below is separated into her early songs, the Mark 56 LP set from 1975 with much of her concert music, her score for the 1952 Broadway show Paris '90, and her work preparing Gershwin manuscripts into songs for the 1947 film The Shocking Miss Pilgrim. There are download links in each section.
The Songs
Swift was classically trained - her composition teacher was Charles Martin Loeffler. But she had an interest in popular music, which grew after 1925, when she met Gershwin. In 1929, she and her husband contributed perhaps Swift's best and best-known song to The Little Show, primarily by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, but also with other songs such as "Moanin' Low" by Dietz and Ralph Rainger. Both "Moanin' Low" and Swift's "Can't We Be Friends?" were introduced by Libby Holman. That singer's commercial recording is the first selection in this set. Also included is Bing Crosby's version from the same time.
| Libby Holman in the "Moanin' Low" scene of The Little Show |
Swift and Warburg then provided all the songs for the 1930 musical Fine and Dandy, a showcase for vaudevillian Joe Cook. (This was the first score for a Broadway musical by a woman.) "Fine and Dandy," introduced by Cook and Alice Boulden, is another Swift song that has become a standard. A second song from that show that has achieved some currency is "Can This Be Love?" sung by Boulden in the original production.
| Rehearsing Fine and Dandy: Joe Cook, Dave Chasen, Kay Swift, James Warburg |
For this collection, we have the contemporary recordings of the two songs by Victor Arden and Phil Ohman and Their Orchestra, with vocals by Frank Luther.
FYI - there is a Fine and Dandy studio recording from about 20 years ago, with a somewhat revised book. More information here.
In 1933, Kay collaborated with Edward Heyman on a good song, "A Moonlight Memory," here in a version from Freddy Martin with a vocal by Elmer Feldkamp.
The following year, she was commissioned to write the score for a George Balanchine work for the New York City Ballet. The music for Alma Mater is covered in the next section.
| Irene Dunne and Fred MacMurray in Never a Dull Moment |
In 1939, Swift became Director of Light Music for the World's Fair. There she met a cowboy named Faye Hubbard, married him and wrote a book about her experiences at their Oregon ranch called Who Could Ask for Anything More? This then became the 1950 film Never a Dull Moment, with Irene Dunne as Kay and Fred MacMurray as her husband. Swift wrote a few songs for the film, one of which, "Once You Find Your Guy," was recorded by Margaret Whiting, among others.
LINK to the Songs
The Mark 56 Album
In 1975 the Mark 56 label issued a two-record set, Fine and Dandy: the Music of Kay Swift, with a comprehensive overview of her career, including much biographical information, included in the scans.
Louise Carlyle sang several of the songs covered above, plus "Up Among the Chimney Pots" from the failed Nine-Fifteen Revue of 1930.
| Scene from the Alma Mater ballet |
The second side contained "Three Dances from the Alma Mater Ballet" for small ensemble. This was the work she wrote for George Balanchine and the New York City Ballet. That side also contains a Theme and Variations for Cello and Piano, with cellist Marie Rosanoff and Swift herself in the piano part.
| Louise Carlyle |
Finally, there is the song cycle, "Reaching for the Brass Ring," written by Swift for her grandchildren and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Alexander Hilsberg at a 1953 children's concert. The soprano then and for this set was Louise Carlyle. She is accompanied in the recording by an orchestra under Robert Russell Bennett. A few additional songs are performed by Swift herself.
LINK to Mark 56 album
Paris '90
Swift wrote both words and music for Cornelia Otis Skinner's one-woman show Paris '90, which ran on Broadway for three months in 1952. The show was a dramatization of the lives of varied Parisian women, as portrayed in the paintings of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Columbia issued an LP capturing the score. Swift's songs were orchestrated by Russell Bennett.
| Cornelia Otis Skinner as a laundress |
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim
Swift devoted herself throughout her life to preserving the music of George Gershwin. She worked closely with Ira Gershwin to prepare unpublished songs from the Gershwin catalog to form the score of the 1947 film musical The Shocking Miss Pilgrim. The stars were Betty Grable and Dick Haymes.
| Betty Grable and Dick Haymes |
The results were uneven, although to my mind the soundtrack does contain at least two fine songs - "Changing My Tune" and "For You, for Me, for Evermore."
The download includes all the songs from the soundtrack, the two commercial recordings that Haymes made with Judy Garland, and a particularly good version of "Changing My Tune" from Mel Tormé and Artie Shaw's orchestra.
LINK to songs from The Shocking Miss Pilgrim
| Kay Swift and George Gershwin |