Harold Arlen Sings Harold Arlen

The eminent songwriter Harold Arlen liked to sing, and made records from the 1920s into the 1960s. For this post, we'll review 13 recordings of his own songs made in the 1930s, most in the company of bandleader Leo Reisman. This is a companion to the "Lee Wiley Sings Harold Arlen" post on my main blog, which includes two of these songs - "Stormy Weather" and "Fun to Be Fooled."

The earliest Arlen vocals in the Discography of American Historical Recordings come from 1928, when he recorded 10 or so titles with the Arnold Johnson Orchestra, all of which he arranged, none of which he composed. He is listed on different recording sheets as Harold Arlen or Harold Arluck. (His birth name was Hyman Arluck.)

The first vocal in the collection dates from November 1930, when he recorded his "Linda" with cornetist Red Nichols and his band. Arlen was already an assured singer and, while he never had much range, is in fresh voice throughout this set. Ted Koehler was the lyricist of "Linda." Arlen worked extensively with him for the next several years.

Red Nichols

Nichols also led the next date, from February 1931, just a few weeks after Arlen's college musical You Said It opened on Broadway. On the record, Arlen (uncredited on the label) sang "Sweet and Hot" with a great deal of personality. His feeling for lyrics - in this case by librettist Jack Yellen - was evident. The other familiar songs from this score were "You Said It" (which is in the Lee Wiley collection) and "Learn to Croon."

The following year, musical stage couple Dorothy Stone and Charles Collins introduced a dance called the "Collinstone Fox Trot" via the song "Stepping into Love," with lyrics by Ted Koehler and music by Arlen. Bandleader Leo Reisman made a record of it, with the composer on the vocal. Musically it is striking; lyrically less so.

Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler

Reisman was an influential bandleader. Most of the remaining songs in this set were issued under his name, including the next - "Stormy Weather," from the Cotton Club Parade revue of 1933. Arlen presents the song simply; he undersells the heartache inherent in the lyrics. It's just as effective this way.

Leo Reisman

"Happy as the Day Is Long" is from a 1933 Cotton Club production. The recording is unusual because it starts with colloquy between Arlen and Reisman. This is possibly Arlen's best vocal on record; he is infectious, and is supported by a spirited arrangement and driving bass saxophone solo by Adrian Rollini.

"Ill Wind," from the following year's Cotton Club Parade, is one of Arlen's finest songs, hear in a neat performance by the composer and a unsubtle one by pianist-bandleader Eddy Duchin, an alumnus of the Reisman band.

Eddy Duchin

From that same Cotton Club revue came "As Long as I Live," which was coupled with "Ill Wind" on Duchin's Victor release.

Arlen had written the standard "It's Only a Paper Moon" with the immensely talented lyricist E.Y. (Yip) Harburg in 1932. Two years later, he prepared the score of Life Begins at 8:40 with Harburg and Ira Gershwin.

Yip Harburg

Arlen recorded four of the songs from the score with Leo Reisman - "You're a Builder Upper," "What Can You Say in a Love Song," "Fun to Be Fooled" and "Shoein' the Mare." All four are both lyrically and musically sophisticated. (The latter is distinctly sexist as well.)

"You're a Builder Upper" is a rhythmic and lyrical delight, and Arlen delights in singing the intricate words by the masters Harburg and Gershwin. In "What Can You Say in a Love Song," they rattle through the lyrical clichés of 90 years ago and today ("Mmmm - so sweetly. Mmmm - completely. Mmmm - forever more. What can I say in a love song / that hasn't been said before").

"Fun to Be Fooled" is one song from the score that has achieved some permanence. But the most popular at the time may have been "Let's Take a Walk Around the Block," which neither Arlen nor Wiley recorded.

Brief digression: Perhaps the best song from this period - and reportedly Arlen's favorite - is "Last Night When We Were Young," also not taken up by Wiley or the composer. The only recording from the time may have been by Lawrence Tibbett, for whom it was written. Arlen and Harburg prepared the number for Tibbett's backstage film musical Metropolitan, but it was not used. Victor did record it and release it on Red Seal, coupled with "On the Road to Mandalay," which Tibbett sang in the film.

Finally, we have two songs from the 1937 Arlen-Harburg musical Hooray for What: "In the Shade of the New Apple Tree" and "God's Country." 

The former is a racy number for the time, contrasting seduction techniques of old with the current day. The latter is a patriotic paean - "Hi there, Yankee, give out with a great big thank-ee / You're in God's country" and "We've got no Mussolini, got no Mosley / But we've got Popeye and Gypsy Rose Lee." It's not one of Harburg's best, but it did reflect his beliefs. In 1950 he was blacklisted for refusing to name Hollywood Communists. He wrote at the time, "As the writer of the lyric of the song 'God's Country,' I am outraged by the suggestion that somehow I am connected with, believe in, or am sympathetic with Communist or totalitarian philosophy," he told the House Un-American Activities Committee.

This was the end of Arlen's recorded vocals for the 1930s. He next was in the recording studio for one of the songs from his 1944 musical Bloomer Girl, which had lyrics by Harburg.

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