Take a look at some of the amazing compositions of the musical genius behind the songs of The Wizard of Oz and many more.
Auckland University's Dr Gregory Camp tells Jesse Mulligan that Harold Arlen wasn’t well known like other composers of his time but worked with legends like Judy Garland, Ethel Waters, and Barbara Streisand.
Harold Arlen Photo: supplied
(Find the full playlist curated on Spotify below.)
Listen to the full interview here
The Man That Got Away – Judy Garland (from A Star Is Born, 1954)
Camp says Arlen was a great user of melodic motifs that meant the singer could hook their interpretation to it.
"In his writing of the melodies, he’s always responding to what the words are doing."
The Man That Got Away is a good example of this, Camp says.
"This first line is quite short, the second line is longer, but it’s only got more syllables, it doesn’t have more stresses, so that means that he can he use the same melodic motif but squeeze more syllables into it, so it adds more impetus for the melody to go on."
Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe - Ethel Waters (Cabin In The Sky, 1943)
Arlen knew singer Ethel Waters’ voice well, having written for her before, Camp says.
"She sings in this amazingly intimate kind of way, she really takes you in, pulls you in to what she’s saying."
I Had Myself A True Love – Audra McDonald’s rendition (from St. Louis Woman, 1946)
"This song is a great character song, even if we don’t know the plot of the musical, from listening to lyrics here and the music, you can really get a sense of who the character is," Camp says.
While Arlen didn’t get the fame of some of his contemporaries, he was still well known among musicians and those in the field, he says.
"If you think about Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, they either had movies made about their lives, or they were on television, or they had connections with high society.
"Arlen for whatever reason never had a biopic, whereas all the others did."
One For My Baby – Dianne Reeves’ rendition (from The Sky’s The Limit, 1943)
This song was probably made most famous by Frank Sinatra, Camp says, although it was originally written for Fred Astaire for a movie.
"It’s a great example of how Arlen frequently uses blues type of musical language in his songs."
Stormy Weather – The Hi-Lo’s rendition (from The Cotton Club, 1933)
Stormy Weather was written for The Cotton Club – a Harlem nightclub where famous jazz musicians went to play.
"[Arlen] originally wrote it for Ethel Waters … after that Harlem period of her life, and the recording I’ve chosen [to play] is kind of an eccentric one, because it’s such a famous song, Stormy Weather, I wanted to find an unusual recording."
I Never Has Seen Snow – Diahann Carroll (from House Of Flowers, 1955)
This song was in a musical that Arlen himself and Truman Capote wrote, Camp says. But the musical didn’t garner much attention at the time, and as a result the songs weren’t well known.
"A big part of it, especially for older shows, is if a cast recording was made. So there are some musical that didn’t run for very long but did have successful cast albums.
"This song has been sung by a lot of other musicians since then, I think Barbara Streisand has done it, Audra McDonald does it a lot but this is the original and the singer is Diahann Carroll who had a later career in the 60s as a jazz singer.
"This was her first gig, she was only 17 when she was cast in this show, but the producers clearly knew that they had someone quite special."
Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead – Harold Arlen and Barbara Streisand (from The Wizard of Oz, 1939)
In this unexpected rendition, Arlen asked his friend, Streisand, to help him in a duet for his album called ‘Harold Sings Arlen (With Friend)’.