Harold Arlen

• Born: February 15, 1905
• Birthplace: Buffalo, New York
• Died: April 23, 1986
• Place of death: New York, New York

Songwriter

Arlen composed many highly regarded songs for musical theater and film. While most of them were introduced in the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s, many of his songs entered the standard repertoire of American jazz and popular musicians.

Early Life

Harold Arlen (AHR-lehn) was born to Samuel and Celia Arluck in Buffalo, New York. Arlen’s parents were from Orthodox immigrant families from Poland. His father was a cantor, and some of Arlen’s first musical experiences were in the choir at the Pine Street synagogue, where his father served as the music director. In addition to singing, Arlen began studying piano while still in grade school and became interested in popular music. At age fifteen, he began working as a pianist in film houses and other local venues, and soon he formed a band, the Snappy Trio, with two other teenagers. The group was successful, earning significant income playing on boats and in cabarets, and expanded to become the Southbound Shufflers. Arlen was also arranging music and was invited to join a dance band, which became the Buffalodians.

This group began touring in 1925 and eventually came to New York, where Arlen remained, finding ample work as singer, arranger, and pianist. Soon after this, he changed his name to Harold Arlen, combining his birth name, Arluck, with his mother’s maiden name, Orlin. Arlen was talented in many dimensions of music, but singing was his favorite, and he made many recordings as a vocalist. He also began to write songs for musical theater, and in 1929 he started a period of collaboration with lyricist Ted Koehler. One of their first pieces was the song “Get Happy,” which became a hit in 1930.

Life’s Work

Building on their success, Arlen and Koehler began writing show music for the famous Cotton Club in Harlem, and many of their songs for this venue became popular, notably “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” (1931), “I’ve Got the World on a String” (1932), and “Stormy Weather” (1933). Arlen, deeply attracted to African American melodic and rhythmic concepts, had a knack for blending these elements with the conventions of popular show music, and the Cotton Club, which featured celebrated African American performers such as Ethel Waters, was an ideal venue for his emerging style.

While Arlen continued to compose for live productions, he soon began to write songs for films as well. He and Koehler traveled to Hollywood in 1933 to work on their first film, Let’s Fall in Love, which included a popular song with the same title. Arlen started dating a model, Anya Taranda. Although Taranda was from a Catholic background, she and Arlen were married in 1937 and remained together until her death in 1970.

Arlen continued to write for film as well as musical theater, and he began collaborating with other lyricists, such as Yip Harburg. In 1938, they were contracted to write music for a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film, The Wizard of Oz (1939). Although the song they wrote for the film initially was not received well by some in the organization, “Over the Rainbow,” sung by the young Judy Garland, was included in the film. This song won an Academy Award and became, along with the film, one of the great classics of twentieth century popular American culture. More successful films followed, including Blues in the Night in 1941, featuring a song of the same title by Arlen and lyricist Johnny Mercer, and The Sky’s the Limit in 1943, including the song“My Shining Hour,” also written with Mercer. After other films, Arlen began working with lyricist Ira Gershwin in 1953 to compose music for a Garland film A Star Is Born (1954), which included their song “The Man That Got Away.” Arlen continued to compose until 1976, but he became reclusive after his wife’s death and died of cancer in 1986.

Significance

Arlen managed the difficult task of combining deep musical creativity with the familiarity and simplicity to appeal to large numbers of people. Aside from the many films and plays in which Arlen’s songs appeared, the songs themselves are treasured, and musicians have dedicated entire albums to his music. In 1960 and 1961, jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald recorded Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book (1961), and in 1992 jazz pianist Dick Hyman recorded Blues in the Night, a compact disc of Arlen’s songs. In 2003, a film directed by Larry Weinstein featured some of his well-loved works, Stormy Weather: The Music of Harold Arlen. In 2001, a compilation of polls by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts selected “Over the Rainbow” as the top song of the twentieth century.

Bibliography

Arlen, Harold. The Harold Arlen Songbook. Winona, Minn.: Hal Leonard, 1985. Music score book with seventy-six of Arlen’s most famous songs.

Bassan, Jacqueline. From Shul to Cool: The Romantic Jewish Roots of American Popular Music. New York: Jay Street, 2002. Discusses the importance of Jewish musical traditions and attitudes about music in the childhood backgrounds of major popular composers, including Arlen.

Jablonski, Edward. Harold Arlen: Rhythm, Rainbows, and Blues. Boston, Mass.: Northeastern University Press, 1996. Comprehensive, detailed biography with extensive appendixes, lists of works, annotated lists of films, photos, and bibliography.

Keyser, Herbert H. Geniuses of the American Musical Theatre: The Composers and Lyricists. New York: Applause , 2009. Alphabetically arranged chapters, including one on Arlen. Photos, index, and notes.

Sheed, Wilfrid. The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty. New York: Random House, 2007. Discusses interactions among the major musical theater composers in the first half of the twentieth century and includes a chapter, “Harold Arlen: The Songwriter’s Songwriter.” Index and photos.