Rodgers and Hart: Part Two–With Songs in Their Hearts

We start this post (in the heading) by playing a little word game with the title of a song. The allusion is to a song called “With a Song in My Heart,” and it was written for a Broadway show called Spring Is Here (1929) by a trio of gifted collaborators–Richard Rodgers (music), Larry Hart (lyrics) and Herb Fields (book). However, the name of the song was also used as the name of a movie about a very courageous singer named Jane Froman. Not many people remember her name in 2017, but she was rated the number-one female singer on the radio in 1934. As part of a USO tour in 1943, Jane and 38 others went down with a USO plane into the Tagus River in Lisbon, Portugal. She fought bravely to recover but had to go through 39 operations and wore a leg brace the rest of her life. Nevertheless, within a year of the crash, she returned to perform on-stage, appearing in a wheelchair. In the process of fighting health problems, she became addicted to pain killers and alcohol. Long after most people forgot the name of the Rodgers and Hart musical, they remembered the name of the song and went to see the 1952 movie honoring Jane Froman’s fight to survive and sing again. Let’s reacquaint ourselves with the song.

From the movie, Words and Music, in 1948, we have the Lennie Hayton/Conrad Salinger arrangement for Perry Como.

However, the song was written as a duet in the 1929 Broadway show, Spring Is Here. In the show, Betty Braley is intent on running away to elope with Stacy Haydon but is stopped by her father and sister. Eventually Betty realizes that Terry Clayton is the better man and agrees to marry him. The duet was intended to be sung by Betty and Terry, but the man cast as Terry Clayton didn’t have a good enough voice to sing the song; thus, it was given to Betty and Stacy to sing. While we don’t have the duet from the musical, we do have footage from the 1930 movie that followed the show (sung by Lawrence Gray in Stacy Haydon’s role and Bernice Claire as Betty Braley).

Here is the 1939/1940 dance recording of “With a Song in My Heart” and “Yours Sincerely,” conducted by Richard Rodgers and featuring him on the piano solo:

Let’s turn our attention to a 1928 Rodgers and Hart show entitled Present Arms. The delightful song “You Took Advantage of Me” came from that show. We have been able to find only dance band recordings, one of which was cut in April 1928 (about the same time the show opened on Broadway). Here is Paul Whiteman, with Bing Crosby, also featuring the legendary Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer:

Again, we have the Richard Rodgers 1939/40 dance band recording, featuring both “You Took Advantage of Me” and “Do I Hear You (Saying ‘I Love You’).”

Next, we need to refer you back to our previous post and the 1999 documentary of Rodgers and Hart. Around minute 30, Hugh Martin recounts how he met Richard Rodgers and came to write the vocal arrangement for three women singing, “Sing for Your Supper” from the musical, The Boys from Syracuse (1938). The book (by George Abbott) was based on Shakespeare’s play, The Comedy of Errors. In our previous post, we showed you the song done by a trio of women. A second version of this song and another hit from the show, “This Can’t Be Love,” was recorded by Richard Rodgers in the dance band rendition in 1939/40.

Finally, we take a long look at the third hit song from The Boys from Syracuse, “Falling in Love with Love.” We want to share a live performance of the song by Rebecca Luker from the Julie Andrews TV special in 1998, My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies.

Rebecca gives a strong performance, although the chorus of ladies (as written for the stage) is missing. In a 1966 studio recording, Joan Sutherland sings the song, with a chorus. While Dame Sutherland is impressive, this classical recording makes it clear that Rebecca was impressive too.

We wind up our look at the music of Rodgers and Hart with the 1939/40 dance band recording of “Falling in Love with Love” and “Lover” from the 1932 movie, Love Me Tonight.