Yankee Doodle Dandy–Part Four

We are now moving into one of the great movie production numbers of all time, “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” It starts with the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” somberly moves into “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” joyfully announces “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and then launches into one of Cohan’s greatest tunes.

For those of you who would like to see the colors of the costumes, here is a shorter clip that has been colorized.

We now move on to Cohan’s greatest song that was not written for a Broadway show. It is called, very simply, “Over There.” The clip from the movie takes us from the battlefields of France in WWI (Nora Bays is played by Frances Langford, a big band singer who performed with the Glenn Miller Band) and ends in the White House. Please note the signature “curtain call” thank you that Cagney delivers to FDR: “My Father thanks you; My Mother thanks you; My Sister thanks you; etc.”

Today, we may not understand how important this song was during the WWI time period; but people assure us that its impact was immense. Here is Enrico Caruso (a friend of Cohan’s) singing the song in English, as he often did in 1918 at war bond rallies.

We would like to end with Cagney’s performance of “Off the Record,” a Rodgers and Hart song from their 1937 show, I’d Rather Be Right. Cohan had been coaxed out of retirement to play the role of FDR in the show.