Harold Arlen and His Songs

Abstract Harold Arlen and His Songs is the first full-length study of the work of one of the great composers of the American Songbook. Although he created many standards, Arlen lacks the name recognition of some of his peers. He wrote in wide range of styles, from ballads like “Over the Rainbow,” to comic “list” numbers like “Lydia the Tattooed Lady,” to jazz- and blues-infused songs like “Blues in the Night,” to intense torch songs like “The Man That Got Away.” While analysis of American popular song of this era (ca. 1920–1970) has often focused on the music, this study treats Arlen’s works as true collaborations between composer and lyricist, something he emphasized as a “happy wedding.” The book is organized structurally by Arlen’s work with each of his principal lyricists, Ted Koehler, Yip Harburg, Johnny Mercer, Leo Robin, Dorothy Fields, Ira Gershwin, Truman Capote, Dory Langdon, and Martin Charnin. This approach yields a roughly chronological trajectory extending over forty years from 1929 to the early 1970s, and across three main venues, the Cotton Club of Harlem, Broadway, and Hollywood. Arlen was more closely associated than his peers with prominent Black singers, and he composed scores for several Black-cast stage and film musicals. As arranger, pianist, and singer, Arlen was also active as a performer of his own songs, on record, radio, and television.