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The Great American Songbook

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Hallelujah!

Written:
Music: 1917
Words: 1927

Music by: Vincent Youmans

Words by: Clifford Grey
and Leo Robin

Lyrics written for: Hit the Deck
(show, 1927 -- See Critics Corner for more.)

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Main Stage || Record/Video Cabinet || Reading Room || Posted Comments || Credits

On the Main Stage at Cafe Songbook

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Harry Allen (Tenor Sax)
and Ehud Asherie (piano)

performing

"Hallelujah"

at Smalls Jazz Club, NYC
(Jan. 29, 2009)

 

More Performances of "Hallelujah!"
in the Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet
(Video credit)

 

Cafe Songbook Reading Room

"Hallelujah!"

Critics Corner || Lyrics Lounge

About the Show Hit the Deck / Origins of the Song

Other songs written for the show Hit the Deck currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook:

1. Why, Oh Why?

2. Sometimes I'm Happy

 

For a complete listing of songs used in the original production of this show, see IBDB song list.

(This section is currently in preparation.)

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Critics Corner


Book cover" William Zinsser, "Easy to Remember"
William Zinsser.
Easy to Remember
The Great American
Songwriters and Their Songs
.
Jaffrey, New Hampshire:
David R. Godine, 2001.

Vincent Youmans wrote the music for what eventually would become the song "Hallelujah!" some ten years before it hit the boards in the Broadway show "Hit the Deck." As William Zinsser tells it, Youmans' talents were recognized by march king John Philip Sousa who was bandmaster at the Great Lakes Naval Station just north of Chicago where Youmans was stationed during WWI. Youmans had given a melody to Sousa who liked it so much that soon it was being played at bases around the country.

Ten years later, remembering its success with America's sailors, Youmans resurrected [the melody] on Broadway for Hit the Deck. Titled "Hallelujah!" and given a suitably exultant lyric by [its lyricists] Leo Robin and Clifford Grey, it turned out to be no less popular with civilians and has been around ever since, its call to meeting hard to resist.

Sing Hal-le-lu-jah! Hal-le-lu-jah!"
And you'll shoo the
Blues away . . .

(Zinsser, p. 49-50)


Book cover: Philip Furia and Michael Lasser, "America's Songs"

Philip Furia and
Michael Lasser,
America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley, New York: Routledge, 2006.

Philip Furia and Michael Lasser put the song in the category of a 1920s "cheer-up" piece that borrowed its spirit not so much from a military march but from "the white revivalist tradition" of the time: "Satan lies a-waitin' and creatin' skies of gray / But hallelujah, hallelujah, he helps to shoo the blues away" (Furia and Lasser, p. 80).
   
  (This section is currently in preparation.)
   
   
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Lyrics Lounge

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Click here to read Cafe Songbook lyrics policy.

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Credits

(this page)

 

Credits for Videomakers of custom videos used on this page:

Borrowed material (text): The sources of all quoted and paraphrased text are cited. Such content is used under the rules of fair use to further the educational objectives of CafeSongbook.com. CafeSongbook.com makes no claims to rights of any kind in this content or the sources from which it comes.

 

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Any other images that appear on CafeSongbook.com pages are either in the public domain or appear through the specific permission of their owners. Such permission will be acknowledged in this space on the page where the image is used.

 

For further information on Cafe Songbook policies with regard to the above matters, see our "About Cafe Songbook" page (link at top and bottom of every page).

This section is currently incomplete.

The Cafe Songbook
Record/Video Cabinet:
Selected Recordings of

"Hallelujah!"


(All Record/Video Cabinet entries below
include a music-video
of this page's featured song.
The year given is for when the studio
track was originally laid down
or when the live performance was given.)

Performer/Recording Index
(*indicates accompanying music-video)

  • Performer 1 (year)
  • Performer 2 (year)

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album: title

Music-Video

Amazon iTunes

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album: title

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album: title

Music-Video

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album: title

Amazon iTunes

Music-Video:
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album: title

Music-Video

Amazon iTunes

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Artist
album: title

Music-Video

Amazon iTunes

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Year
Artist
album: title

Music-Video

Amazon iTunes

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video before starting another.)

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Year
Artist
album: title

Music-Video

Amazon iTunes

Notes:
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video before starting another.)

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