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Clifford Grey |
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 c. 1921 |
Basic InformationBorn: January 5, 1887, Birmingham, UK Died: September 25, 1941 (age 54), Ipswich, Suffolk, UK Primary songwriting role: lyricist Co-writers: featured on Cafe Songbook include: J. Fred Coots, Johnny Green, Jerome Kern, Leo Robin, Sigmund Romberg, Victor Schertzinger, and Vincent Youmans. See also a database of 48 of Clifford Grey's co-writers. |
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Overview and Commentary |
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Clifford Grey was a prolific English songwriter who wrote lyrics for such musicals as Hit the Deck and The Three Musketeers after getting his start as an actor in 1907. Perhaps most famously he wrote the words for the 1916 song "If You Were the Only Girl in the World (and I were the only boy"). Grey began his career as a lyricist for musical comedies and revues in 1913 in England where his credits became ubiquitous. This early success as a songwriter led to him giving up acting altogether. His first try at writing a musical revue was titled "The Bing Boys Are Here" in 1916, which included the song "If You Were the Only Girl in the World" and was well enough received in London to get him to try an American version, "The Bing Boys on Broadway," which itself moved from New York back to London making him an important contributor to musical theater on both sides of the Atlantic. (Source: The New York Times obituary, September 27, 1941.) Between 1917 and 1933 he contributed to no less than thirty-three Broadway productions in which his collaborators included George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, J. Fred Coots, Jay Gorney, Johnny Green, Oscar Levant, Sigmund Romberg, and Rudolph Friml (See IBDB.) During the late Twenties and Thirties he wrote for the movies both in Hollywood and in England. In Hollywood he worked on films, among others, by Ernst Lubitsch including Love Parade, the first Maurice Chevalier / Jeanette McDonald film. Gary Marmorstein writes of the movie that "though its staging may appear creaky now, its spirit is young and its music sublime" (p. 43). The songwriters for the movie were Victor Schertzinger (music) and Grey (lyrics) and the songs they wrote included "Dream Lover" as well as several others. During World War II, Grey did volunteer work for the war effort. He died from a German bomb blast in his home town of Ipswich, Suffolk, UK, September 21, 1941. |
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It's likely that Clifford Grey wouldn't have had a chance to write (really co-write with Leo Robin) one of his most well know lyrics if it hadn't been for John Philip Sousa, America's march king. 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, Youman's talents were recoginized by Sousa who was bandmaster at a naval base just north of Chicago where Youmans was stationed during WWI. Youmans gave a melody to Sousa who liked it so much that soon it was being played at bases around the country.
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"If You Were the Only Girl in the World" as performed by Alfie Boe from the BBC production of 
Cafe Songbook |
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"If You Were the Only Girl in the World" (words by Clifford Grey, music by Nat D. Ayer) in a clip from the 1944 British film The Way Ahead (U.S. title: The Immortal Batallion) |
"Hallelujah!" (words by Clifford Grey and Leo Robin, muic by Vincent Youmans) performed by Phil Ohman and Victor Arden with Their Orchestra and vocal chorus, 1927. |
Jeanette McDonald sings "Dream Lover" (words by Clifford Grey, Music by Victor Schertzinger) from the soundtrack of the Ernst Lubitsch musical Love Parade (1929). |
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Credits(Clifford Grey page) |
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