"Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video

"Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most"

Tommy Wolf: Wolf was a pianist, composer, arranger, and musical director who met Fran Landesman while she was sitting in the bar of the Crystal Palace, a night club in St. Louis, while he was on the bandstand playing. This experience inspired her to begin writing song lyrics and in 1952, Wolf began setting her lyrics to music. More Landesman–Wolf collaborations followed including the melodies for "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" and the score for the Broadway musical The Nervous Set.

Bob Dorough co-wrote many songs with Fran Landesman and "the results were a finely tuned balance of her acidic, edgy wit" and their ability to fashion hip lyrics. His uniquely eccentric vocal style fit them to a "T."
" They were part of a perhaps less celebrated but no less respected group of songwriters who kept producing new works for jazz and cabaret singers after Berlin, Arlen, Kern, Gershwin, Porter and Rodgers stopped writing music. The American Songbook kept growing, as Dorough, David Frishberg, Alec Wilder, Fran Landesman, and others continued to write memorable songs." (adapted quotation from NPR.org)

Given that lyricists of The Great American Songbook are often inclined to include irony in their work, it is not surprising that spring as used in their songs is often linked to pain rather than to the sweetness, joy and light more commonly associated with that season. Richard Rodger's two most celebrated lyricists both employ an irony related to spring. In his lyric for "Spring Is Here," Lorenz Hart gets rattled because even though spring has arrived his heart is not dancing and the breeze does not delight him. In the song's verse he writes, "Now April, May and June / Are sadly out of tune." And Oscar Hammerstein in his lyric for "It Might as Well Be Spring" also finds himself discombobulated by having feelings he has always associated with spring when "it isn't even spring." Fran Landesman's attention was piqued by an irony of spring in T. S. Eliot's prototypical modernist poem "The Wasteland" of 1921, which was virtually required reading for all liberal arts students of the mid twentieth century. Eliot's poem begins with the painfully ironic statement, "April is the cruellest month"; and Landesman having grown up in the shadow of that poem, and her life as a poet and lyricist having begun during the Beat period of the 1950's found herself challenged by a desire to express Eliot's irony in the "hip" language of her own era -- and came up with "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most."

In the early 1950s Fran had moved with her husband Adam Landesman from New York to St. Louis where their lives became immersed in Adam's newly founded club The Crystal Palace, a very hip spot in Gaslight Square. As the story goes, Fran, while sitting at the club's bar listening to jazz pianist Tommy Wolf play,* decided to show him her new poem. Wolf, undoubtedly recognizing how "hip" the poem was, set it to music. Not long afterwards, among the many famous and very "hip" people who visited the club was jazz pianist George Shearing who heard Wolf and Landesman perform the song and liked it so much that he taped it and brought it back to New York. There he showed it to the very "hip" young performers Jackie and Roy (Jackie Cain and Roy Kral) who in 1955 recorded it and put it on their very first album, Storyville Presents Jackie and Roy (See a and listen at right.). The rest, as they say, is history: "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" became a first class jazz standard recorded by all those "hip" singers and musicians listed in the right column on this page as well as many more. One of them, Irene Kral, younger sister of Roy Kral (of Jackie and Roy) recorded it in 1974 -- a peerless version of great beauty featured on the Cafe Songbook Main Stage above.
(*Another version of the story has Fran giving her new poem to Tommy Wolfe while he was playing at the Jefferson Hotel in St. Louis in 1951, which would have predated the opening of the Crystal Palace.)

Poet and lyricist Fran Landesman traces her history back to Saint Louis in the 1950s when she and her husband Adam Landesman moved to the city's West End and there founded the Crystal Palace nightclub in Gaslight Square. The legendary club welcomed the hippest young acts of the era, mostly before they became well known to the rest of the world. Among its performers were Lenny Bruce, The Smothers Brothers, Del Close (later of Second City fame), a very young Woody Allen and an even younger Barbra Streisand.

Bob Dorough (vocal and piano)
"Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most"
from his album Right on My Way Home (1997).

Ted Gioia considers Tommy Wolfe to be"an exceptional songwriter. . . . one of the most talented of his generation." Gioia continues, "Wolf benefited enormously from the contributions of lyricist Fran Landesman who wrote the words for his best songs. ' For "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," Wolf responded to Landesman's words by creating "a poignant melody that gave emotional depth to Landesman's arch lyrics." Gioia continues, "There is much to admire here, with both the main theme and the bridge sustaining the poignancy of the piece; but I especially like Wolf's clever alteration of the final restatement of the A theme, which briefly hints at a modulation down a fifth before retuning to the tonic key."

At one point, the lyrics make playful reference to " Spring is Here " [by Rodgers and Hart], but in its serpentine motion this piece reminds me of still another cherished "spring" standard by Richard Rodgers [with lyric by Oscar Hammerstein]: " It Might As Well Be Spring ." I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Wolf used the earlier song as a role model. In any event, Wolf and Landesman created something here that rises above their ambitions for a hipster's ode to spring. It works a a dramatic monologue turned ballad that can serve as the emotional centerpiece of a public performance or can work just as well as a melancholy reverie that the pianist at the bar plays to an empty room before calling it quits for the night. (Gioia, The Jazz Standards , p. 393 hardcover Ed.)

James Gavin, Intimate Nights The Golden Age of New York Cabaret, Limelight Editions, 1992
(A significantly revised version of this book was published by Backstage Books in 2006 that does not include the material referenced here.)

Jackie and Roy, who, in 1955 were the first to record "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,"after they received the song from songwriters Wolf and Landesman via George Shearing, would have been likely to have performed it first in New York at the Blue Angel cabaret where they made their New York City debut in 1954. James Gavin writes of them that along with performing show tunes which were then the staple of their repertoire, "they took pride in introducing songs by such young writers as Tommy Wolf and Lyricist Fran Landesman, premiering that duo's 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,' the hippest torch song of the day." (Gavin, p. 152, Intimate Nights, Limelight paperback Ed.)

David Jenness and Don Velsey in their book Classic American Popular Songs state directly that they "spend time on this well known song because it is so beautifully made. . . . as fresh today as in the troubled 1950s." They assert that "Spring songs fall into two categories, the light-hearted, often silly ones and those speaking of the bittersweet disappointment of lost love." "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" is for them unequivocally "of the latter genre." They point out various musical factors such as underlying chords that are often dark, the use of discord, "descending chains of thirds," and "a bridge that reinforces the downward feeling" all of which underpins the song's sadness. Still, they point out that the entire song is not without its lighter portions:

The pattern is that each long phrase of the chorus begins with rising notes expressing the more conventional or hopeful words about spring; then ruefulness comes in, with notes around the lower key-tone, and finally there is a decline into a dark mood. It's easy enough to write a lyric in an entirely bittersweet register, but a mixture like this takes a lot of control, so that the humor doesn't become jokey, or yearning become bathos. ( See Jenness and Velsey, pp. 224-229, hardcover Ed.)

from a review of Ian Shaw album A Ghost in Every Bar by Amazon Reviewer dnd:
"On this recording, he [Ian Shaw] is partnered with the refined and austere pianist, Simon Wallace. Wallace also collaborated with Ms. Landesman on 12 of the 15 songs presented. Having the composer at the piano is an auspicious treat, indeed! Wallace's economy of style is reflected in Shaw's relatively straight-forward and unadorned interpretive approach. A simplicity certainly appropriate to Landesman's ultimately erudite text (and to address a previous reviewer's complaint regarding Shaw's "non-US accent" - it is completely and utterly a non-issue). But make no mistake - there is much emotion here. Shaw plumbs the depths of Landesman's lyrics with bare restraint in songs such as "Scars", "Killing Time" and the signature "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most", while joyfully swinging through "Feet Do Your Stuff" and "In A New York Minute". The program closes with the poignant and quietly revolutionary "Ballad Of The Sad Young Men", featuring the mournful, plaintive trumpet of Sue Richardson, and sung by Shaw with such heart-breaking dignity. This project is quite the meeting of minds and talent, and a true artistic achievement. One of my desert-island discs, to be sure!!"

See the "Comments" section just below for a version of the full lyric of "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most."

The verse characterizes the singer as formerly "a sentimental thing," but Spring has converted her into a realist. In the past, she got seduced each Spring, "threw away her heart" every time that ever so romantic season arrived. But after many disappointments has forsaken unrealistic Spring for the harsh honesty of Winter: "Now a Spring romance / Hasn't got a chance, / Promised my first dance to Winter."

The first refrain opens with a simile that reveals the speaker as paralyzed from her past experience with Spring so that just when she ought to be full of energy and ready to get into the race, she is "feeling like a horse that has never left the post." Spring has hung her up. Of all the sights and sounds of spring that ought to be motivating her, she says, in one of the songs poignant triads, "Head it before / And I know the score, /And I've decided that Spring is a bore!"

The second refrain informs us through a bit of striking hyperbole that the effects of the season are universal: "Robins [are] building nests from coast to coast." So she tries to be robin-like herself, but it's a painful sham: "My heart tries to sing / So they won't hear it breaking. / Spring can really hang you up the most." As in the first refrain, she again reveals her paralysis, but now she never even gets to the starting line. By changing the venue for her metaphor from one in which she ventures out to the expansive racetrack that at least holds out a chance for victory, now all she can manage is a retreats to her claustrophobic closet: "But I'm on the shelf / With last year's Easter bonnets, / Spring can really Hang you up the most." Finally she tries the doctor for a cure. His phony prescription is a none too tasty tonic ("Sulphur and Molasses was the dose.") but it "didn't help a bit" because she realizes her condition is "chronic" and, of course, "Spring can really Hang you up the most."

Ian Shaw "Spring Can Really Hang You Up
the Most" (from the 2012 album A Ghost in Every Bar, The Lyrics of Fran Landesman)

Ian Shaw "Ballad of the Sad Young Men" (lyrics by Fran Landesman, music by Tommy Wolf, featuring Sue Richards on trumpet, from the 2012 album A Ghost in Every Bar, The Lyrics of Fran Landesman)

The Lyrics Should be Posted! Too bad we can not get Fran's original lyrics. Below is taken from a number of different sung versions of this song, with the lyrics that make the most sense.

Once I was a sentimental thing, Threw my heart away each spring. Now a spring romance hasn't got a chance; Promised my first dance to winter, All I've got to show's a splinter for my little fling! Spring this year has got me feeling Like a horse that never left the post! I lie in my room staring up at the ceiling, Spring can really hang you up the most! Morning's kiss wakes trees and flowers, And to them I'd like to drink a toast. I walk in the park just to kill lonely hours, Spring can really hang you up the most. All afternoon those birds twitter twit, I know the tune, "This is love, this is it!" Heard it before and I know the score, And I've decided that spring is a bore! Love seemed sure around the New Year, Now it's April, love is just a ghost. Spring arrived on time, only what became of you, dear? Spring can really hang you up the most! Spring is here, there's no mistaking, Robins building nests from coast to coast. My heart tries to sing so they won't hear it breaking, Spring can really hang you up the most! College boys are writing sonnets, In the tender passion they're engrossed; But I'm on the shelf like last years Easter bonnet, Spring can really hang you up the most! Love came my way, I hoped it would last. We had our day, now that's all in the past! Spring came along a season of song, Full of sweet promise, but something went wrong! Doctors once prescribed a tonic, "Sulphur and molasses" was the dose. Didn't help a bit, my condition must be chronic, Spring can really hang you up the most! All alone, the party's over, Old man winter was a gracious host; But when you keep praying for snow to hide the clover, Spring can really hang you up the most!

From: Pete Collins, posted 07/16/2018: Thank you for using my lyrics to this amazing song. Other versions I have seen on the net have words that don't completely make sense with the words around them. While I appreciate that Jackie and Roy were the first to record this song, your list of other performers omits what I consider to be the best single vocal version of this song. In 1957 June Christy recorded this song, with orchestration by Pete Rugolo, for Capitol Records. More than any other vocal version of this song, June captures the poignant, melancholy nature of multiple loves lost each spring. The song is most definitely a song sung by a woman, and June does it to a T. I was not the first to recognize that June had the best vocal version. Sid McCoy, the famous Jazz disc jockey in Chicago in the 1960's was the one who put me on the her version, which was the only version he played on his late night Jazz radio show during those years.

Cafe Songbook respons 07/16/2018: Pete, Thanks for your comment. Leaving out the Christy version was certainly our "bad." It's a great recording made, according to our source, on August 15, 1958 and released on the 1959 album The Song is June. And here is the track:

June Christy vocal with Pete Rugulo orchestrator and leader,
recorded August 15, 1958 and originaly released on the 1959
album, The Song Is June.

From Pete Collins, posted 07/18/2018: Guess I can' keep still about this song -- that to my mind is not appreciated enough by the general public. Quite a few Jazz musicians have recorded it, but it still remains somewhat obscure to the listening public -- possibly because it is a seasonal song for late winter or early spring.
Above I talk about lyric words that don't make sense. Well that problem even occurs in lyrics quoted earlier in this song posting, where it is written: ""Head it before / And I know the score," The word 'Head' does not make sense here because it is a typo for the word 'Heard.' So you will see the correct word 'Heard' in the lyrics that I posted above.
While I advocated strongly for the June Christy vocal version of this song, the observant will note that June does not sing all of the verses that I have posted above. She only sings the opening 5-line section and the first 4 verses before jumping to the last verse to close out the song. The verses that June does not sing can be heard on more complete versions by Ella Fitzgerald (not listed above, but worth hearing) or Carmen McRae.

Cafe Songbook responds 07/18/2018: A couple of things: First, thanks for calling attention to the Ella version. Her 1961 recording can be heard in the Cafe Songbook Record and Video Cabinet on this page, which should make it easy for people to compare and contrast Ella's and June's recordings. Also, it's worth mentioning a terminology issue. The term " verse" (click the preceding link for complete definition in the The Cafe Songbook Glossary.) as used by composers, lyricists, song publishers, etc. within the world of the Great American Songbook refers only to the introductory section of a song -- if it has a verse at all (e.g. the first five lines of "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" is its verse.), whereas the other individual sections within a song are referred to as choruses or refrains. It can be confusing.

• Landesman interview: Living St. Louis from KETC TV, produced by Jim Kirchnerr who visits with Fran Landesman. Nine Network

Notes

• Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf c. 1952 (courtesy of StlMag.com )
• Storyville Presents Jackie and Roy (CD and vinyl)
• Bob Dorough Small Day Tomorrow Fran Landesman Revisited
• David Jenness and Don Velsey Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950-2000 New York: Routledge, 2006
• Like the Bob Dorough album ( above in this column ), all lyrics are by Fran Landesman
• A Ghost in Every Bar (The Lyrics of Fran Landesman) Ian Shaw
• From: Pete Collins, posted 06/23/2018:

Cite this page: "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/s/spring_can_really_hang_you_up.html