Harold Arlen, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany

On his Saturday, August 6, 2011 radio show, Schwartz commented that he knew of only two Harold Arlen songs written in a minor key, which was surprising given the bluesy quality that inhabits so much of the composer's work. He cited "For Every Man There's a Woman" and "Paris Is a Lonely Town" (the latter currently not included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog).

Schwartz has often noted that whereas one of Richard Rodgers' favorite forms of compostion is the waltz, Arlen seldom wrote waltzes, a rare exception being "When the Boys Come Home" from Bloomer Girl (1944).

Cafe Songbook Music-Video Cabinet: Selected Albums and Videos Featuring Harold Arlen

Oscar Peterson Plays the Harold Arlen Songbook
1954/1959, Peterson (piano), Ray Brown Bass,
Herb Ellis (guitar) or (on '59 recordings)
Ed Thigpen (drums)

• Ac-cen-tchu-ate the Positive
  
• Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home
  
• As Long as I Live
  
• Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
  
• Blues in the Night
  
• Come Rain or Come Shine
  
• Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead
  
• Down With Love
  
• The Eagle and Me
  
• For Every Man There's a Woman
  
• Fun to be Fooled
  
• Get Happy
  
• Happiness is Just a Thing Called Joe
  
• Happy As The Day Is Long
  
• Hit the Road to Dreamland
  
• Hooray for Love
  
• I Gotta Right To Sing the Blues
  
• I Had Myself a True Love
  
• I Wonder What Became of Me
  
• If I Only Had a Brain/a Heart/the Nerve
  
• Ill Wind
  
• It Was Written in the Stars
• It's a New World
  
• It's Only a Paper Moon
  
• I've Got the World on a String
  
• Last Night When We Were Young
  
• Let's Fall in Love
  
• Let's Take a Walk Around the Block
  
• Let's Take the Long Way Home
  
• Like a Straw In The Wind
  
• Man That Got Away (The)
  
• My Shining Hour
  
• One for My Baby (and one more for the road)
  
• Out of This World
  
• Over the Rainbow
  
• Right As The Rain
  
• Sing My Heart
  
• A Sleepin' Bee
  
• Someone at Last
  
• Stormy Weather
  
• That Old Black Magic
  
• This Time The Dream's on Me
  
• What's Good About Goodbye?
  
• When the Sun Comes Out
  
• You're a Builder-Upper.

Research Resources: Harold Arlen

• Amazon.com (Books, Recordings, Videos pertinent to Harold Arlen);
• Arlen: "The Official Harold Arlen Website"
• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list; awards; hit songs; co-writers)
• Discogs.com (songwriting and arranging credits)
• Internet Broadway Database (Broadway productions and song credits)
• Internet Movie Database (brief biography, filmography, movie song credits)
• The New York Public Library (Catalog entries including books, papers, recordings, sheet music, etc. for this songwriter)
• The New York Times (bio and articles relevant to Arlen)
• NPR Music (usually includes audio segments including one hour program "Come Rain or Come Shine," celebrating the music of Arlen)
• Songwriters Hall of Fame, (biography and song list)
• Wikipedia (Arlen article)
• Alec Wilder, American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950, New York: Oxford University Press, 1972 -- pp. 253-291 (hardcover Ed.) and multiple other references.
• Max Wilk. They're Playing Our Song: Conversations with America's Classic Songwriters. New York and Stratford, CT: Easton Studio Press, 2008. (originally published 1973 as They're Playing Our Song: From Jerome Kern to Stephen Sondheim—The Stories behind the Words and Music of Two Generations (chapter devoted to interview with Arlen).
• Roy Hemming, The Melody Lingers On: The Great Songwriters and Their Movie
  Musicals, New York: Newmarket Press, 1986 (chapter on Arlen).
• Edward Jablonski. Harold Arlen, Happy With the Blues. New York: Doubleday, 1961 (Da Capo Press paperback, August, 1986).
• Edward Jablonski. Harold Arlen: Rhythm, Rainbows and Blues, Boston: Northeastern UP, 1996. (This is an expanded version of the the earlier Jablonski biography of Arlen, Happy with the Blues.)
• Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Harold Arlen. Deep C Productions. 1999. (A DVD/VHS Bio-documentary of Harold Arlen's life]
• William Zinsser. Easy to Remember The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs. Jaffrey, New Hampshire: David R. Godine, 2000 (includes a chapter on Arlen and lyricist Ted Koehler--overall the best introduction to The Great American Songbook).
• Adam Cohen, "Turning the Music of the South and the Shetl into Bluesy Sophistication." The New York Times, Feb. 11, 2005 (an Editorial Observer piece on Arlen).
• John Lahr "'Come Rain or Shine': The Bitter Sweet Life of Harold Arlen," The New Yorker, September 19, 2005.
• Wilfred Sheed. The House That George Built: with a Little Help from Irving, Cole and a Crew of about Fifty. New York: Random House, 2007. (chapter on Arlen, pp. 79-94, hard-bound edition)
• Harold Arlen and Martha Raye: Theatrecorner

Notes

• Harold Sings Arlen (with friend) Arlen singing his own songs--with help on two from Barbara Streisand (1966)
• Come Rain Or Come Shine: The Harold Arlen Songbook , 1996 album featuring Sylvia McNair (vocals) and Andre Previn (piano)
• Photo of Harold Arlen by Carl Van Vechten : Wikipedia/public doman .

Cite this page: Harold Arlen, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/a_sws/Arlen_Harold.html