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

For Barry Singer, Andy Razaf's biographer, Harry Brooks was "in many ways, the most legendary and certainly the most mysterious member of the creative team" responsible for the revue Hot Feet, which had in its score both "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Black and Blue," which are much more associated with songwriters Fats Waller (music) and Andy Razaf (lyrics) than they are with Brooks, who shares music credit on both.

Singer goes on to explain that Brooks was the keyboardist in the house band at Connie's Inn, where Hot Feet first opened, but beyond some credit for songs in an earlier revue, Snapshots of 1921, had no known songwriting experience.

The provocative mystery surrounding Harry Brooks centers to this day around one inexplicable fact. Though the score Razaf and Waller created for their Connie's Inn debut proved to include many of their most distinguished and, in many ways, signature song compositions, Harry Brooks, for reasons that have eluded history, received full credit along side the Razaf/Waller team as co- melodist for the entire score.

Many theories have been put forward. The most common was that the producer needed a composer to supplement Waller's work either because he was famously unreliable or because he had been in jail for part of this period for failure to pay alimony, until he was paroled in February of 1929. In any case documents have been found that state that four parties (Waller, Razaf, Brooks and the producer, Leonard Harper) would share equally in deciding what would happen to the score--though only Razaf's, Waller's and Brooks' names wound up on the copyrights. For his part, Razaf claims he also worked on the music and that Brooks was in fact the arranger. (See also Critics Corner on the Cafe Songbook page for "Ain't Misbehavin'.")

Cafe Songbook Music-Video Cabinet: Harry Brooks

• Ain't Misbehavin'
  
• Black and Blue

Research Resources: Harry Brooks

• Answers.com article on Brooks
• 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 bio. movie credits, etc.
• JazzBiographies.com (brief Biography, links)
• New York Public Library (catalog entries for books, papers recordings, sheet music, etc.)
• Wikipedia (Brooks article)
• ASCAP Biographical Dictionary of Composers, Authors and Publishers, New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (dates, career, shows/movies, songs; 3rd edition, 1966, entry p. 80).
• Barry Singer, Black and Blue The Life and Lyrics of Andy Razaf. New York: Schirmer Books, 1992. (Several references to Brooks in this biography of his collaborator Razaf).
• Warren W. Vaché, The Unsung Songwriters: America's Masters of Melody, The Scarecrow Press, 2000 -- full entry for Brooks
• David A. Jasen and Gene Jones, Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1880-1930, New York: Schirmer Books, 1998 (paperback edition, Routledge, 2005) -- several brief references to Brooks but only with regard to his collaborations with Waller and Razaf.
• Arden and Ohman perform "Saturday.": bsgs98
• Judy Garland performs "Swing Mr. Charlie.": dei514

Cite this page: Harry Brooks, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/b_sws/brooks_harry.html