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

"When I Take My Sugar To Tea"
words and music by
Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal and Pierre Norman originally published 1931

"Was That the Human Thing to Do?"
Words by Joe Young, Music by Sammy Fain, words by Irving Kahal, featuring Guy Lombardo
1931

Sammy Fain epitomizes the American songwriter of first half of the 20th century in terms of versatility, writing songs for Tin Pan Alley publishers, Broadway shows and Hollywood movies, most often writing the music, sometimes the words and not that infrequently, both. He began publishing his work in the 1920s and continued into the 1970s. His most well known songs range from standards such as "I'll Be Seeing You" (1938) to smash hits limited in their popularity to a partiular time such as "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" (1955).

Fain's route into the songwriting business was not unique. Like Irving Berlin and Harold Arlen, his father was a cantor. And like Berlin, George Gershwin and others, he got his start working at a Tin Pan Alley publishing house, Mills Music, as a staff pianist. His training for this was having taught himself how to play.

His first success was "Nobody Knows What a Red Head Mamma Can Do" with lyrics by Al Dubin (1924) with lyrics by Al Dubin and Irving Mills. By the time he wrote the music for "Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine" (words by Irving Kahal and Willie Raskin) in 1929, his reputation had been made. The timing was good because it was at that time that the demand for songwriters for Hollywood musicals were in demand and an early suuccess was "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me, for which he wrote the music with Pierre Norman. The song was created for the movie "The Big Pond" and had lyrics by Kahal. That song was followed by another written for a movie, "A New Kind of Love" with words by Joe Young and recorded and made popular by Guy Lombardo in 1931. The thirties saw several more hits, 1937 yielding two more standards written for films: "That Old Feeling" with a lyric by Lew Brown, introduced by Virginia Verrill in Vogues of 1938, and "I Dream, Can't I?" with words by Kahal, sung by Tamara in Right This Way. "Are You Having Any Fun" brought about a return to Broadway with "Are You Having Any Fun," lyricist Jack Yellen, which was sung by Ella Logan in George White's Scandals of 1939 as well as becoming a hit record for her.

The forties began with a revival of "I'll Be Seeing You," becasue of its resonance for soldiers who were leaving for overseas and their wives and sweehearts at home. The decade ended with a huge hit for Fain and Bob Hilliard, "Dear Hearts and Gentle People" in 1949, which was recorded by Dinah Shore and Bing Crosby among others.

The fifties continued the parade of hits for Fain with "Secret Love" (lyrics by Paul Francis Webster) made for the movie Calamity Jane for which it won Fain his first Oscar. The biggest recording was, of course, by Doris Day. Fain's second Oscar came in 1955 for "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing," the title song for the movie, again with lyric by Webster. Other Webster collaborations included "April Love" (1957), " A Certain Smile" 1958, and "Tender Is the Night" (1961). Fain was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972., some seventeen years before his death in 1989.

Cafe Songbook Music-Video Cabinet: Sammy Fain

• Are You Havin' Any Fun?
• I Can Dream, Can't I?
• I'll Be Seeing You
• That Old Feeling
• When I Take My Sugar to Tea
• You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me

Research Resources: Sammy Fain

• Amazon (publications by and about, recordings, videos, sheet music, etc.)
• Class Act (songs featured in motion pictures)
• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list; awards; hit songs; co-writers)
• Discogs.com (songwriting and arranging credits)
• Indiana University Sheet Music Collection (In Harmony): Sammy Fain
• Internet Broadway Database (Broadway productions and song credits);
• Internet Movie Database (brief biography, filmography, movie song credits);
• New York Public Library (catalog entries for books, personal papers, recordings, scores, etc.);
• The New York Times (articles about or related to the songwriter);
• Songwriters Hall of Fame (biography and song list);
• Wikipedia (Sammy Fain 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. 211-212)
• David Ewen. American Songwriters, An H. W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary. New York: The H. W. Wilson Co., 1987 (includes 146 bios of composers and lyricists). -- a wide selection of used copies is available at abebooks.com (entry, pp. 155-157).
• Gary Marmorstein, Hollywood Rhapsody: Movie Music and Its Makers, 1900-1975,
  New York: Schirmer Books, 1997 (discussion . . . pp. 58-59 and others).
• Ken Bloom. The American Songbook, The Singers, The Songwriters and the Songs. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2005 (entry--p. 219).
• David Jenness and Don Velsey, Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950-2000, New York: Routledge, 2006 (pp. 186-187).
• Thomas S. Hischak. The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 (entry--p. 232).
• Peter Mintun, "Our Penthouse on Third Avenue:: petermintunmusic
• Martin Fogel: "Secret Love": martinfogelguitar
• "The Worry Song": mygospel101

Notes

• Sammy Fain sheet music
• "I Can Dream, Can't I?" words by Irving Kahal, Music by Sammy Fain, Featuring The Andrews Sisters 1936
• Sammy Fain - The Song Book (1925-1955)

Cite this page: Sammy Fain, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/f_sws/fain_sammy.html