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

Ralph Freed, shared a gift for writing lyrics with his older and more famous brother Arthur Freed. Ralph's songwriting career got a jump start when he supplied the lyrics to the Bing Crosby hit "Little Dutch Mill," which was number one for five weeks in 1934. Despite his successes as a producer, especially in TV, and a long list of song credits, he remains most well known for his collaboration with Burton Lane on the song "How About You?", written for the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland 1941 movie Babes on Broadway.

Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball state that "How About You?" was Freed's best lyric even if many artists couldn't resist the temptation to change his line in which the singer says "Franklin Roosevelt's looks / Give me a thrill" to, as Sinatra sings, "James Durante's looks," or as Rosemary Clooney sings "Frank Sinatra's looks."
(See Reading Lyrics, Edited and with an Introduction by Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball, New York: Pantheon Books, 2000, p. 401.).

Gary Marmorstein notes that of the Garland-Rooney musicals of the early forties, Babes on Broadway is "easier to sit through, less because of the script or [Busby} Berkeley's direction than because the songs are just better. With music by Burton Lane and lyrics by [Arthur] Freed's much younger bespectacled brother Ralph, 'How About You?' ('I love potato chips, moonlight and motor trips') is one of the cleverest, sweetest songs to come out of the movies."

And although older brother Arthur Freed was by far the more important figure in world of Hollywood musicals, Marmorstein prefers little brother Ralph when it comes to lyrics:

As a lyricist, [Arthur Freed] had had the touch of a business man. From "Singin' in the Rain" to "Good Morning," his words stroll through their clichés with a shrug; they're cued to cheerful, romantic sentiment ("You Are My Lucky Star," "All I Do Is Dream of You," ) without achieving much depth, or even cleverness. Freed's writing lacked the dazzle and specificity of his brother Ralph's lyrics for say, " How about You? " or " You Leave Me Breathless " (Marmorstein, p. 241, hard cover Ed.) .

Album or single is same track
of "Little Dutch Mill" as on music-video
(Ray Noble and his Orchestra
Al Bowlly, vocal)
as on music-video

• How about You?
• You Leave Me Breathless

Research Resources: Ralph Freed

• Classic Movie Musicals (credits for songs in various film musicals)
• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list; awards; hit songs; co-writers)
• Discogs.com (songwriting and arranging credits)
• Fandango (filmography of song credits)
• Indiana University Sheet Music Collection (In Harmony): songwriter
• 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)
• ASCAP Biographical Dictionary, New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Cattell/Bowker, Fourth edition, 1980 (dates, collaborators, shows/movies, songs, etc., entry p. 168).
• Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball (Eds.), Reading Lyrics, New York: Pantheon Books, 2000 (pp. 401-402 include a biographical sketch plus the lyrics to three Ralph freed songs.).
• Swing High Swing Low, Ink Spots: MrInkSpotsBillKenny
• "Little Dutch Mill": Jan van den Belt

Notes

• Gary Marmorstein Hollywood Rhapsody: Movie Music and Its Makers, 1900-1975 , New York: Schirmer Books, 1997
• Album includes same track of "Swing High, Swing Low" as on music-video

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