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

I put [Rodgers and Hart] a little bit ahead of George and Ira. Musically, Rodgers, though not given to the rhythmic variations of Gershwin, had an incredible harmonic sense; his melodies go places the Gershwins never thught of. The reason: Rodgers catered to Hart -- and Hart's lyrics, especially the later ones, are complex, multidimenisonal and unique" (Marmorstein, Ship without a Sail , p. 11) .

"I Do Not Know a Day I Did Not Love You" is a perfect Rodgers Songbook song (with words by Martin Charnin, but not included in our catalog because it was written in 1970, five years after our somewhat arbitrary cut-off date. Should we ever get around to creating a volume 2, "I Do Not Know a Day I Did Not Love You" will certainly be included. In the meantime, here it is sung by Walter Willison who introduced it in the 1970-71 Broadway musical Two By Two. The most well known recording of this song is by Tony Bennett and can be found on his 2002 album, The Essential Tony Bennett.

• Bali Ha'i
• Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
• Blue Moon
• The Blue Room
• A Cockeyed Optimist
• Dancing on the Ceiling
• Ev'rything I've Got (belongs to You)
• Falling in Love with Love
• The Gentleman Is a Dope
• Getting To Know You
• Glad to Be Unhappy
• Happy Talk
• Have You Met Miss Jones?
• He Was Too Good To Me
• Hello Young Lovers
• I Could Write a Book
• I Didn't Know What Time It Was
• I have Dreamed
• I Married An Angel
• I Wish I Were In Love Again
• If I Loved You
• Isn't It Romantic?
• It Might As Well Be Spring
• It Never Entered My Mind
• It's Easy To Remember
• I've Got Five Dollars
• Johnny One-Note
• The Lady Is a Tramp
• Little Girl Blue
• Love, Look Away
• Lover
• Manhattan
• Mimi
• The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
• Mountain Greenery
• My Favorite Things
• My Funny Valentine
• My Heart Stood Still
• My Romance
• No Other Love
• No Strings
• Nobody's Heart (belongs to me)
• Out of My Dreams
• People Will Say We're In Love
• Shall We Dance?
• A Ship without a Sail
• Some Enchanted Evening
• Spring Is Here
• Surrey with the Fringe on Top
• The Sweetest Sounds
• Ten Cents A Dance
• That's for Me
• There's a Small Hotel
• This Can't Be Love
• This Funny World
• This Nearly Was Mine
• Thou Swell
• To Keep My Love Alive
• Wait Till You See Her
• We Kiss in a Shadow
• Where or When
• Where's That Rainbow?
• With a Song in My Heart
• A Wonderful Guy
• You Are Too Beautiful
• You Took Advantage of Me
• You're Nearer
• Younger Than Springtime
• Yours Sincerely

Research Resources: Richard Rodgers

• Amazon (publications by and about, recordings, videos, sheet music, etc.);
• CityJournal.org -- Stefan Kanfer, Richard Rodgers: Enigma Variations, City Journal, Autumn 2003 (essay on Rodgers and why his music continues to live).
• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list, awards, hit songs, co-writers)
• Discogs.com (songwriting and arranging credits)
• Yehuda Falk, Richard Rodgers: from "Manhattan" to "A Little Bit More" (notes on Rodgers works, list of scores, notes on later works, etc.)
• Indiana University Sheet Music Collection (In Harmony): songwriter
• Internet Broadway Database (Broadway productions and song credits);
• Internet Off-Broadway Database (off-Broadway productions of songwriter's shows)
• Internet Movie Database (brief biography, filmography, movie song credits);
• Library of Congress (The Richard Rodgers Collection, finding resources)
• New York Public Library (catalog entries for books, personal papers, recordings, scores, etc.)
• The New York Times (articles about or related to the songwriter); Ben Brantley, "Music, Memories and Regret," The New York Times, August 16, 2011 (Review of Ten Cents a Dance -- "Ten Cents a Dance [is] John Doyle's beautiful, brooding collage of the songs of Rodgers and Hart . . . at the Williamstown Theater Festival," Williamstown MA.)
• NPR Music (archive of relevant programs often including audio segments); NPR Rodgers centennial (2002) features
• PBS.org American Masters (biographical essay)
• PBS.org Richard Rodgers Gala at the Kennedy Center (Rodgers time line)
• The Rodgers and Hammerstein website (biography);
• Songwriters Hall of Fame (biography and song list);
• Wikipedia (Rodgers article)
• The Rodgers and Hart Songbook - The Words and Music of 47 of Their Songs From 21 Shows and 2 Movies. Edited and with an Introduction by Richard Rodgers. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1951.
• Richard Rodgers Fact Book. The Lynn Farnol Group, Inc., New York, 1965.
• Alec Wilder with James T. Maher. American Popular Song The Great Innovators, 1900-1950, New York: Oxford University Press, 1972 (multiple references to Rodgers).
• 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 on Rodgers.
• Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages: An Autobiography, New York: Random House, 1975 (Da Capo paper bound Ed., 2002).
• Gerald Mast. Can't Help Singin' The American Musical on Stage and Screen. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1987 (chapter on Rodgers and Hart and another on Rodgers and Hammerstein).
• William Zinsser. Easy to Remember The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs. Jaffrey, New Hampshire: David R. Godine, 2000 (two chapters on Rodgers and Hart, one on Rodgers and Hammerstein).
• Roy Hemming. The Melody Lingers on: The Great Songwriters and Their Movie Musicals. New York: Newmarket Press, 1986 (paperbound edition, 1999)--Chapter on Rodgers' movie music.
• 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. 313-329).
• Meryle Secrest, Somewhere for Me - A Biography of Richard Rodgers, New York: Applause Theater and Cinema Books, 2001.
• Geoffrey Block, Ed. The Richard Rodgers Reader . New York, Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Geoffrey Block, Richard Rodgers, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003.
• Ken Bloom. The American Songbook, The Singers, The Songwriters and the Songs. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2005 (entry--pp. 282-288).
• 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 and multiple references to Rodgers.
• Thomas S. Hischak. The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 (entry--pp. 636-637).
• Stephen Sondheim. Finishing the Hat [various editions]: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. New York: Knoph, 2010 (multiple references to Rodgers).
• "I Do Not Know a Day I Did Not Love You": BroadwayGoldnAge

Notes

• Gary Marmorstein quotes"the long time music director Buster Davis on Rodgers and Hart:
• Richard Rodgers Greatest Hits
• Richard Rodgers Command Performance
• Bobby Short Celebrates Rodgers and Hart
• Rodgers and Hammerstein Songbook for Orchestra Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops

Cite this page: Richard Rodgers, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/r_sws/rodgers_richard.html