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

Songwriters and singers are always supposed to be full of rivalry and jealousy. Not my father . . . . He loved people, he loved working with other writers, having them come over to the house, he loved it when Kern or Harold Arlen or Harry Warren would come over with something new they'd written and he could be the first to appreciate it. (Wilk, p. 95) It's ironic how many of my father's songs became theme songs. For years Eddie Cantor used "One Hour with You." Fred Waring used "Breezing Along with the Breeze." How about "Hooray for Hollywood," Jack Benny's theme for twenty years--can you ever see anything about the movies where they don't strike up that song? For years Shirley Temple was associated with "On the Good Ship Lollipop," but he wrote that one for me; I always sat next to him at the piano, sucking a lollipop. And as for "Louise" and "My Ideal," Chevalier love those songs so much he used them every time he sang. (Wilk, p. 99)

Cafe Songbook Music-Video Cabinet: Richard A. Whiting

Ethel Waters sings "True Blue Lou" (accompanied by Bob Effros - trumpet; Tommy Dorsey - trombone; Jimmy Dorsey - clarinet, alto sax; Ben Selvin - violin; Frank Signorelli - piano; Tony Colucci - guitar; Joe Tarto - string bass; Stan King - drums. Recorded June 7, 1929, New York City); music by Richard A. Whiting; words by Sam Coslow)

"True Blue Lou" was introduced in the Paramount film "The Dance of Life" (1929) by Hal Skelly. "With its tale of 'a dame' who stuck unerringly with her abusive man. The song is a feminist's nightmare, "Frankie and Johnny" without the retribution. Of it's many recordings Ethel Water's was the best --- perhaps because in real life Waters would have never taken the abuse Lou did." (quotation from "A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film" by Richard Barrios) -- provided by bsgs98.

Soundtrack from the 1937 movie Hollywood Hotel with songs (music by Whiting and lyrics by Johnny Mercer)--various performers
(See song list with performers.)
Amazon

• Ain't We Got Fun
• Beyond the Blue Horizon
• Can't Teach My Old Heart New Tricks
• Guilty
• Hooray for Hollywood
• Louise
• Miss Brown to You
• My Ideal
• One Hour with You
• She's Funny That Way
• Till We Meet Again
• Too Marvelous for Words

Research Resources: Richard A. Whiting

• Amazon (publications, recordings, videos, sheet music, etc.)
• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list, awards, hit songs, co-writers)
• Discogs.com (songwriting and arranging credits)
• Georgia State University (The Richard A. Whiting Collection)
• Indiana University Sheet Music Collection (In Harmony): Richard Whiting
• Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) (Broadway productions and song credits)
• Internet Movie Database (brief biography, filmography, movie song credits)
• iTunes (36 recordings by the artists who sang Whiting's songs in the films they were written for)
• 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)
• MargaretWhiting.com ("Memories of My Father" by Margaret Whiting)
• Wikipedia (Richard A. Whiting article)
• Alec Wilder, American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950, New York: Oxford University Press, 1972 -- sub-section on Whiting plus various other references.
• Max Wilk, They're Playing Our Song: Conversations with America's Classic Songwriters (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), New York and Stratford, CT: Easton Studio Press, 2008 (interview with Margaret Whiting about her father).
• 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. 541)
• Roy Hemming, The Melody Lingers On: The Great Songwriters and Their Movie
  Musicals, New York: Newmarket Press, 1986 (chapter on Whiting plus multiple other references).
• 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. 431-435).
• Arnold Shaw, The Jazz Age: Popular Music in the 1920s, New York: Oxford University Press, 1987 (multiple references plus biographical material on Whiting).
• Margaret Whiting and Will Holt, It Might As Well Be Spring: A Musical Autobiography, New York: William Morrow,1987 (chapter on Richard Whiting (Margaret's father) and multiple other references).
• Gerald Mast. Can't Help Singin' The American Musical on Stage and Screen. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1987 (extended reference to Whiting song "Beyond the Blue Horizon" for the Ernst Lubitsch film Monte Carlo).
• Philip Furia, The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America's Great Lyricists,
  New York: Oxford University Press, 1990 (scattered comments on lyrics for Whiting songs)
• Allen Forte, The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era, 1924-1950, Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press, 1995 (extensive analysis of the Whting song "Too Marvelous for Words").
• Gary Marmorstein, Hollywood Rhapsody: Movie Music and Its Makers, 1900-1975,
  New York: Schirmer Books, 1997 (two extended commentaries on Whiting plus scattered references).
• Warren W. Vaché, The Unsung Songwriters: America's Masters of Melody, The Scarecrow Press, 2000 (brief Bio.; entry pp. 541-542).
• David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: An Encyclopedia of the Golden Age of American Song, New York: Routledge, 2003 (entry, pp. 423-425).
• Ken Bloom. The American Songbook, The Singers, The Songwriters and the Songs. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2005 (entry for Whiting plus other references).
• Philip Furia and Michael Lasser, America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley, New York: Routledge, 2006 (entries for Whiting songs "Till We Meet Again," "Too Marvelous for Words," and "Hooray for Hollywood," as well as other references).
• 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 (paperback edition, 2008) -- comments on Whiting as representative of Chicago branch ofTin Pan Alleyplus multiple other references.
• Thomas S. Hischak. The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 (entry, p. 794).
• Stephen Sondheim, Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. New York: Alfred A. Knoph, 2010.
• Stephen Sondheim, Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany, New York: Alfred A Knoph, 2011.
• Ethel Waters: bsgs98

Notes

• Quotes from Margaret Whiting about her father:

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