Harry Warren

Template:Short description {{#invoke:Other people|otherPeople}} Template:Infobox musical artist

Harry Warren (born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna; December 24, 1893 – September 22, 1981)<ref name="NYT"/> was an American composer and the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe". He wrote the music for the first blockbuster film musical, 42nd Street, choreographed by Busby Berkeley, with whom he would collaborate on many musical films.

Over a career spanning six decades, Warren wrote more than 800 songs. Other well known Warren hits included "I Only Have Eyes for You", "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", "Jeepers Creepers", "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)", "That's Amore", "There Will Never Be Another You", "The More I See You", "At Last" and "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (the last of which was the first gold record in history). Warren was one of America's most prolific film composers, and his songs have been featured in over 300 films.

Biography

Early life

Warren was born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna, one of eleven children of Italian immigrants Antonio (a bootmaker) and Rachel De Luca Guaragna, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. His father changed the family name to Warren when Harry was a child. Although his parents could not afford music lessons, Warren had an early interest in music and taught himself to play his father's accordion. He also sang in the church choir and learned to play the drums. He began to play the drums professionally by age 14 and dropped out of high school at 16 to play with his godfather's band in a traveling carnival. Soon he taught himself to play the piano and by 1915, he was working at the Vitagraph Motion Picture Studios, where he did a variety of administrative jobs, such as props man, and also played mood music on the piano for the actors, acted in bit parts and eventually was an assistant director. He also played the piano in cafés and silent-movie houses. In 1918 he joined the U.S. Navy, where he began writing songs.<ref name="PBS">PBS biography entry for Harry Warren. Template:Webarchive Accessed February 2009</ref><ref name=HWM>Jenkins, David. Biography Template:Webarchive at HarryWarrenMusic.com, accessed April 3, 2009</ref>

Career

Warren wrote over 800 songs between 1918 and 1981, publishing over 500 of them.<ref>List of Warren songs at HarryWarren.org Template:Webarchive</ref><ref name=Jenkins>Jenkins, David. "Harry Warren – Hollywood's Unknown Composer" Template:Webarchive, HarryWarren.org</ref> They were written mainly for 56 feature films or were used in other films that used Warren's newly written or existing songs.<ref name="PBS"/> His songs eventually appeared in over 300 films and 112 of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.<ref name=Walls/> 42 of his songs were on the top ten list of the radio program "Your Hit Parade", a measure of a song's popularity. 21 of these reached number 1 on Your Hit Parade.<ref name=Jenkins/> "You'll Never Know" appeared 24 times.<ref>Forte, p. 265</ref> His song "I Only Have Eyes for You" is listed in the list of the 25 most-performed songs of the 20th Century, as compiled by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).<ref>Zinsser, pp. 137 and 251</ref> Warren was the director of ASCAP from 1929 to 1932.<ref name=HWM/>

He collaborated on some of his most famous songs with lyricists Al Dubin, Billy Rose, Mack Gordon, Leo Robin, Ira Gershwin and Johnny Mercer. In 1942 the Gordon-Warren song "Chattanooga Choo-Choo", as performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, became the first gold record in history. It was No.1 for nine weeks on the Billboard pop singles chart in 1941–1942, selling 1.2 million copies.<ref>[{{#ifeq: yes | yes | https://www.allmusic.com/album/r143869{{

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}} "Chattanooga Choo Choo: The #1 Hits"], allmusic.com, accessed March 31, 2009</ref> Among his biggest hits were "There Will Never Be Another You", "I Only Have Eyes for You", "Forty-Second Street", "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)", "Lullaby of Broadway", "Serenade In Blue", "At Last", "Jeepers Creepers", "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me", "That's Amore", and "Young and Healthy".<ref name="PBS"/>

Early hits and film years

Warren's first hit song was "Rose of the Rio Grande" (1922), with lyrics by Edgar Leslie.<ref>Harry Warren Template:Webarchive at Composers and Lyricists Database (1988)</ref> He wrote a succession of hit songs in the 1920s, including "I Love My Baby (My Baby Loves Me)" and "Seminola" in 1925, "Where Do You Work-a John?" and "In My Gondola" in 1926 and "Nagasaki" in 1928. In 1930, he composed the music for the song "Cheerful Little Earful" for the Billy Rose Broadway revue, Sweet and Low, and composed the music, with lyrics by Mort Dixon and Joe Young, for the Ed Wynn Broadway revue The Laugh Parade in 1931.<ref name="PBS"/>

He started working for Warner Brothers in 1932, paired with Dubin to write the score for the first blockbuster film musical, 42nd Street, and continued to work there for six years, writing the scores for 32 more musicals.<ref name=Walls>Walls, Robert. "Who is Harry Warren????" GuideToMusicals, accessed April 3, 2009</ref> He worked for 20th Century Fox starting in 1940, writing with Mack Gordon.<ref name="Zinsser, p. 137">Zinsser, p. 137</ref> He moved to MGM starting in 1944, writing for musical films such as The Harvey Girls and The Barkleys of Broadway, many starring Fred Astaire. He later worked for Paramount, starting in the early 1950s, writing for the Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman movie Just for You and the Martin and Lewis movie The Caddy, the latter containing the hit song "That's Amore". He continued to write songs for several more Jerry Lewis comedies.<ref name="PBS"/>

Warren is particularly remembered for writing scores for the films of Busby Berkeley; they worked together on 18 films. His "uptempo songs are as memorable as Berkeley's choreography, as [sic] for the same reason: they capture, in a few snazzy notes, the vigorous frivolity of the Jazz Age."<ref name=time>Corliss, Richard."That Old Feeling: We Need Harry Warren", Time, October 5, 2001</ref>

Warren won the Academy Award for Best Song three times, collaborating with three different lyricists: "Lullaby of Broadway" with Al Dubin in 1935, "You'll Never Know" with Mack Gordon in 1943, and "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" with Johnny Mercer in 1946. He was nominated for eleven Oscars.<ref name="PBS"/>

Last years

In 1955, Warren wrote "The Legend of Wyatt Earp", which was used in the ABC/Desilu Studios television series, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. He also wrote the opening theme, "Hey, Marty" (lyrics by Paddy Chayefsky), for the film Marty, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1955.<ref>Holloway, Ronald. "Marty", Variety, March 22, 1955</ref> The last musical score that Warren composed specifically for Broadway was Shangri-La, a disastrous 1956 adaptation of James Hilton's Lost Horizon, which ran for only 21 performances. In 1957, he received his last Academy Award nomination for the song "An Affair to Remember". He continued to write songs for movies throughout the 1960s and 1970s but never again achieved the fame that he had enjoyed earlier. His last movie score was for Manhattan Melody, in 1980, but the film was never produced.<ref name=HWM/>

Warren composed a Mass, with Latin text, in 1962. This was performed a decade later at Loyola Marymount University, but it has yet to be recorded commercially.<ref>Feinstein, p. 243</ref> He also wrote nearly three dozen short piano vignettes. The sheet music was first published by Warren's Four Jays Music Co.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A dozen of these were released on a 1975 album titled Harry Warren's Piano Vignettes, played by Hugh Delain.<ref>"Harry Warren's Piano Vignettes", Discogs.com, 1975, accessed December 6, 2014</ref> Several pianists have recorded the vignettes, including Warren himself.<ref>[{{#ifeq: yes | yes | https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000917236{{

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}} "Harry Warren: Piano Vignettes"], AllMusic, accessed December 6, 2014</ref>

Personal life

Warren married Josephine Wensler in 1917. They had a son, Harry Jr. (1919–1938), and a daughter, Joan (b. 1925). His wife died in 1993.

Warren died on September 22, 1981, in Los Angeles.<ref name="NYT">Template:Cite news</ref> He is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. The plaque bearing Warren's epitaph displays the first few notes of "You'll Never Know".<ref>Warren, Westwood Village Seeing-stars, accessed March 30, 2009</ref>

Reputation and legacy

According to Wilfrid Sheed, quoted in Time magazine: "By silent consensus, the king of this army of unknown soldiers, the Hollywood incognitos, was Harry Warren, who had more songs on the Hit Parade than Berlin himself and who would win the contest hands down if enough people have heard of him."<ref name=time/> William Zinsser noted: "The familiarity of Harry Warren's songs is matched by the anonymity of the man ... he is the invisible man, his career a prime example of the oblivion that cloaked so many writers who cranked out good songs for bad movies."<ref name="Zinsser, p. 137"/> At least three episodes of the Lawrence Welk Show were devoted entirely to Warren's music: Season 18, Episode 5, October 7, 1972;<ref>"Season 18: 1972–73", Welk Musical Family, accessed June 24, 2013</ref> Season 25, Episode 10, November 24, 1979;<ref>"Season 25: 1979–80", Welk Musical Family, accessed June 24, 2013</ref> and Season 27, Episode 17, January 2, 1982<ref>"Season 27: 1981–82", Welk Musical Family, accessed June 24, 2013</ref> Susannah McCorkle's debut album was The Music of Harry Warren (1976).

In 1980, producer David Merrick and director Gower Champion adapted the 1933 film 42nd Street into a Broadway musical that won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1981, ran for 3,486 performances and has had several major revivals.<ref>"Westchester Broadway Theater Presents 42nd Street with Galantich, Stanley and More", BroadwayWorld.com, September 8, 2009, accessed October 7, 2014</ref> The score incorporated songs by Warren and Dubin from various movie musicals, including 42nd Street, Dames, Go Into Your Dance, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Gold Diggers of 1935.<ref>"42nd Street", Tonyawards.com, accessed May 27, 2014</ref>

A theatre in Gravesend, Brooklyn, New York, the Harry Warren Theatre, was named for Warren in 1982.<ref>"Harry Warren Biography", NJ Theater. Retrieved December 24, 2023</ref><ref>"Harry Warren Theatre", Time Out, July 12, 2010</ref>

Songs

Music by Warren, unless noted:

Academy Award nominations and winners

Winners

• "Lullaby of Broadway" (1935) w. Al Dubin for Gold Diggers of 1935<ref name=JtoM>"Songs J to M" Template:Webarchive, HarryWarren.org, accessed February 25, 2012</ref>
• "You'll Never Know" (1943) w. Mack Gordon for Hello, Frisco, Hello<ref name=UtoZ>"Songs UtoZ" Template:Webarchive, HarryWarren.org, accessed February 26, 2012</ref>
• "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" (1945) w. Johnny Mercer for The Harvey Girls<ref name=NtoR>"Songs N to R" Template:Webarchive, HarryWarren.org, accessed February 26, 2012</ref>

Nominations

• "Remember Me?" (1937) w. Al Dubin for Mr. Dodd Takes the Air<ref name=NtoR/>
• "Jeepers Creepers" (1938) w. Johnny Mercer for Going Places<ref name=JtoM/>
• "Down Argentina Way" (1940) w. Mack Gordon for Down Argentine Way<ref name=DtoH>"Songs D to H" Template:Webarchive, HarryWarren.org, accessed February 25, 2012</ref>
• "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (1941) w. Mack Gordon for Sun Valley Serenade<ref name=AtoC>"Songs A to C" Template:Webarchive, HarryWarren.org, accessed February 25, 2012</ref>
• "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo" (1942) w. Mack Gordon for Orchestra Wives<ref name=I>"Songs I" Template:Webarchive, HarryWarren.org, accessed February 25, 2012</ref>
• "Zing a Little Zong" (1952) w. Leo Robin for Just for You<ref name=UtoZ/>
• "That's Amore" (1953) w. Jack Brooks for The Caddy<ref name=t>"Songs T" Template:Webarchive, HarryWarren.org, accessed February 26, 2012</ref>
• "An Affair to Remember (Our Love Affair)" (1956) w. Harold Adamson and Leo McCarey for An Affair to Remember<ref name=AtoC/>

No. 1 hits

• "By the River Sainte Marie" (1931) w. Edgar Leslie<ref name=AtoC/>
• "Too Many Tears" (1932) w. Al Dubin<ref name=t/>
• "I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store)" (1932) w. Mort Dixon<ref name=I/>
• "You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me" (1933) w. Al Dubin<ref name=UtoZ/>
• "Forty-Second Street" (1933) w. Al Dubin<ref name=DtoH/>
• "Shadow Waltz" (1933) w. Al Dubin<ref name=s>"Songs S" Template:Webarchive, HarryWarren.org, accessed February 26, 2012</ref>

File:Chattanooga2.jpg

78 recording of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by the Glenn Miller Orchestra with vocal solo by Tex Beneke

• "(You May Not Be an Angel, But) I'll String Along With You" (1934) w. Al Dubin<ref name=UtoZ/>
• "Lullaby of Broadway" (1935) w. Al Dubin<ref name=JtoM/>
• "She's a Latin from Manhattan" (1935) w. Al Dubin<ref name=s/>
• "I'll Sing You a Thousand Love Songs" (1936) w. Al Dubin<ref name=I/>
• "September in the Rain" (1937) w. Al Dubin<ref name=s/>
• "With Plenty of Money and You" (1937) w. Al Dubin<ref name=UtoZ/>
• "Remember Me?" (1937) w. Al Dubin<ref name=NtoR/>
• "Jeepers Creepers" (1938) w. Johnny Mercer<ref name=JtoM/>
• "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" (1938) w. Johnny Mercer<ref name=UtoZ/>
• "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (1941) w. Mack Gordon<ref name=AtoC/>
• "My Heart Tells Me (Should I Believe My Heart?)" (1943) w. Mack Gordon<ref name=JtoM/>
• "I Had the Craziest Dream" (1943) w. Mack Gordon<ref name=I/>
• "You'll Never Know" (1943) w. Mack Gordon<ref name=UtoZ/>
• "The More I See You" (1945) w. Mack Gordon<ref name=t/>
• "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" (1945) w. Johnny Mercer<ref name=NtoR/>

Other selected songs from films

• "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me" (1932) w. Al Dubin for 42nd Street<ref name=UtoZ/>
• "Forty-Second Street" (1933) w. Al Dubin for 42nd Street<ref name=DtoH/>
• "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" (1933) w. Al Dubin for 42nd Street<ref name=s/>
• "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (1933) w. Al Dubin for Moulin Rouge<ref name=AtoC/>

File:DanceDollarsGoldDigs1933Trailer.jpg

"Dance of the Dollars" production number launched the song "We're in the Money" in Gold Diggers of 1933

• "Keep Young and Beautiful" (1933) w. Al Dubin for Roman Scandals<ref name=JtoM/>
• "Pettin' in the Park" (1933) w. Al Dubin for Gold Diggers of 1933<ref name=NtoR/>
• "We're in the Money" (1933) w. Al Dubin for Gold Diggers of 1933<ref name=UtoZ/>
• "I Only Have Eyes for You" (1934) w. Al Dubin for Dames<ref name=I/>
• "I'll String Along with You" (1934) w. Al Dubin for Twenty Million Sweethearts<ref name=UtoZ/>
• "About a Quarter to Nine" (1935) w. Al Dubin for "Go into Your Dance"
• "Lullaby of Broadway" (1935) w. Al Dubin for Gold Diggers of 1935<ref name=JtoM/>
• "September in the Rain" (1935) w. Al Dubin for Stars Over Broadway<ref name=s/>
• "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" (1938) w. Johnny Mercer for Hard to Get<ref name=UtoZ/>
• "Chica Chica Boom Chic" (1941) w. Mack Gordon for That Night in Rio<ref name=AtoC/>
• "I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)" (1941) w. Mack Gordon for That Night in Rio<ref name=I/>
• "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (1941) w. Mack Gordon for Sun Valley Serenade<ref name=AtoC/>
• "I Know Why (And So Do You)" (1941) w. Mack Gordon for Sun Valley Serenade<ref name=I/>
• "It Happened in Sun Valley" (1941) w. Mack Gordon for Sun Valley Serenade<ref name=I/>
• "At Last" (1941) w. Mack Gordon for Sun Valley Serenade<ref name=AtoC/>
• "I Had the Craziest Dream" (1942) w. Mack Gordon for Springtime in the Rockies<ref name=I/>
• "Serenade In Blue" (1942) w. Mack Gordon for Orchestra Wives<ref name=s/>
• "There Will Never Be Another You" (1942) w. Mack Gordon for Iceland<ref name=t/>
• "You'll Never Know" (1943) w. Mack Gordon for Hello, Frisco, Hello<ref name=UtoZ/>
• "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" (1945) w. Johnny Mercer for The Harvey Girls<ref name=NtoR/>
• "The More I See You" (1945) w. Mack Gordon for Diamond Horseshoe<ref name=t/>
• "This Heart of Mine" (1946) w. Arthur Freed for Ziegfeld Follies<ref name=t/>
• "Cryin' For the Carolines" (1930) w. Sam Lewis and Joe Young for Spring Is Here<ref name=t/>
• "Have A Little Faith In Me" (1930) w. Sam Lewis and Joe Young for Spring Is Here<ref name=t/>
• "(The Same Thing Happens with) The Birds and the Bees" (1956) Mack David for The Birds and the Bees<ref name=AtoC/>

American songbook songs

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In his book American Popular Song, Alec Wilder notes that Warren "wasn't in the category as the best theater writers, but he certainly was among the foremost pop song writers." He discusses songs he likes: "Would You Like to Take a Walk?" (1930, with Mort Dixon and Billy Rose for Sweet & Low), "I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store)" (1931, with Dixon and Rose for Crazy Quilt), "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me" (1932), "Summer Night" (1936), "There Will Never Be Another You" (1942), "Serenade in Blue" (1942), "At Last" (1942), "Jeepers Creepers" (1938), and "The More I See You" (1945).<ref>Wilder, pp. 395–404</ref>

Other popular songs

• "Cheerful Little Earful" (1930) w. Ira Gershwin and Billy Rose for Sweet & Low<ref name=AtoC/>
• "Nagasaki" (1928) w. Mort Dixon<ref name=NtoR/>

References

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Further reading

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External links

• The Harry Warren website
  • Biography and list of Warren's "major song successes"
  • Full song list
• Biography Template:Webarchive at the Encyclopedia of Composers and Songwriters
• Chronology of some of Warren's best-known songs Template:Webarchive
• Harry Warren recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
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• Template:TCMDb title Harry Warren: America's Foremost Composer (1933)
• Biography at Guide to Musical Theatre
• HarryWarrenMusic.com site
• Template:Find a Grave