Hi everybody, I'm Michael Feinstein. Welcome to Convocation and Music. And I'm at the piano, so there's going to be a lot of music, hopefully, if the piano cooperates with me
I've been thinking about so many songs that started out one way and turned out to be something completely different
And so I put together a rather random group of songs that all had different lyrics and morphed into songs that in many cases you will know, in a few cases perhaps you won't
But the most and best known song, I should say, the best known song in the world that started with one lyric and now has another is this one
How did this happen? Well, that's not the original lyric as written by Milgred and Patti Hill. It was..
Good morning to me, good morning to you, good morning dear children, good morning to us
I kind of like Patti Hill's lyrics, don't you? Yeah. Okay, so that's an example of a song that has a completely different lyric and we know it as Patti Hill's lyric and very few people know that it was originally good morning to you
And in some instances it was called good morning to all when it was used in a classroom singing
The song by Irving Berlin that is the definitive holiday song for Easter
Good morning to me, good morning to you, good morning to us
Well this song was used in a show called A Thousand Cheers in 1936, Broadway
So originally it had this lyric. It held up for some time today, but it started out like this
Good morning to you, good morning to us. Good morning to you, good morning to us
Good morning to you, good morning to us. So 1917 it was Smile and Say You're Beautiful, which was commercially recorded and published and in 1933 became Easter Parade
And I don't think anybody ever wanted to hear Smile and Say You're Beautiful again except people who would go up to Berlin and say I know who you stole that from, but at least he stole from himself
Now Berlin often would take an idea for a song and sometimes hang on to it for decades or rewrite it many, many years later and repurpose it
For example, the song that he wrote for Eddie Cantor, You'd Be Surprised, which was written in the early 1920s
He later re-titled for Marilyn Monroe to do in a show based on Fred Schilder's myth
Also, but I think it was cut in the film, but there is a recording
Then After You Get What You Want, You Don't Want It. That was a song he had written way back in the 1920s and he reworked it thinking it could be sung in a very sexy style by Marilyn Monroe
I think it's sheer genius the way that he could not only recircle the song in a different time, but also come up with a completely different approach for lyrics to make it sexy as opposed to humorous
It's quite the talent that he had. He was sort of the greatest writer of special material
Now, a poem that he wrote for a show called Calming Madden, which starred Ethel Merman, is a thing that was called Free
It was cut out of town. Merman sang it in her usual dulcet tones
For whatever reason, it was deleted from the show and it ended up in the movie White Christmas as Snow
Everybody's walking on the water, there's a snow. Everybody's walking on the water, there's a snow
That was one of the only moments in the movie, White Christmas
But the song was used again. I'm looking at these notes here that I made
1954 or thereabouts, the song was sung on NBC television on a show called Producers Showcase, Salute to Freedom of the Press
This is the original lyrics for What Became Snow on White Christmas
What I want to hurt is the people who made it. It's a beautiful thing to do
It's a beautiful thing to do. But the lesson is, it's a great thing to do
I'm a man who's a man. I'm a man who's a man
I'm a man who's a man. I'm a man who's a man. I'm a man who's a man. I'm a man who's a man
I'm a man who's a man. All the things that you all have done
I'm a man who's a man. I'm a man who's a man
He ended up writing lyrics for I Got Rid Of that did not rhyme
I Got Rid Of that did not rhyme. I Got Rid Of that did not rhyme
There's a small guitar. There's a small guitar. There's a small guitar
It's from Andre Tarr, 1936, and it was quite a successful song
It was a hit song. However, he also wrote a a dummy lyric
just to get acquainted with the tune. So again, this was not intended for public consumption
This is a dummy lyric. There's a little girl There's a little girl
In a little little little In a little little little In a little little little
So you may ask, what was the purpose of this dummy lyric
Well, he chose it, for example, he needed to have a triple rhyme
There's a little girl, who's an awful bore, a little bit mixy-sore
a bore, sore, sore. So that's the kind of thing that he was discerned by
writing a dummy lyric. Now, the very popular song written by Alex T. Schwartz
and Howard H. is in the movie, Bandwagon. How the world's been
one blue green Before the first day of the sun Before I was
a child I never knew what a joke it was I was a fool
for a fool For a fool All the lies and games were hidden
Like a little boy I was a fool for a fool For a fool
So this one was originally in a review called The Little Show
Or was it The Little Show? It's called The Little Show. But years before
Howard H. was a lyricist, R.C. Schwartz had composed that tune when he was a counselor
at Brank's Lake Camp. And among the person who was a counselor there
was the lyricist Lorenz Hunt. And Lorenz Hunt wrote a song for Brank's Lake Camp
This is the camp song with the same music by R.C. Schwartz
and this year by Lorenz Hunt. I love to fly away in bed
I love the night I love the clouds above my head I've read
my book before and I've been through it I'll hold my breath
for the rest of the day Tonight the world shall have a cry
and a cry There's a voice in the corner of my heart
To that voice I'm calling from every land I can go on forever
I will be there I'm left to die and to walk and hope to sleep
There's a voice in the corner of my heart To that voice
So, if you're wondering how passionate Lorenz Hunt was, here's a song that has four different lyrics
and each one is good and that includes all of the lyrics
so it'll give you a sense of the genius of this amazing man
The tune that ended up best wedded to a lyric by Hunt is
But Lorenz Hunt and Richard Rodgers were in Hollywood and they were working
for MGM and they wrote a lyric for Hollywood Party, for a scene that was
supposed to be filmed with Gene Harlow, who plays the clown in Asher's, and he sounds just
very funny with it. I'm gonna open up my eyes
and I'm gonna open the door and I'm gonna open my heart
and I'm gonna open the door and I'm gonna open the door
and I'm gonna open the door Well, that's it for now. More songs with
James Lynch to come