Collection
Dancing in the Dark - The songs of
Arthur SCHWARTZ
Various
ASV CD AJA 5301
[77:39]
Album includes (singers in parenthesis) :-
Dancing in the Dark (Bing Crosby)
I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan (The
Foursome)
Louisiana Hayride (Arthur Schwarz)
Mother Told Me So (Beatrice Lillie)
After All, You're All I'm After (Al Bowlly with
Ray Noble & his Orchestra)
You the Night and the Music (Libby Holman)
"Follow the Sun" Medley (Arthur Schwartz [and
piano])
Love is a Dancing Thing (Henry Hall and the BBC
dance Orchestra with Dan Donovan)
Got a Bran' New Suit (Eleanor Powell and
tapdancing)
Something to Remember You By (Dinah Shore)
They're Either Too Young or Too Old (Jimmy Dorsey
and his Band with Kitty Kallen)
How Sweet You Are (Hutch and piano)
A Gal in Calico (Bing Crosby)
Oh, But I Do (Margaret Whiting)
A Rainy Night in Rio (Edmundo Ross vocal and with
his Rumba Band)
Haunted Heart (Perry Como)
Despite the fact that Arthur Schwartz had no formal musical training, he
was the composer of many 20th century popular music evergreens,
as the above list shows. He won distinction as a performer (as two tracks
on this album testify he had real talent as both vocalist and pianist), film
producer and noted wit. The collection contains many songs that were a
collaboration between himself and Howard Dietz (1896-1983). Also New York-born,
Dietz was a journalist-turned-librettist and a one-time vice-president for
publicity at MGM (the studio's roaring lion trademark was largely his
brainchild).
Schwartz worked on more than a dozen Hollywood film-musicals between 1939
and the mid-1950s. They included Warner's star-studded vehicle in aid of
the war effort, Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) that included 'They're
Either Too Young or Too Old' sung brilliantly by Bette Davis in the film
and 'How Sweet You Are' sung here with great tenderness by the incomparable
Hutch. In 1946 he also scored for Warners, The Time, The Place and the
Girl with librettist Leo Robin which was not such a great a musical
but it did produce three fine songs, all included in this collection: 'Oh,
But I Do' (what a lovely voice Margaret Whiting had); 'A Rainy Night in Rio'
(made popular by the Andrew Sisters but performed with verve and colour by
Edmundo Ross on this CD) and 'A Gal in Calico', sung here unforgettably by
the great Bing!
This is a heart-warming nostalgic collection and besides the afore-mentioned
numbers there is so much more to enjoy. I would just mention a few. Dinah
Shore's beautiful delivery of 'Something to Remember You By'; Perry Como's
seductive tones in 'Haunted Heart'; the cynicism of the final verses of 'I
Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan' for extra-marital reunion is implied with
"stolen fruits taste sweetest" and "I've found the girl I lost"; and the
tail-twisting wit of 'Mother Told Me So' after "Mother told me so, good little
girls should take care, bad little boys are everywhere" Beatrice Lillie confesses
"She told me all about the stork - She should have told me about New York
- I told Mother so" Great stuff
Ian Lace
