Harold Arlen



Harold Arlen (February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) composed over 500 songs during his long career in music. He composed jazz tunes, popular songs, and music for film.

His hits include jazz standards like "Stormy Weather," "Ill Wind" and "That Old Black Magic."

He won an Oscar for the song "Over The Rainbow" performed by Judy Garland in the 1939 motion picture classic "The Wizard of Oz." His works have been recorded by the most iconic names in Jazz, on Broadway, and in Hollywood.

Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook.

Biography
Arlen was born Chaim Arluk, in Buffalo, New York, the child of a Jewish cantor. His twin brother died the next day.

Harold sang in the synagogue where his father worked from the age of seven. He learned the piano as a youth and formed his first group, the Snappy Trio, while still in his teens.

Arlen achieved some local success as a pianist and singer, then moved to New York City in his early 20s, in 1925. (See: Career, below)

In the mid-1930s, Arlen met Anya Taranda, a model. They were married, and spent increasing time in California, where he wrote for movie musicals.

Arlen was a longtime friend and former roommate of actor Ray Bolger]] who would star as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.

Career
Arlen began working in "show biz" as an accompanist in Vaudeville theaters. At this point, he changed his name to Harold Arlen.

In 1929, Arlen composed his first well-known song: "Get Happy" the beginning of a partnership with lyricist Ted Koehler that would last most of his professional career. Arlen and Koehler's partnership resulted in a number of hit songs, including the familiar standards "Let's Fall in Love" and "Stormy Weather."

Throughout the early and mid-1930s, Arlen and Koehler wrote shows for the Cotton Club (New York City)|Cotton Club, a popular Harlem night club, as well as for Broadway musicals and Hollywood films.

In the late 1930's he began working with lyricist Yip Harburg. In 1938, the team was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to compose songs for The Wizard of Oz, the most famous of which was the song "Over the Rainbow" for which they won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song. The song was voted the twentieth century's no. 1 song by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

They also wrote "[|Down with Love]]," featured in the 1937 Broadway show, Hooray for What!. The song was featured decades later in the 2003 movie Down with Love.

In the 1940s, he teamed up with lyricist Johnny Mercer, and continued to write hit songs like "Blues in the Night", "That Old Black Magic," "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive," "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home" and "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)".

Arlen's compositions have always been popular with jazz musicians because of his facility at incorporating a blues feeling into the idiom of the conventional American popular song.

Arlen continued to perform as a pianist and vocalist between 1926 and about 1934, Arlen appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records by The Buffalodians, Red Nichols, Joe Venuti, Leo Reisman and Eddie Duchin, usually singing his own compositions.

Honors

 * Oscar for Best Original Song, "Over the Rainbow," from "The Wizard of Oz" (1939)
 * Arlen was featured on a U.S. Postal Service stamp featuring great American composers.

Notable Compositions

 * Judy Garland — Get Happy - Metro Goldwyn Mayer
 * Ella Fitzgerald — Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
 * The Best Of The Song Books, VERVE
 * Ethel Waters — Stormy Weather - Miss Ethel Waters, World Records
 * Eydie Gormé — I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues -The Essence Of Eydie, JASMINE
 * The Nat King Cole Trio — It's Only A Paper Moon - The Best Of The Nat King Cole Trio
 * The V - Capitol Jazz
 * Diana Krall — Let's Fall In Love - When I Look In Your Eyes, VERVE
 * Frank Sinatra — Last Night When We Were Young - In The Wee Small Hours, CAPITOL
 * Rosemary Clooney — Blues In The Night - Great American Songwriters, RHINO
 * Smith, Keely & Louis Prima — That Old Black Magic
 * Jane Monheit — Hit The Road To Dreamland
 * Jane Monheit Come Dream With Me, NEW NOTE
 * Frank Sinatra — One For My Baby - Frank Sinatra Collection, EMI
 * Johnny Mercer and The Pied Pipers — Ac Cent Tchu Ate The Positive - Yours Presents: We'll Meet Again, EMI GOLD
 * Jack Jones — Come Rain Or Come Shine - Wives And Lovers & Dear Heart, MCA
 * Judy Garland — The Man That Got Away - Live At Carnegie Hall, CAPITOL
 * Judy Garland — Over The Rainbow - That's Entertainment, RHINO Broadcast