|
Music for our Troops, Veterans, and their families
3rd Force~Breakout
you hear in the Canteen,
please go to the top of the thread
to song requests
made on the thread. Thank you!
|
Dorothy Fields had an idea for a musical about Annie Oakley that would star her friend Ethel Merman. She approached the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein, who after the success of “Oklahoma!” had decided to produce musicals by others. They agreed to produce and asked Jerome Kern, Dorothy’s longtime composing partner, to write the music. But Kern died on November 11, 1945 from a cerebral hemorrhage. The producers and Fields then asked Irving Berlin to write the score. Fields agreed to step down as lyricist, knowing that Irving preferred to write both music and lyrics.
Irving at age 58 had come out of World War II with enough money to license his patriotic songs to various charities, an act that earned him a medal from General Marshall. He could have sat on his laurels, but this show was to give him yet another second wind and launch a new phase of his career.
At first Irving declined, worried that he would be unable to write songs to fit specific scenes. Oscar Hammerstein was a master of that art – he would educate Stephen Sondheim – and he persuaded Irving to study the script and try writing songs based on it. Within days Irving returned with three songs. Oscar saw that these songs suited the story, and more importantly, they suited Ethel Merman. Irving took on the full assignment.
This is from the 1946 Broadway show. Irving had no problem adjusting to a standard show as contrasted with a review, and he could handle the risque elements with style. After all, one verse is about sex.