A Depression- Era Playlist
Poet David Lehman provides a list of his favorite songs from the 1930s, including works by Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen and others
- By David Lehman
- Smithsonian.com, October 07, 2009, Subscribe
An excerpt from A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs (Schocken/Nextbook):
As with cities, whole decades have their ideal playlists. Dorothy Fields would have had a box seat in the theater of my heart if she had done nothing else but write the words for Jimmy McHugh’s music in “On The Sunny Side Of The Street.” A true Depression-era song, it would anchor my list of songs from the 1930s, in this order:
1. Fred Astaire, “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” music and lyrics by Irving Berlin
2. Ginger Rogers, “The Gold-Diggers’ Song (We’re in the Money),” music Harry Warren, lyrics Johnny Burke
3. Bing Crosby, “Pennies From Heaven,” music Arthur Johnston, lyrics Johnny Burke
4. Lee Wiley, trembling and throaty with “The Street of Dreams,” music Victor Young, lyrics Sam M. Lewis
5. Bing Crosby again, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” music Jay Gorney, lyrics Yip Harburg
6. Louis Armstrong, “I Gotta Right to Sing The Blues,” music Harold Arlen, lyrics Ted Koehler
7. Nat King Cole, or maybe Rosemary Clooney or Maxine Sullivan, “My Blue Heaven,” music Walter Donaldson, lyrics George White
8. Barbra Streisand, “Happy Days Are Here Again,” music Milton Ager, lyrics Jack Yellen (FDR’s campaign song in 1932)
9. Judy Garland, “Get Happy,” music Harold Arlen, lyrics Ted Koehler
10. Barbra Streisand, “Happy Days Are Here Again” and Judy Garland, “Get Happy,” sung as a duet
11. Lena Horne, “Stormy Weather,” music Harold Arlen, lyrics Ted Koehler
12. Sinatra’s 1954 cover of “Wrap Your Troubles in Drams,” music by Harry Barris, lyrics by Koehler with Billy Moll
13. Ella Fitzgerald or possibly the Art Tatum piano instrumental, “Paper Moon,” music Harold Arlen, lyrics Yip Harburg
14. Sarah Vaughan, “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, baby,” music Jimmy McHugh, lyrics Dorothy Fields
15. Judy Garland again, “Over the Rainbow,” music Harold Arlen, lyrics Yip Harburg
16. Judy Garland and the gang on the yellow brick road and the quest to see the wizard, music Harold Arlen, lyrics Yip Harburg
17. Tommy Dorsey orchestra with girl chorus, “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” music Jimmy McHugh, lyrics Dorothy Fields
What a fine story those songs would tell. About a fellow who has the right to feel lowdown and sings about it down around the river, and the song itself lifts his spirits, and one day he’s going to get happy, look skyward, and walk in the sun once more.
By my reckoning, Jewish songwriters figure in the composition of all but two or three of the sixteen Depression-era songs on my playlist. And this to me makes perfect sense. These songs about American promise and optimism, evoking the vision of the founding fathers, exist in precise opposition to the suicidal darkness and fog of prejudice that swept over Europe in the 1930s, the “dishonest decade,” as Auden designated it in his poem, “September 1, 1939.”
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Comments (9)
I am looking for a song or such with the words 'we don't serve napkins with one meatball' My Mother use to say that was a depression era saying or song. Thanks
Posted by Donald on August 1,2012 | 10:27 AM
i'm looking foe a depression era song my dad used to sing. i remember fragments--he took my hat and $14.... you should have seen his eyes bug out.. he mentioned things he'd have to fix up so he took my $14 but there must have been a mix up. he's been gone since thursday evening and i have a sneaking hunch i''ll never see that guy no more.
Posted by Margaret Mounce on May 22,2012 | 10:08 PM
This is the most lazily compiled, worst list of "depression era" songs you could make.
There are much better songs, that are much more meaningful, and many of the artists you have listed here recorded these long after the depression!
Posted by Jeff Bearden on January 7,2012 | 01:20 PM
In school I struggled to memorize lines from poetry or Shakespeare. but the words from beautiful songs from those times were easy to remember and stay with me to this day. What great lyrics they were. Beans can get no keener reception in a beanery. What good is livin' if no gal is givin' to no man who's 900 years. And then I'll get that other pup, the guy who wakes the bugler up. And when you see clouds upon the hills, there soon will be crowds of daffodils. Not only are there no lyricists writing words like these today, you wouldn't be able to hear them if they were.
Posted by Dick Forman on May 31,2011 | 04:21 PM
@Bill Finlan - amazingly enough, brian's response to Paua is almost the answer you are looking for. while many people might point you toward a carl sprague number: “After the Roundup” now known as “When the Work's All Done This Fall” or “The Dixie Cowboy” (supposed to be sung to the tune of “After the Ball”) - but that's not it.
see brian's comment - the limeliters, glenn yarbrough - who sang "Rose" and that's the song you want (album: LIVE at the hungry i )
Posted by jeremy on April 20,2011 | 12:04 AM
@Paula -
I know that song from an album by the Limeliters.
The song is called "I'm Going Back to whur I come from", lead was Glen Yarborough. The live album is called "Our Men In San Francisco". (RCA)
I bought my copy on Amazon.
Hope this helps you..
Regards.
Posted by brian on March 9,2011 | 06:10 PM
I'm looking for a depression era song, some of the words of which are:
"I took my hat
and fourteen dollars...
I'm goin' back
to where I come from
where the mocking bird is singing in the lilac bush...
where the honeysuckle smells so sweet
It durn near makes you sick...
...and I sure have learned a lesson
that is bound to stick..."
Posted by Paua on January 8,2011 | 11:52 PM
I'm looking for the full lyrics to a song that my father used to sing to me when I was very little. He said it was a depression era song, but I've never been able to find a reference to it.
The lyrics I remember are:
That's OK, Rose would say;
Don't you worry darlin'
We'll have good times by and by
Next fall when the work's all done.
Anyone ever heard of it??????
Posted by Bill Finlan on September 7,2010 | 08:16 PM
Bing Crosby's magnificent voice brings tears to eyes,and touches the soul when you hear him sing those two great tunes.
In addition, his rendition of Wrap Your troubles in Dreams is searing .
Posted by Nelkane Benton on June 4,2010 | 02:25 AM