Michael Elder Rourke (14 July 1867 26 August 1933), who assumed the pen name
Herbert Reynolds in 1913, was an Irish-American
lyricistA lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-songwriter, who also composes the song's melody in addition to the lyrics.- Collaboration...
.
Reynolds wrote the lyrics to
Jerome KernJerome David Kern was an American composer of popular music. He wrote around 700 songs, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight", and "Who?", a 6-week number 1 hit for...
's first big hit, "
They Didn't Believe Me"They Didn't Believe Me" is a song with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Herbert Reynolds.First introduced in the 1914 musical The Girl from Utah it was one of five numbers added to the show for its Broadway debut at the Knickerbocker Theater on August 14, 1914...
", interpolated into the 1914 American version of
The Girl from UtahThe Girl from Utah is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts with music by Paul Rubens, and Sidney Jones, a book by James T. Tanner, and lyrics by Adrian Ross, Percy Greenbank and Rubens. The piece opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 18 October 1913 and had an initial run of 195 performances...
, produced by
Charles FrohmanCharles Frohman was a Jewish American theatrical producer.One of three Frohman brothers, he was born in Sandusky, Ohio. He was the youngest, his older brothers being: Daniel Frohman and Gustave Frohman...
. The show had a successful run of 140 performances at the Knickerbocker Theatre, opening on August 14, 1914. Frohman had hired the young Kern to write five new songs for the score together with Reynolds to strengthen what he felt was a weak first act.
Michael Elder Rourke (14 July 1867 26 August 1933), who assumed the pen name
Herbert Reynolds in 1913, was an Irish-American
lyricistA lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-songwriter, who also composes the song's melody in addition to the lyrics.- Collaboration...
.
Reynolds wrote the lyrics to
Jerome KernJerome David Kern was an American composer of popular music. He wrote around 700 songs, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight", and "Who?", a 6-week number 1 hit for...
's first big hit, "
They Didn't Believe Me"They Didn't Believe Me" is a song with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Herbert Reynolds.First introduced in the 1914 musical The Girl from Utah it was one of five numbers added to the show for its Broadway debut at the Knickerbocker Theater on August 14, 1914...
", interpolated into the 1914 American version of
The Girl from UtahThe Girl from Utah is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts with music by Paul Rubens, and Sidney Jones, a book by James T. Tanner, and lyrics by Adrian Ross, Percy Greenbank and Rubens. The piece opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 18 October 1913 and had an initial run of 195 performances...
, produced by
Charles FrohmanCharles Frohman was a Jewish American theatrical producer.One of three Frohman brothers, he was born in Sandusky, Ohio. He was the youngest, his older brothers being: Daniel Frohman and Gustave Frohman...
. The show had a successful run of 140 performances at the Knickerbocker Theatre, opening on August 14, 1914. Frohman had hired the young Kern to write five new songs for the score together with Reynolds to strengthen what he felt was a weak first act.
Julia SandersonJulia Sanderson was an actress and singer. Her father, Albert Sanderson, was also an acclaimed Broadway star....
and
Donald BrianDonald Brian actor, dancer and singer born St. John's, Newfoundland , at the age of eighteen was crowned "King of Broadway" by the New York Times in 1907. Brian is noted for helping President Theodore Roosevelt act more relaxed in public and teaching Frank Sinatra to dance and entertain U.S...
starred in the production.
He shared the lyric writing with
P. G. WodehouseSir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English writer whose body of work includes novels, collections of short stories, and musical theatre. Wodehouse enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and his prolific writings continue to be widely read...
in
Miss Springtime (1916), with additional music by Kern.
Reynolds went on to collaborate with Kern and several other lyricists in the
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
musicalMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
Very Good EddieVery Good Eddie is a musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Philip Bartholomae, music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Schuyler Green and Herbert Reynolds, with additional lyrics by Elsie Janis, Harry B. Smith and John E. Hazzard and additional music by Henry Kailimai. The story was based on the farce...
with a book by
Guy BoltonGuy Reginald Bolton was a British-American playwright and writer of musical comedies.Born Guy Reginald Bolton to American parents in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, Bolton studied architecture before beginning his writing career in 1914 with the play The Rule of Three...
and Philip Bartholomae, and again in
Rock-a-Bye Baby (1918).
External links