Manhattan (song)
Encyclopedia
"Manhattan" is a popular
song
and part of the Great American Songbook
. It has been performed by Lee Wiley
, Oscar Peterson
, Blossom Dearie
, Tony Martin
, Dinah Washington
, Ella Fitzgerald
and Mel Torme
, among many others.
The music was written by Richard Rodgers
and the words by Lorenz Hart
for the 1925 revue "Garrick Gaieties". It was introduced by Sterling Holloway
(later the voice of the animated Winnie the Pooh) and June Cochran. The song describes, in several choruses, the simple delights of Manhattan for a young couple. But the simple delights are filled with delicious irony. Consider these lyrics:
"The subway charms us so
When balmy breezes blow
To and fro.
And tell me what street
Compares with Mott Street
In July?
Sweet pushcarts gently gliding by."
Only lovers could find the stifling hot wind in a New York subway in July as "balmy breezes" and only lovers disconnected from reality could find the stink of the pushcarts in 1920s Mott Street as "sweet" and their noisy jostling as "gently gliding."
And consider these inventive rhymes:
"I've a cozy little flat
In what is known as old Manhattan."
"We'll have Manhattan,
The Bronx and Staten
Island too."
"We'll go to Greenwich
,
Where modern men itch
To be free;. . ."
One of Rodgers and Hart's earliest hits, Rodgers later maintained it was the song that "made" them as a songwriting team.
Since its debut, it has regularly appeared in popular culture. It was first heard on the silver screen in the 1929 short Makers Of Melody
, a tribute to Rodgers and Hart sung by Ruth Tester
and Allan Gould. Since then, it has been used in the Rodgers and Hart biopic Words And Music
(1948), Two Tickets To Broadway
(1951), Don't Bother To Knock
(1952) (sung by Anne Bancroft), Beau James
(1957), Silent Movie
(1976), Mighty Aphrodite
(1995), The English Patient
(1996), Kissing Jessica Stein
(2001) and many other movies and TV shows, most recently in the 2007 AMC production Mad Men
episode "New Amsterdam". In the film All About Eve
(1950), the song is played on the piano at the party when Margo and Max are in the kitchen.
In the early and mid-1950s, singer Julius La Rosa
became a national celebrity for his exposure on several of the shows hosted by one of the most popular television stars of the era, Arthur Godfrey
. On October 19, 1953, La Rosa sang "Manhattan" on one of Godfrey's radio shows. Immediately after he finished, Godfrey fired him on the air, saying, "that was Julie's swan song with us".
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
and part of the Great American Songbook
Great American Songbook
The Great American Songbook is a hypothetical construct that seeks to represent the best American songs of the 20th century principally from Broadway theatre, musical theatre, and Hollywood musicals, from the 1920s to 1960, including dozens of songs of enduring popularity...
. It has been performed by Lee Wiley
Lee Wiley
Lee Wiley was an American jazz singer popular in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.Wiley was born in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. While still in her early teens, she left home to pursue a singing career with the Leo Reisman band. Her career was temporarily interrupted by a fall while horseback riding...
, Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
, Blossom Dearie
Blossom Dearie
Blossom Dearie was an American jazz singer and pianist, often performing in the bebop genre and remembered for her girlish voice.-Early career:...
, Tony Martin
Tony Martin (entertainer)
Tony Martin is an American actor and singer.-Career:Tony Martin was born on Christmas Day, 1913 as Alvin Morris in San Francisco, California to Jewish immigrant parents. He received a saxophone as a gift from his grandmother at the age of ten. In his grammar school glee club, he became an...
, Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
and Mel Torme
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
, among many others.
The music was written by Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
and the words by Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Hart
Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...
for the 1925 revue "Garrick Gaieties". It was introduced by Sterling Holloway
Sterling Holloway
Sterling Price Holloway, Jr. was an American character actor who appeared in 150 films and television programs. He was also a voice actor for The Walt Disney Company...
(later the voice of the animated Winnie the Pooh) and June Cochran. The song describes, in several choruses, the simple delights of Manhattan for a young couple. But the simple delights are filled with delicious irony. Consider these lyrics:
"The subway charms us so
When balmy breezes blow
To and fro.
And tell me what street
Compares with Mott Street
Mott Street
Mott Street is a narrow but busy thoroughfare that runs in a north-south direction in the borough of Manhattan in New York City in the United States. It is best known as Chinatown's unofficial "Main Street". Mott Street runs from Chatham Square in the south to Bleecker Street in the north...
In July?
Sweet pushcarts gently gliding by."
Only lovers could find the stifling hot wind in a New York subway in July as "balmy breezes" and only lovers disconnected from reality could find the stink of the pushcarts in 1920s Mott Street as "sweet" and their noisy jostling as "gently gliding."
And consider these inventive rhymes:
"I've a cozy little flat
In what is known as old Manhattan."
"We'll have Manhattan,
The Bronx and Staten
Island too."
"We'll go to Greenwich
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
,
Where modern men itch
To be free;. . ."
One of Rodgers and Hart's earliest hits, Rodgers later maintained it was the song that "made" them as a songwriting team.
Since its debut, it has regularly appeared in popular culture. It was first heard on the silver screen in the 1929 short Makers Of Melody
Makers of Melody
Makers of Melody is a short film subject from 1929 that showcased the hit song Manhattan. Manhattan was Rodgers and Harts first hit song...
, a tribute to Rodgers and Hart sung by Ruth Tester
Ruth Tester
Ruth Tester was a singer and dancer in Broadway musicals of the 1920s and 1930s. Tester was born on August 17, 1903. She was married for 59 years to Fredrick Carothers. In her later years, Tester and her husband, Carothers, lived in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. Carothers worked as a sales...
and Allan Gould. Since then, it has been used in the Rodgers and Hart biopic Words And Music
Words and Music
Words and Music may refer to:*Words and Music , a 1929 musical film directed by James Tinling*Words & Music, a 1931 musical short film starring Ruth Etting...
(1948), Two Tickets To Broadway
Two Tickets to Broadway
Two Tickets to Broadway is a 1951 musical film directed by James V. Kern. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording .-Cast:* Tony Martin as Dan Carter* Janet Leigh as Nancy Peterson* Gloria DeHaven as Hannah Holbrook...
(1951), Don't Bother To Knock
Don't Bother to Knock
Don't Bother to Knock is a 1952 American thriller film starring Marilyn Monroe and Richard Widmark, directed by Roy Ward Baker and written by Daniel Taradash. Monroe is featured as a disturbed babysitter watching a child at the same New York hotel where a pilot, played by Widmark, is staying...
(1952) (sung by Anne Bancroft), Beau James
Beau James
Beau James is a 1957 film based on a non-fiction book of the same name by Gene Fowler.The movie stars Bob Hope as Jimmy Walker, the colourful but controversial Mayor of New York City from 1926-32. American prints of this film are narrated by Walter Winchell; in Britain, the film was narrated by...
(1957), Silent Movie
Silent Movie
Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
(1976), Mighty Aphrodite
Mighty Aphrodite
Mighty Aphrodite is a 1995 romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The screenplay was inspired by the mythological tale of Pygmalion....
(1995), The English Patient
The English Patient (film)
The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
(1996), Kissing Jessica Stein
Kissing Jessica Stein
Kissing Jessica Stein is a 2001 independent romantic comedy film, written and co-produced by the film's stars, Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen. The film also stars Tovah Feldshuh and is directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld...
(2001) and many other movies and TV shows, most recently in the 2007 AMC production Mad Men
Mad Men
Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...
episode "New Amsterdam". In the film All About Eve
All About Eve
All About Eve is a 1950 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on the 1946 short story "The Wisdom of Eve", by Mary Orr.The film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star...
(1950), the song is played on the piano at the party when Margo and Max are in the kitchen.
In the early and mid-1950s, singer Julius La Rosa
Julius La Rosa
Julius La Rosa is an American traditional popular music singer who has worked in both radio and television since the 1950s.-Early years and big break:...
became a national celebrity for his exposure on several of the shows hosted by one of the most popular television stars of the era, Arthur Godfrey
Arthur Godfrey
Arthur Morton Godfrey was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname, The Old Redhead...
. On October 19, 1953, La Rosa sang "Manhattan" on one of Godfrey's radio shows. Immediately after he finished, Godfrey fired him on the air, saying, "that was Julie's swan song with us".
Notable recordings
- Lee WileyLee WileyLee Wiley was an American jazz singer popular in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.Wiley was born in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. While still in her early teens, she left home to pursue a singing career with the Leo Reisman band. Her career was temporarily interrupted by a fall while horseback riding...
recorded the song in 1951 for her album Night in Manhattan - Ella FitzgeraldElla FitzgeraldElla Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
included this on the VerveVerve RecordsVerve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
release Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook - Mickey RooneyMickey RooneyMickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
performed the song in the film Words and MusicWords and Music (1948 film)Words and Music is a 1948 movie loosely based on the creative partnership of the composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart. The film starred Mickey Rooney, Tom Drake, Janet Leigh, Betty Garrett, and Ann Sothern, It is best remembered for the final screen pairing between Rooney and Judy... - Tony MartinTony Martin (entertainer)Tony Martin is an American actor and singer.-Career:Tony Martin was born on Christmas Day, 1913 as Alvin Morris in San Francisco, California to Jewish immigrant parents. He received a saxophone as a gift from his grandmother at the age of ten. In his grammar school glee club, he became an...
performed the song in the film Two Tickets to Broadway - Rod StewartRod StewartRoderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
and Bette MidlerBette MidlerBette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
– Stardust: The Great American Songbook Volume IIIStardust: the Great American Songbook 3Stardust: the Great American Songbook 3, released in 2004, is Rod Stewart's third album of Pop standards. The album was dedicated to the Tartan Army.-Chart Performance:...
(2004) - Caetano VelosoCaetano VelosoCaetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s,...
recorded the song for his 2004 album of covers, A Foreign Sound