book ends

 

Rodgers and Hart

Before there was Rodgers and Hammerstein 

(Oklahoma!

South Pacific

The Sound of Music)

there was Rodgers and Hart.

One of their songs, "I Could Write A Book," was in Pal Joey (currently on Amazon Prime) and it was also in When Harry Met Sally... (1989).

If they ask me, I could write a book

About the way you walk and whisper and look

I could write a preface on how we met

So the world would never forget

And the simple secret of the plot

Is just to tell them that I love you a lot

Then the world discovers as my book ends

How to make two lovers of friends...

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Also written by Rodgers and Hart for Pal Joey is a song titled "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"

...Couldn't sleep, and wouldn't sleep

When love came and told me, I shouldn't sleep...

This song is also sung in the Woody Allen movie Hannah and Her Sisters, 1986, and also in The Crown (Netflix).  In both of these films, the song is not performed onstage by a professional, it's being sung by characters in the story, in a casual, family setting.

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Another R & H song included in Pal Joey, "The Lady Is a Tramp," was originally written for a Broadway musical titled, Babes in Arms.

I used to see that title & think, Wow, a little inappropriate -- he's calling a lady a "tramp" - that could have consequences... But then Wikipedia explains it all:

------------------------- [excerpt] This song is a spoof of New York high society and its strict etiquette (the first line of the verse is "I get too hungry for dinner at eight...") and phony social pretensions.  It has become a popular music standard.

[end / excerpt]

This is one of those songs where, I've heard it and cannot remember where --

She gets too hungry, for dinner at eight

She likes the theater and never comes late

She never bothers, with people she'd hate

That's why the lady is a tramp

Doesn't like crap games, with barons or earls

Won't go to Harlem in ermine and pearls

Won't dish the dirt with the rest of the girls

That's why the lady is a tramp

She loves the free, fresh wind in her hair

Life without care...

-30-