The Great American Songbook: Music of love and promise

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Monday, April 21st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Today, a special WORLD History Book.

REICHARD: Right, springtime is not just about showers and flowers, it’s also about history and the timeless songs inspired by the changing seasons. Here now is Bob Case opening The Great American Songbook to celebrate a musical tradition generations in the making.

ROBERT CASE: We are in a special time of the year when our fancy turns to the outdoors. While the fruitfulness of the earth becomes more apparent as buds and blossoms appear, human fruitfulness in the form of affection and love becomes more prominent in our hearts and culture. As Lord Tennyson waxed in his poem Locksley Hall, “In the Spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”

In the Biblical Songbook, King Solomon had the same sentiments when he wrote in his Song of love:

See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of song has come; the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.

MUSIC: [APRIL SHOWERS (1921) SELVIN'S NOVELTY ORCHESTRA]

Turning now to the American Songbook, where do I begin with songs extolling April and human love? The earliest popular standard is the 1921 golden-oldie “April Showers” from the Broadway show, Bombo. Buddy DeSylva and Lou Silvers wrote the number, but the extraordinary vocalist Al Jolson made it famous.

MUSIC: [APRIL SHOWERS SONG BY AL JOLSON]

When Jolson introduced the song he unexpectedly jumped up on the stage runway, pointed his right arm to the gallery and shouted, “Look, look, they’re not clouds, no, no – they’re crowds – crowds of daffodils.”

36 curtain calls later, “April Showers” had become part of Jolson’s permanent repertoire. The song also became the last song he ever sang in public – to wounded American soldiers in a Korean hospital in l950 when he was dying himself.

MUSIC: [APRIL IN PARIS (1934) FREDDY MARTIN/ELMER FELDKAMP (VOCALIST)]

Next up on our cavalcade of spring standards is the most famous of all April songs from the American Songbook, the beautiful and haunting “April in Paris.” The song was written for the 1932 revue, Walk a Little Faster by Vernon Duke and “Yip” Harburg.

The lyrics tell of a love for a beautiful and romantic city, with the realization that the love of a person is what makes April and the City of Lights so special.

In l934 Freddy Martin’s orchestra had a number five hit with the song. Almost 20 years later, April-born Doris Day revisited this standard in the l952 movie of the same name.

MUSIC: [APRIL IN PARIS (1952) DORIS DAY]

In 1957 Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster wrote “April Love” for the movie of the same title.

MUSIC: [APRIL LOVE (1957) PAT BOONE]

Early rock and roll superstar and outspoken Christian, Pat Boone, recorded the song which charted for 19 weeks and sold over a million records and was nominated for an Academy Award.

April is a time for recommitment to the things that matter to us—love, romance, new birth…even spring cleaning.

As far as the Bible is concerned, April is the beginning of the year when the fruitfulness of God’s creation is evident to all. The Bible refers to April as the “first month,” the “turn of the year,” the “beginning of the months,” or even the “month you came out of Egypt,” signifying God’s new life.

The Church has long recognized the pleasures of April in her hymns. We close today with 18th century English hymnist Isaac Watts, and his wonderful hymn “There is a Land of Pure Delight” sung here by the Mennonite Table Singers.

MUSIC: [THERE IS A LAND OF PURE DELIGHT (1987) TABLE SINGERS]

Watts assures us that the love of our life, Jesus the Christ, awaits us in a “land of pure delight” where spring lasts forever. So, rejoice, fellow Christian in April because it is a foretaste of eternal Aprils.

I’m Robert Case.

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