The Great American Songbook: Songs of love and longing

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, February 13th.

Thanks for making WORLD Radio part of your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.
Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Love.

REICHARD: Love.

MAST: Music reviewer Bob Case says the timeless tunes from the Great American Songbook capture the deep yearning of our hearts for lasting love.

SONG: ALL I DO IS DREAM OF YOU (1934) by Henry Busse and his orchestra

BOB CASE: The Great Hebrew Songbook is like the Great American Songbook in that the Old Testament Church sang songs for every imaginable occasion and every imaginable emotion. The poetic and prophetic sections of the Old Testament are replete with a kaleidoscope of popular music.

Moses tells us the story in Genesis 24, of biblical waiting and yearning for “Mrs. Right.” Abraham said to his trusted servant, “Yahweh will send his angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son Isaac from there.” The servant said to Yahweh, “Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink, and whoever shall say, 'Drink, and I will water your camels, let her be the one you have selected as Isaac's wife’.”

And so, it is with the canon of the Great American Songbook. The American Songbook could not have sprung, as is often alleged, merely from an uncritical appetite for romantic fantasy. These wonderful songs describe many human experiences and their responses.

In this segment we look at just one – yearning for love.

SONG: WHO’S SORRY NOW (1923) by the Isham Jones Orchestra

In 1922, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby wrote a little number called “Who’s Sorry Now?”

Who’s sorry now?
Who’s heart is breaking each vow?
Who’s sad and blue?
Who’s crying too?
Just like I cried over you.

This song is like a cat with nine lives: It was a big hit for my grandparents’ generation in 1923, and a big hit for my parents’ generation in 1946. And if they missed that version, they could get the 1950 version by Gloria DeHaven.

SONG: WHO’S SORRY NOW (1950) by Gloria DeHaven

And the biggest hit version of all was performed in 1958 by Connie Francis. Francis sang that despite a failed romance she is still in the market for the right companion.

SONG: WHO’S SORRY NOW (1958) by Connie Francis

And how about that Snow White? She is even more positive that Mr. Right is right around the corner. Even in an animated cartoon this yearning for love resonates with us.

SONG: SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME (1937) from Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”

In l937, Frank Churchill and Larry Morey wrote this song for Walt Disney’s animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The song, “Someday My Prince Will Come” tells of Ms. White’s longing for a fulfilled life with the love of her life, her prince charming. Until then, she is waiting, sad and lonely. Amazingly, the American Film Institute recognized this song as number 19 on their 100 greatest movie songs, ever.

“My Prince” became a standard in the American Songbook only when Dave Brubeck recorded it in the 1950s.

SONG: SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME (1958) by Dave Brubeck Quartet

SONG: BUT NOT FOR ME (1986) by Linda Ronstadt

Another yearning and waiting song is a number by the Gershwin boys. They wrote, “But Not for Me” for their l930 Broadway musical, Girl Crazy. The song contains the verse telling of the singer’s weariness in hearing Pollyannish advice:

I never wanna hear
From any cheerful Pollyanna’s
Who tell you Fate supplies a mate
It's all bananas.

What does the singer have against this positive counsel? Gershwin’s lyric tells us: “They’re writing songs of love, but not for me.” This is shades of Proverbs 25: “Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day and like vinegar on soda.”

In 1986 Linda Ronstadt sang a stunning version with Plas Johnson's mournful saxophone solo.

SONG: THE MAN I LOVE (1928) by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, v. Vaughn De Leath

And that reminds me of one more Gershwin tune. “The Man I Love” is an evergreen written by the Gershwins as part of the 1924 score for their musical comedy, Lady be Good. The most popular rendition of the wonderful song was by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in 1928 packed with marvelous musicians. Twenty years later, in 1947 the song was featured prominently in the film noir, The Man I Love, and once again it became a national hit.

The yearning and searching for love in our lives and the sadness when that love is missing is an age-old problem, caused by our finiteness and our Fall. We wait for everything, including human love, and the full expression of God’s Love.

I’m Robert Case.

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