bsgs98 | Guy Lombardo - My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now (1928) @bsgs98 | Uploaded November 2012 | Updated October 2024, 18 hours ago.
My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now
Words by Irving Caesar, Music by Cliff Friend
Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians
Vocal refrain by Carmen Lombardo
November 10, 1928
Columbia 1636-D
ABOUT THE SONGWRITERS: (from Songwriters Hall of Fame)
Lyricist, Irving Caesar was born in New York City on the fourth of July, 1895 the son of Morris and Sofia Selinger Caesar, in the Henry Street Settlement on New York's lower East Side of Manhattan. He attended schools in New York City and the College of the City of New York. In 1915, Caesar answered a newspaper ad and left college during his freshman year to take part in Henry Ford's Peace Ship, or The Ford Peace Expedition, organized by Henry Ford, to "take the boys out of the trenches by Christmas" and halt the war in Europe.
Returning from Europe while the War continued, he became a regular in the Tin Pan Alley area of the city, where he met by chance another budding tunesmith, George Gershwin. The acquaintance resulted in the joint effort known as "Swanee," one of the earliest hits in what was to become a long and notable career. Another working entente, this time with composer, Vincent Youmans, was born out of a sudden need for a couple of new tunes for the show, "No, No, Nanette," for which Youmans had written the score. Two immortal pieces, "Tea for Two" and "I Want to Be Happy" (acknowledged by Caesar as the embodiment of his personal philosophy: "...but I won't be happy until you're happy too!") were introduced after the show had an unremarkable debut in Detroit and were largely responsible for turning the show into a roaring success.
Caesar became increasingly disaffected from the kind of music to which most Americans were listening in the 1960's. He complained that: "good lyrics and tunes are no longer wanted," and that "we have a form of musical juvenile delinquency abetted by adult delinquency." Irving Caesar, a lifelong resident of New York City, died at the age of 101 on December 18, 1996.
Composer, Cliff Friend, was born on October 1, 1893 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of the first violinist with the Woods Theater Orchestra. He was educated at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music with the ambition to become a concert pianist, but he was stricken with tuberculosis. In his early career, Friend was the accompanist for Harry Richman in various Ohio vaudeville shows and eventually the two moved to Los Angeles where they met some of the biggest names in the business including Al Jolson and songwriter and publisher Buddy DeSylva. While in California, Jolson encouraged Friend to move to New York and work as a songwriter on Tin Pan Alley. In New York, Friend soon met and started collaborating with the leading songwriters of the day: Lew Brown, Sidney Clare, Billy Rose, Irving Caesar, Dave Franklin, Abel Baer and Charles Tobias.
His first big hit came in 1923 with "You Tell Her, I Stutter," which was recorded by Ernie Hare and Billy Jones. For the next 15 years the charts included a Friend co-penned song like "June Night", "Then I'll Be Happy", "(Oh) If I Only Had You", "A Night in June (Beneath the Moon)", "My Blackbirds are Bluebirds Now", "It Goes Like This", "You're a Real Sweetheart", "Bashful Baby", "I Want to Sing About You", "It's Great to Be IN Love", "Let's Have a Party", "The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven", "When My Dream Boat Comes Home", "You've Got Me In the Palm of Your Hand", "Out Where the Blue Begins" and "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down."
Cliff Friend died on June 27, 1974, Las Vegas, NV.
My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now
Words by Irving Caesar, Music by Cliff Friend
Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians
Vocal refrain by Carmen Lombardo
November 10, 1928
Columbia 1636-D
ABOUT THE SONGWRITERS: (from Songwriters Hall of Fame)
Lyricist, Irving Caesar was born in New York City on the fourth of July, 1895 the son of Morris and Sofia Selinger Caesar, in the Henry Street Settlement on New York's lower East Side of Manhattan. He attended schools in New York City and the College of the City of New York. In 1915, Caesar answered a newspaper ad and left college during his freshman year to take part in Henry Ford's Peace Ship, or The Ford Peace Expedition, organized by Henry Ford, to "take the boys out of the trenches by Christmas" and halt the war in Europe.
Returning from Europe while the War continued, he became a regular in the Tin Pan Alley area of the city, where he met by chance another budding tunesmith, George Gershwin. The acquaintance resulted in the joint effort known as "Swanee," one of the earliest hits in what was to become a long and notable career. Another working entente, this time with composer, Vincent Youmans, was born out of a sudden need for a couple of new tunes for the show, "No, No, Nanette," for which Youmans had written the score. Two immortal pieces, "Tea for Two" and "I Want to Be Happy" (acknowledged by Caesar as the embodiment of his personal philosophy: "...but I won't be happy until you're happy too!") were introduced after the show had an unremarkable debut in Detroit and were largely responsible for turning the show into a roaring success.
Caesar became increasingly disaffected from the kind of music to which most Americans were listening in the 1960's. He complained that: "good lyrics and tunes are no longer wanted," and that "we have a form of musical juvenile delinquency abetted by adult delinquency." Irving Caesar, a lifelong resident of New York City, died at the age of 101 on December 18, 1996.
Composer, Cliff Friend, was born on October 1, 1893 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of the first violinist with the Woods Theater Orchestra. He was educated at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music with the ambition to become a concert pianist, but he was stricken with tuberculosis. In his early career, Friend was the accompanist for Harry Richman in various Ohio vaudeville shows and eventually the two moved to Los Angeles where they met some of the biggest names in the business including Al Jolson and songwriter and publisher Buddy DeSylva. While in California, Jolson encouraged Friend to move to New York and work as a songwriter on Tin Pan Alley. In New York, Friend soon met and started collaborating with the leading songwriters of the day: Lew Brown, Sidney Clare, Billy Rose, Irving Caesar, Dave Franklin, Abel Baer and Charles Tobias.
His first big hit came in 1923 with "You Tell Her, I Stutter," which was recorded by Ernie Hare and Billy Jones. For the next 15 years the charts included a Friend co-penned song like "June Night", "Then I'll Be Happy", "(Oh) If I Only Had You", "A Night in June (Beneath the Moon)", "My Blackbirds are Bluebirds Now", "It Goes Like This", "You're a Real Sweetheart", "Bashful Baby", "I Want to Sing About You", "It's Great to Be IN Love", "Let's Have a Party", "The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven", "When My Dream Boat Comes Home", "You've Got Me In the Palm of Your Hand", "Out Where the Blue Begins" and "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down."
Cliff Friend died on June 27, 1974, Las Vegas, NV.
