Jewish Stereo Types

Ever notice how often "happy" songs are, strictly speaking, not happy? If you actually listen to the lyrics of "Get Happy" by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, you'll see that umm, well, hmmm, really, I mean...look, it's about dying. In a manner of speaking. But, you know, get happy! Nevertheless, this performance makes me happy every time anyway--Judy Garland singing "Get Happy" against Barbra Streisand singing Milton Ager and Jack Yellen's "Happy Days Are Here Again": Video posted by TheJudyRoomVideos *** We have a bunch of Jewish songwriters here: Harold Arlen ("Over the Rainbow," "Stormy Weather," "The Man That Got Away") was the son of a synagogue cantor ; I can't find much about Ted Koehler ("Get Happy," "Stormy Weather," "Moon Over Dixie")'s personal life, but he seems to be counted among Jewish lyricists ; and both Milton Ager ("Last of the Red Hot Ma...

Well, actually, no, I cannot write a sonnet. However, that's the lyric in Irving Berlin's "Easter Parade." Like "White Christmas," it was a song in 1942's Holiday Inn , sung by Bing Crosby to Marjorie Reynolds: Video posted by soccerkrazy2 although it originally appeared in Berlin's 1933 revue "As Thousands Cheer." And, like "White Christmas," it had a movie constructed around it, 1948's Easter Parade , in which Judy Garland sings it to Fred Astaire: Video posted by Gregory Maldonado I don't think it's quite so successful that way, but it's a fun film with tons of great songs. (Don't miss "We're a Couple of Swells": Video posted by gem tracker Did Fred Astaire even know how not to be elegant?) The film is perhaps most famous for a number that was deleted-- Judy Garland performing "Mr. Monotony" in the outfit she later famously wore in Summer Stock's "Get Happy"...

"The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells, sung by Paul McCartney: Video by Paul McCartney And sung by Mel Tormé and Judy Garland, including the rarely-recorded opening verse: Video posted by BestArtsJudy "The Christmas Song," was written by Tormé and Wells when then were 19 and 22 respectively. According to Tormé, it was written in about 45 minutes during a heat wave, sparked by an attempt by Wells to cool off by thinking winter thoughts. (This seems to be a not-uncommon trigger for the writing of Christmas songs.) *** This is probably the best known song by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells , both of whom were Jewish . Although Tormé is best known as a jazz singer (he was dubbed "The Velvet Fog") and for his many appearances on TV shows, he wrote or co-wrote more than 300 songs , about half of which he wrote with Wells. In his clearly abundant spare time he managed to write 5 books and to become a licensed a...