" MY SHINING HOUR" THE TITLE ALSO DESCRIBES THIS ARLEN/MERCER CREATION

"My Shining Hour"  The Title also describes this Arlen/Mercer creation:  In 1943, America was fully engaged inWW11. As usual, Hollywood jumped on the patriotic bandwagon and churned quite a number of war related films. " My Shining Hour" was a more dramatic movie than some of the fluffy All Star movies like " Star Spangled Rhythm ."  Fred Astaire plays a pilot on leave back in America. He runs into night club singer, played by 18 year old Joan Leslie. They danced together and he follows her home while she resists his attempts to gain her approval. She believes he is a slacker, unaware that he has served in battle. As they walk to her residence, Fred tries to convince her that " My Shining Hour"  the song she sang earlier , was too serious and offered a lighter version in which he rhymes " hour" with " Mischa Auer: as well as offering " Was it stingers or Bacardis? " to which she retorts " Was it Tony's or was it Sardi's ? "
It is a tender and lovely scene in a wartime context as they begin to warm towards each other. Arlen's biographer, Edward Jablonski wrote that the song has " A direct, melodic simplicity and a lyric to match the melody with  pure, simple poetry as an expression of wartime uncertainty." Alec Wilder added that the song " Achieves the objective of, let us say, sexless innocence and distilled simplicity."
The first performance is the scene from the film showing the walk to Leslie's home and the lighter version of the song Leslie sang earlier in the nightclub
 
 The second performance features Margaret Whiting around a piano accompanied by Michael Feinstein as part of a musical tribute to Arlen on the Larry King Show. As a young girl, Whiting grew up around a number of Hollywood composers like Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin Harry Warren and Arlen, Harburg and Mercer. Her father, Richard Whiting was a collaborator with Kern , Mercer and others .She actually heard a number of famous songs at Hollywood parties long before they were ever recorded.
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Astaire Leslie Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj9UMnM8cP8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=895N9LGrKJ4
Whiting Link: