Harold Arlen Plays and Sings with Frank Sinatra  Not only has Arlen written so many iconic songs, here he proves that he is an excellent interpreter of his songs and captures the blues inflected character inherent in many of his songs. This is a clip from a TV show with Eddy Cantor, Sinatra and Connie Russell, the featured female singer.

https://youtu.be/eDxCYbayNAs 

Ella Fitzgerald sings " This Tines The Dreams on Me"  Along with the more famous "Blues In The Night" written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer from the film with he same name, This Tines the Dreams' on me is a lovely ballad containing a beautifully constructed bridge or release that steadily climbs upward before relaxing into the final chorus.
Ella, as usual, sings with her characteristic charm and warmth while performing a ballad.
NOTE: Arlen had hoped that the arrangements for his Arlen Songbook could be done by Nelson Riddle whose Fitzgerald/Riddle Gershwin Songbook is the finest set of 50 plus arrangements I have ever heard for an individual composer's Songbook.


https://youtu.be/XYCXLvUCRkM

Ella Fitzgerald sings " This Times The Dreams On Me"  Written by Harold Arlen

Fun to be fooled   This is a song from a 1934 musical revue called Life Begins at 8:40. The music was by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It indicates that the singer knows that plunging into any new romance is fraught with the peril that it might not work out. Nevertheless, the thrill of the beginning connection is worth potential romantic failure.
"Spring is here, I'm a fool if I fall again
 And yet I'm enthralled again, by it's call again
You say you love me, I know from the past 
You mean to love me But These Things Don't Last."
The singer is Ann Gilbert who provides a nice jazzy
performance in keeping with the tongue-in-cheek 
nature of Gershwin's clever lyrics.

https://youtu.be/1th5KjQjfnY 

Arlen's "When The Sun Come Out"  Starting out as a lament, when the sun finally does come out, a more positive frame of mind emerges. The bridge  or center section introduced by ' Love is funny' opens up the possibility of better times ahead. Like many of Arlen's ballads, this song is drenched in a real blues feeling which is enhanced by Billy May's Big Band arrangement and Ella really starting to wail before a final subsiding and happy resolution now that the sun has finally come out.

 https://youtu.be/yfbuBgphsOM

Sinatra sings " My Shining Hour" For the 1943 film " The Skys The Limit" Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer wrote this lovely pure melody which Arlen has said proved that he was more than a writer of Blues songs.
Sinatra provides a convincing performance honouring Mercer's tender sentiments.

https://youtu.be/f4wpqdu3P7A 

A Walk Around The Block -WITH Doris Day

Arlen and Harburg wrote this delightful travelogue in song while admitting that such places would be nice to visit, but in the Depression we just better "Take a walk around the block."
Doris Day has been under rated as a singer. However, Andre Previn, no slouch as a musician of discriminating taste happily recorded a duet album with Doris.

My favourite line is " In Vladivostok, where Bolsheviks 
flock."

https://youtu.be/TvW4aD3B-jo 

 

Buds won't Bud   Nature conspires to thwart Romance
In 1937, Harold Arlen an E.Y.Harburg wrote several songs for Hooray for What. 

I GOTTA RIGHT TO SING THE BLUES  This song by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler from the 1932 Earl CarrollVanities deals with the subject of the blues, it is not the classic form of the 12 bar blues. Although Arlen has been typecast as a blues composer, he himself has said that Blues in the Night is his only true blues song. Nonetheless, so many of his songs are drenched in a blues feeling. This is the case with I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues, a favorite song for trombonist Jack Teagarden.
Maxine Sullivan, who worked at the famous Cotton Club. delivers the song in a relaxed and gently swinging fashion.

https://youtu.be/o7Y5POndn5k 

The Morning After:  The lyricist Dory Langdon Previn was married to the multi-talented musician Andre Previn. Previn was a great admirer of Harold Arlen mentioning his unique and unorthodox song constructions and especially his exquisite harmonic sensibilities. 
The singer is Eileen Farrell, a noted American opera and concert singer who also had a career singing popular songs on radio in he 1940's.

https://youtu.be/lDfYTtFhSg0 



  

THE MORNING AFTER  Lyricist Dory Previn Langdon was married to Andre Previn who was a great admirer of Harold Arlen's compositions, especially his unique and often unorthodox constructions and exquisite harmonic sense. 
This woman's lament is sung by Eileen Farrell, a noted American opera and concert singer who also had a career singing popular songs on the radio in the 1940's. There was  mutual admiration between Farrel and Arlen which become evident in the very natural and unforced singing of Eileen Farrell. Previn has always provided wonderful piano accompaniment for a number of female singers as he does in this performance.

https://youtu.be/lDfYTtFhSg0 

Moanin in the Mornin'   This is a classic Arlen "torch" song, one of a number Arlen composed over the years. It was written with E.Y Harburg for the show Hooray for What"
It was performed by Dinah Shore whose Southern roots made her singing very compatible with these kinds of songs. She also had a wonderful recording of Blues In The Night. 

 https://youtu.be/KSdMpFAdbpo

Streisand & Arlen sing " Ding Dong The Witch is Dead "
Harold Arlen and E.Y.Harburg wrote a number of comedic songs for Dorothy's companions in The Wizard of Oz. For Ray Bolger, as the The Scarecrow, he wrote about the demise of the Wicked Witch of the West.
On a debut album, Streisand sang several songs with Harold Arlen who demonstrates his original career as a singer with his own teenage jazz band.
This is a very lively, up tempo version.


 https://youtu.be/rB0mMPCNAOM

If I Only Had a Brain- Wizard of Oz
Harold Arlen wrote a number of great songs for Dorothy's friends in the Wizard of Oz, For the Ray Bolger Scarecrow, he wrote if I only had a brain.( Bolger was a friend of Arlen's and roomed with him in NYC.)
The multi talented Harry Connick Jr. takes a slower, less comedic approach to the song and makes me ( and possibly you. the listener) wonder if we always take the right approach to anything in our daily lives.

https://youtu.be/t0pUShNMC3U 

Tony Bennett -Arlen's Old Black Magic 
Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer wrote this song for the film Star Spangled Rhythm .
Bennett displays his great love and affinity for jazz as he delivers a rousing version of the song on his 87th Birthday. As I gingerly approach my 80th birthday, I marvel at his stamina and vocal power. Today, in 2018, he is in his 90's and is still going strong and still paints every day.

https://youtu.be/L_rCX6YTcK4 

LET'S  TAKE TH LONG WAY HOME  In 1944, Arlen and Johnny Mercer wrote songs for a film " Here Come The Waves", a wartime story around Navy recruitment during WW11. Bing Crosby introduced the song  which also involved singer Betty Hutton,
Sung here by Diahann Carroll who also was a featured star in he Arlen/Capote show House of Flowers. 

 https://youtu.be/xUSNHzHjecQ

Let's Take A Walk Around the Block   This energetic song, with it's clever rhyming lyrics, was written by Arlen and E.Y. Harburg for Life begins at 8:40. The ebullient performance by Doris Day reminds me of what critic Will Friedwald said about her singing, " She has a voice like liquid sunshine." Perfect description of that vibrant personality.

https://youtu.be/TvW4aD3B-jo 

I Had A Love Once  This was Harold Arlen's last song for which he alos provided the lyrics. It was his tribute to the memory of his dearly departed wife Tanya Aranda. She was a beautiful showgirl who was never accepted by Harold's Jewish parents. Tanya also developed mental problems which had her institutionalized on a number of occasions. Arlen never really recovered from his loss and his later years were lonely and affected by the onset of Parkinson's disease.
Peggy Lee was a great admirer of Arlen and sings this song with the requisite sombre and sensitive performance.

 https://youtu.be/0J1ASztvIiw

The Eagle and Me   This song is in praise of the universal desire for personal freedom. It was used in the Arlen/Harburg musical Bloomer Girl. Sung by Lizz Wright whose passionate performance underscores the whole theme of the song.'

ANY PLACE I HANG MY HAT IS HOME and COME RAIN OR COME SHINE
Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer wrote a number of great songs for ST.Louis Woman set in ST Louis in its' vibrant African American community. Any Place I hang my hat is home describes the singers relaxed view of life while Come Rain  or Come Shine is a pledge of permanent devotion. Both pieces are sung by Vanessa Williams who also starred in a revisited St. Louis Woman in NYC. She has a great affinity for the decidedly American folk idiom created by Arlen and Mercer.
https://youtu.be/p6c6XQt2IxA

Harold Arlen - The American "Natural": I NEVER HAS SEEN SNOW

Harold Arlen - The American "Natural": I NEVER HAS SEEN SNOW: I Never Has Seen Snow is a marvellous extended ballad introduced by Diahan Carroll in Arlen's House of Flowers. The lyrics were attribut...

I NEVER HAS SEEN SNOW

I Never Has Seen Snow is a marvellous extended ballad introduced by Diahan Carroll in Arlen's House of Flowers. The lyrics were attributed to author Truman Capote although subsequent research has indicated that many of he lyrics were also by Arlen. He never publicly took credit for his contributions to the published lyrics.
Vanessa Williams, a fine singing actress incoporate Arlen's own singing style with a littel rising whoop at the end of a phrase.
The Boston Pops arrangement with an onstage cellist in duet with Williams is by Rob Mathes.

https://youtu.be/SYqfL6kygRc