Walter Winchell

North Adams Transcript/December 20, 1944

Twenty years ago Irving Berlin wrote for Green Book Magazine: “There’s no such thing as a new melody. There has been a standing offer in Vienna of $25,000 to anyone who can write eight bars of original music. The offer has been up for more than 30 years. Thousands of compositions have been submitted, but all of them have been traced back to some other melody.”

In the old days song writers usually wrote their songs in hotels, and there were frequent complaints from neighbors. Howard Dietz, after having been moved out a few times, once said to Arthur Schwartz, “You’ll notice nobody complains about the lyrics.”

Rodgers and Hart once wrote a prayer song titled “Oh, Lord, Would You Make Me a Star?” Because it had beautiful lyrics, the publisher producer (Robbins) persuaded Hart to give it a more suitable title. Hart said, “I suppose you want me to call it something like ‘Blue Moon’?” It became “Blue Moon” and sold 1,000,000 copies.

The best way for a beginning song writer to turn out a hit is to stick to the subject of love.

Some songs take a long time to write, and some are dashed off in half an hour, It took Oscar Hammersteln three weeks to write the lyrics for “When I Grow Too Old to Dream,” but “Louisiana Hayride” was written in half an hour.

Vincent Youmans whistles music instead of using a piano.

Song writers are often inspired at odd moments. One night Rodgers and Hart were speeding through Paris in a taxicab when they had a near collision. The girl with them said, “Gosh, my heart stood still.” That became the title of a hit.

Arthur Schwartz broke into songwriting with the New York university touchdown song, “Smash, Crash Right Through.”

One night Schwartz was stuck for a song lor “The Bandwagon.” He went to a hotel and for a week couldn’t get an inspiration. One day a Swedish maid came in and asked him what he was doing. Arthur told her he was trying to write a song. In a heavy Swedish accent she suggested, “Why don’t you write about how you love Louisa? That’s me.” Arthur wrote the song which became the hit of the show—the ditty “I Love Louisa.” On opening night the girl was introduced from the stage and given a big check.

One song writer, Dave Clark, speciallzes in tunes with crazy titles. He’s written, “Don’t Miss It If You Can” and “I Felt So Blue I Wanted to Jump Out of the River.”

The most famous of all musical producers in England is Charles Cochran, who gave Noel Coward his first chance. He will be characterized in the Cole Porter picture, “Night and Day.”

There are many freak songs that don’t become hits until years after they are written. “Begin the Beguine” became popular three years after it was first introduced—when Artie Shaw made a recording of it. Arthur Schwartz once wrote a song titled “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plans.” It never became a hit until a vaudeville team named Delys and Clark sang it by request every night for an old German beer baron, who called the song “Blue Pajamas” (a word combination in the song).