Favorite Frank Loesser Song

"Warm All Over" isn't even in the top 50. There are so many other great songs in the score of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA alone, such as "Joey, Joey, Joey," "Standin' on the Corner," "Big 'D'," and "My Heart is So Full of You."

Wonderful Copenhagen Lovelier than Ever I’ll Know

"If I Were a Bell"

"Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year"

"Never Will I Marry"

"Big D"

"Thumbelina"

"Baby, It's Cold Outside"

"The Brotherhood of Man"

My Time of Day. Also, My White Knight.

Hideous.

Every one of them.

Don't tell Frank what I said.

Hands down for me: Mama Mama.

Why wasn't this a poll?

Four classics from "Guys & Dolls" that haven't been mentioned:

"Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat"

"Luck Be a Lady"

"Fugue for Tinhorns"

"Guys and Dolls" (title song)

I agree... Mama Mama. And it doesn't hurt to have Robert Weede sing it.

So r4, you believe the rumors that Willson didn't write My White Knight?

I don’t really know, r10. But the song doesn’t really sound like anything else Willson wrote. It’s a lot more musically and harmonically complex, plus I don’t see why Willson would replace it in the movie if he actually did write the song.

[quote]"Guys and Dolls" (title song)

R10 and R4 id never heard that rumor until now. I just went back and listened to Barbara Cook sing it and I agree.

It's has the feel of Loesser. I never even noticed it was left out of the movie, either, because the OBC soundtrack was so firmly entrenched in my psyche.

I'm convinced.

As for my favorite FL song, there are so many. Pretty much all of Hans Christian Anderson, same for Guys and Dolls and Brotherhood of Man from How to Succeed. And Company Way.

I guess there are too many to choose just one.

I prefer his early work in Hollywood. Deanna Durbin as a B-girl in a New Orleans dive, singing the lovely wartime song, “Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year,” from the film noir CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY.

Betty Hutton in THE PERILS OF PAULINE doing her vulnerable, wistful (as opposed to brash) “I Wish I didn’t Love You So” with a broken heart.

“Let’s Get Lost,” from HAPPY GO LUCKY, a 1943 Technicolor musical with Bing Crosby, Mary Martin and Paramount’s new star, Betty Hutton.

And he wrote a lot of witty, fun special material for Betty Hutton in her films while in her manic/nympho persona, quite transgressive for the time. Believe that GIs seeing her films at the front got the message when she would sing, “Well he plays the piano alright, but he plays the piano, plays the piano all night!”

Murder...

It's been mentioned already but 'Luck Be A Lady' is my favourite.

[italic]A lady doesn't leave her escort It isn't fair, it isn't nice A lady doesn't wander all over the room And blow on some other guy's dice[/italic]

He IS talking about Craps, isn't he?

R17- the next line is " Let's keep the party polite" after he has made a crude suggestion.

As originally written for the original Broadway production of THE MUSIC MAN, "My White Night" was a much longer song than what ended up in the show, with a very lengthy patter section taking up at least the first half of the song. That original, version was later resurrected for the recent Broadway revival, in which it was sung by Sutton Foster. In this version, the "My White Knight" melody and lyrics are only heard towards the end of the song. All of which, I think, indicates that the "My White Knight" section was indeed written by Willson, not Loesser. And for what it's worth, Barbara Cook always insisted that "Frank Loesser didn't write a note of that score."

The word was that White Knight was replaced in the film because Willson wanted a new song that could be eligible for an Oscar. Didn't work.

Frank Loesser. Terrific. Thank you, OP, for this thread (any thread, really) on Frank Loesser.

Adelaide's Labia

I love the pretty little song : "I Don't Want to Walk Without You"

Irving Berlin was a huge fan:

"Berlin reportedly said that of all the songs by other composers he had heard, he would have been most proud to have written "I Don't Want to Walk Without You". Writing of Berlin's praise for the song, Loesser wrote in his diary, "Irving Berlin came in today and spent a solid hour telling me that 'Walk' is the best song he ever heard. He played and sang it over, bar by bar, explaining why it's the best song he ever heard. I was flattered like crazy.""

Once In Love With Assy

big D

"Could've Been a Ring" from Greenwillow is a little comic masterpiece, performed so well on the OBCR. "Rumble, Rumble, Rumble," but Madeline Kahn's version. "You Understand Me" from Señor Discretion Himself. And "Been a Long Day" and "Paris Original" from the How to Succeed score.

"What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" Lilting, melancholy yet hopeful. It's the best song about that holiday and one of my favorite holiday songs full stop.

And Loesser said that it wasn't meant to be a holiday song. It starts, "Maybe it's much too early in the game" Yet everyone sings it at Christmas time.

Also love Can't Get Out of this Mood, with music by Jimmy McHugh. And GREENWILLOW has many gems, including Summertime Love and Music of Home.

R26, was that some kind of a parody post in which you intentionally picked some of Loesser's lesser songs and named them as your favorites?

[quote]Loesser said that it wasn't meant to be a holiday song. It starts, "Maybe it's much too early in the game" Yet everyone sings it at Christmas time.

I know Loesser and others have said that. But if someone were to ask someone else "What are you doing New Year's Eve?" in July, or anytime earlier than at least the beginning of the holiday season, I think that would be very unusual and creepy.

Not in the least. I love all his work. I know those songs are off the beaten path, but I love them just the same. In my defense, I'll note that Sondheim loved the way Loesser set "some irresponsible dress manufacturer" in "Paris Original."

I'm well aware of what Sondheim said about "Paris Original," and I'm not surprised you quoted him back to me. But I don't think the song has aged well, and there are lots of far better songs in that score alone than this one, so I was just surprised to see you name it as a "favorite." But yes, to each their own.

You are also up thread, chastising the OP for putting "Warm All Over" at the top of their list. If these are people's stated favorites, what pleasure do you derive from telling them they are wrong?

[quote] I'm well aware of what Sondheim said about "Paris Original," and I'm not surprised you quoted him back to me.

Uh-oh, girls... WAR has definitely been DECLARED!!

I love " Warm All Over" - it is such a beautiful song-I love the line " with a tender love for you". Loesser talked about love in the best way.

It's a beautiful choice, OP. I'm fond of Ella's version of it.

Anywhere I Wander

”Hans Christian Andersen” has such a wonderful, lyrical score. Kaye’s best role. Too bad there’s never been an actual soundtrack release. The

No contest, “More I Cannot Wish You”. Beautiful!

[quote]r38 = Too bad there’s never been an actual soundtrack release

Well, with the non-soundtrack "soundtrack" you get Jane Wyman.

Baby...

Once upon a time.

Um I am #42. And - well - Never Mind.

"I Don't Want to Walk Without You" sounds very much like a song Irving Berlin could have written, with it's simple melodic structure and pure, innocent emotional charm.

I think it's a good choice for the best Irving Berlin song not written by Irving Berlin.

^Good observation

No Two People from Hans Christian Andersen

Warm All Over is damaged by the rhyme "swarm all over."

My Time of Day.

It's so evocative of a New York that I know existed as my parents told me it did and I wish I had experienced.

Yes the score of Anderson is wonderful but the movie is awful except for the opening title sequence which is one of my favorites.

[quote]Warm All Over is damaged by the rhyme "swarm all over."

Thank you, Steve Sondheim :-)

"Anywhere I Wander" is a gorgeous song, but I've always thought it must have been a pre-existing song that Loesser pulled out of his trunk and inserted into HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN. The lyrics really don't have ANYTHING to do with the the plot of the movie, even though they tried to make it fit by adding all those fantasy sequences of Hans getting married to the ballerina, etc.

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" was never as sexy, yet non-threatening, as sung by the young Ricardo Montalban. Plus, I'm sure Esther Williams could take of herself just fine.

And in the movie it is immediately repeated by Betty Garrett who is hot for Red Skelton(well it's a movie)and she's the aggressor. So another strike against the woke mob.

Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition.

I think More I Cannot Wish you is a beautiful song. Even though I still don't understand THAT lyric.

^^^I think the only parts that are hard to understand are "with the sheep's eye and the licorice tooth," which I just assume are expressions no one uses anymore.

Have to admit I never much cared for "More I Cannot Wish You" on the G&D OBC recording, always felt it broke up the snappy rhythm of the score, at least as a listening pleasure. But having seen the brilliant and utterly delightful G&D revival at London's Bridge Theatre, the song and performer effortlessly brought tears streaming down my cheeks. All about context, I guess.

R56 Yes that was the lyric I meant. And I've never heard that expression anywhere else. Unlike the lyric everybody complains about in Funny Girl-We travel single O-saying that it makes no sense and Merrill just threw that O in there for the rhyme. And they have no idea 'single O' is a real term that is no longer used.

Well, R58, you have prompted me to look up "sheep's eye" and "lickerish (licorice) tooth" for the first time. Here's what I quickly found through Googling:

[quote]Both are colloquialisms for desire. "Make sheep eyes at" is an old-fashioned expression of longing or mooning for someone. And interestingly enough, though "lickerish tooth" is often misspelled as "licorice tooth", they both have the same archaic meaning--a lecherous desire for sweets.

[quote]In the original Frank Loesser score, the expression is "sheep's eye and the LICKERISH tooth." Loesser eplained how he arrived at it in a letter that's printed in his daughter's fine biography of him, A MOST REMARKABLE FELLA (page 109). The short of it is that he wanted a companion word that meant "covetous", fearing "sheep's eye" did not completely convey the exact thoughts of the guy who would be gazing at her. He went to Roget's and found that "lecherous" was a sort of synonym for covetous, but didn't quite like the way it sounded, so he consulted the Oxford English Dictionary and found that two archaic spellings of "lecherous" were "licorice" and "lickerish." He chose the latter. Voila!

"The Lickerish Quartet"

Do Frank Loesser's songs sit mainly in the area of show tunes? Have many become standards that singers add to their repertoire?

Just wondering who would be a well-regarded interpretor of his works?

I googled and see that Ella Fitzgerals Verve "Songbook" do not include Loesser...

Loesser's songs for musical theater are usually pretty tightly woven into the books of his shows: they're pretty hard to lift separately from them so as to use use them as standards, the way you can with Rogers and Hart or Cole Porter's songs. There are some exceptions to this though (particularly from "The Most Happy Fella," although that was not the most successful of his musicals), and he did write some stand-alone songs that many different people recorded (like "Slow Boat to China" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside").

The songs of How to Succeed are so tightly woven not one stands alone which may be the only score of a hit show that is revived from the golden age where this is the case. Not one. Famous last words?

Guys and Dolls which Comden and Green said was the best show they ever saw has a few standards.

Not completely true, R63. "I Believe in You" can be and has often been sung out of context, in which case the listener is meant to think that the singer is addressing someone else, not himself/herself. And there's no reason why "Love From a Heart of Gold" can't be sung out of context, though it's not a very good song, so I'm not sure anyone would want to. "Brotherhood of Man" could also be sung out of context as a production number in a revue or whatever.

But your point is well taken that very few of the songs in HTS could effectively be performed as stand-alone number.

"I Believe in You" was got a lot of attention from the crooners in the 1960s

Sinatra recorded it.

Here's Jack Jones:

Aside from "Baby, It's Cold Outside", I think the most well known Loesser song is "Luck Be a Lady". Even Streisand recorded it.

"Brotherhood of Man" can also stand on its own.

But many of the most beautiful songs in the show, like "Paris Original" and "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm," make no sense divorced from the context of the show.

But has Brotherhood of Man ever been done by itself? Anybody know of a recording?

[quote]Rogers and Hart

Oh, dear.

r68 Does this count?

Judy sang "Never Will I Marry" in her concerts.

Oh, I don't know....I could easily imagine Eydie Gorme doing a cover of "Happy to Keep HIs Dinner Warm" in her heyday.

Think about the satirical lyrics, r72. They'd really have to be overhauled, even for the time, to make sense outside of the show. They'd be too dark to take straight:

New Rochelle! New Rochelle!

That's the place where the mansion will be

For me and the darling bright young man

I've picked out for marrying me

He'll do well, I can tell

So it isn't a moment too soon

To plan on my life in New Rochelle,

The wife of my darling tycoon.

I'll be so happy to keep his dinner warm

While he goes onward, and upward

Happy to keep his dinner warm

Till he comes wearily home from downtown

I'll be there waiting until his mind is clear

While he looks through, right through me.

Waiting to say, "Good evening dear...

I'm pregnant! Whats new with you

From downtown?"

Oh, to be loved by a man I respect

To bask in the glow of his

Perfectly understandable neglect

Oh to belong in the aura of his frown.

Darling busy frown!

Such heaven...

Wearing the wifely uniform

While he goes onward, and upward

Happy to keep his dinner warm,

Till he comes wearily home from downtown.

Barbra sang Never Will I Marry on her third album.

Happy to...

R75, wow Mullaly is delightful in that clip from How to Succeed. But that song... yea, don't see it being performed today, unless it is somehow converted into satire or with a wink and nod as to how anachronistic it is...

"Rich Baby's Daddy"

Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm was satire in 1961.

To clarify, R76, "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm" is still fine to perform in the context of the show HTS, but yes, if someone were to try to sing it out of context in a revue or a cabaret show or whatever, there would have to be a setup carefully explaining that it was meant as satire even in 1961.

Even in '61 it could not be done outside the show. It makes no sense outside the show. And for people to be told today carefully that it was satire in '61 only shows how stupid people in woke culture have become. Like having to explain Baby It's Cold Outside is not about date rape. People have to have it explained to them? Another great indictment of woke culture. The paranoia is thick as molasses.

Are you saying, r80 that "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm" was NOT sung ironically in the original show? I would agree with that.

r81, in the show Rosemary is showing that she's so eager to get married to a businessman that she's willing to be completely ignored. and abandoned by her husband when they're married, just as long as he is successful and works hard. Of course it was meant to be ironic.

To be clear: When Rosemary sings "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm" in the show, she's being 100 percent sincere, because that's what she really wants. So the song is not ironic or satirical from her point of view, but that's how the audience is supposed to perceive it, because we're supposed to recognize that the character's view of a woman's role in a marriage is hopelessly retro.

r23: Jule Styne had a little something to do with that song as well....

Styne and Loesser also wrote a nifty score for "Sis Hopkins", a fun Judy Canova musical from 1941. Judy's nemesis is campus glamour girl Susan Hayward.

"I Said 'No'" from SWEATER GIRL (music by Styne) is amazingly risqué. I'm amazed Loesser got away with it.

r85...

"I'm Looking for A Man in Finance"

[quote]"I Said 'No'" from SWEATER GIRL (music by Styne) is amazingly risqué. I'm amazed Loesser got away with it.

He got away with it because the entire song is double-entendre. There are no actual references to sex or love making in the lyrics, and then when the last line comes around, the listener is made to believe that any dirty thoughts were in their own mind :-) It's a GREAT song.

Kena Horne does a great I Said No.

One thing about Frank Loesser is that he was one of the most musically sophisticated of all the great musical composers--he was right up there with Jerome Kern.

Try sometime listening to a high shcool version of "Cinderella, Darling" from HOW TO SUCCEED and see if you can keep from cringing at how the high school orchestra will inevitably butcher the complex rapid key changes and tricky rhythm. Then listen to how it was done right on the original Broadway soundtrack.

“original Broadway soundtrack.”

Oh, dear.

There's even some dodgy singing in "Cinderella, Darling" from the ensemble (or Claudette Sutherland's Smitty?) on the original Broadway cast recording. Someone is off on the choral "New Rochelle PTA" and the final "Hallelujah!" Tough number.

I was looking for "Well, Well", a Styne-Loesser song for Judy Canova from SIS HOPKINS (1941) but stumbled across "Wacky for Khaki" an equally rare Styne- Loesser tune for Judy Canova from TRUE TO THE ARMY (1942) . Minor Loesser, but the lyrics are sprightly and fun.

"I wanna go sluttin' for buttons that shine. Oh, Cap'n Cap'n Cap'n be my Val-en-tine!"

This thread's suck fun - that Judy Canova slip - Wacky for Khacki - is whack itself... Canova fires a rifle multiple times during the performance and hits her targets (the bad guys?) who are in the auditorium...

Had a nice trip down Wiki-lane too. I didn't know who Judy Canova was or that she's Diana Canova's mother.

Claudette Sutherland told me she fucked Loesser during the run of How to Succeed. That puts her in a not-so-exclusive club.

Diana Canova was a Sally.

ack - bad typing on my part! "This thread is such fun" is what I inteded to post. "suck fun" would be approprite in other threads.

For such a sweaty homely guy, albeit a talented one, Frank Loesser got some fine pussy over many decades.

Nothing like power and influence as aphrodisiacs.

[R51]: The actual music tracks of “Hans Christian Andersen” are much more fully orchestrated than that cheesy 10 in. lp. There are some lovely underscore pieces, not to mention the title song, “Anywhere I Wander,” the exhilarating “Wonderful Copenhagen,” and especially the ballet of “The Little Mermaid,” hastily culled from 8 different pieces by Franz Lizst by orchestrator Jerome Moross , also a film composer in his own right. Loesser it ain’t, but it’s still lovely, and never, as far as I know, released commercially.

As for the movie’s tawdry plot, a statement at the onset admits this is pure fiction. But Jeanmaire was no actress, and it’s clear that Kaye’s primary relationship is with a twink he got from an “orphanage.” Was scriptwriter Moss Hart trying to tell us something?

Adelaide's Labia

[quote]Moss Hart trying to tell us something?

Danny Kaye gave awesome head.

I've never understood the appeal of Kaye.

[quote]It’s clear that Kaye’s primary relationship is with a twink he got from an “orphanage.” Was scriptwriter Moss Hart trying to tell us something?

When you watch the movie from a modern perspective, it seems SO obvious that Hans, played by Kaye, and Peter, played by Joey Walsh, are lovers. It's clear from the way they relate to each other throughout the film. There's even a point where Kaye tenderly runs his fingers through Walsh's hair, and for that matter, they have a breakup scene that absolutely seems like the breakup of two lovers rather than friends.

Could’ve Had a Cockring

I just noticed that Barrie Chase and Sylvia Lewis were ballerinas in the Little Mermaid ballet.

It's hard to get Kaye's appeal today except in White Christmas where he's terrific.

R107 - Kaye is terrific in White Christmas. I haven't seen him in many films, let alone musicals, so have little opinion of him as an actor. But he is smooth and in complete, casual, control in "Choreography" and Best Things Happen When You're Dancing." I love both numbers, revel in how little editing and cuts there are in both numbers.

Choreography makes me kaugh (Kaye is quite athletic and balanced, yet sharp and disjpinted. Much earlier in "Best Things..." he is just smooth as glass - almost fluid.

Here's Choreography...

And here's Best Things Happen..."

Up in Arms

Arm up my ass

[quote] Try sometime listening to a high shcool version of "Cinderella, Darling" from HOW TO SUCCEED and see if you can keep from cringing at how the high school orchestra will inevitably butcher the complex rapid key changes and tricky rhythm.

R90 Hey! 51 years ago, I was the concertmaster of my high school orchestra and the pit orchestra for the all-school production of HTS. As a show-tunes-obsessed, closeted gayling, I had already listened to the OBC recording at least 50 times and knew every note before day 1 of rehearsals. We used the original orchestration, and we worked out all the key modulations and tricky rhythms in rehearsals.

It wasn’t just “Paris Original;” for example, the meter, key, and rhythmic figure changes are tricky in the Overture, and “How to Succeed” has an undercurrent of irregularity-placed accents that are difficult to get right.

To top it all off, I played the violin solo when Hedy sings “Love From A Heart of Gold,” which was deliberately written out of key. I had to make it sound like I wasn’t making mistakes. I think it was written that way to make fun of Hedy singing of her desire for love from JB, when all she really wanted was his money.

We put on “Guys and Dolls” the year before. Loesser’s music was great to play!

Only on Datalounge can you criticize a high school orchestra playing a musical, and a queen like me will take issue with that!

[quote] [R81], in the show Rosemary is showing that she's so eager to get married to a businessman that she's willing to be completely ignored. and abandoned by her husband when they're married, just as long as he is successful and works hard. Of course it was meant to be ironic.

R82 OMG, I had this exact same discussion in the 1990s on a Usenet newsgroup, either a gay one or a Broadway musical one (well, actually they’re the same thing).

Yes, HTS was a satire of all its subject matter, which meant that in 1961, there were women who felt their only hope for fulfillment in life was to marry a successful man. Just as there were people in the business world like Ponty who would connive, lie, and cheat their way to the top. And yes, that satire is still all too relevant even today.

There isn't one sincere song in How To Succeed.

Well, there is one, R114 -- Rosemary's brief reprise of "I Believe in You." In the movie version, of course, Rosemary sings a totally sincere version of "I Believe in You" BEFORE Finch sings the satirical version as a love song to himself, and though some people hate that it was done this way in the movie, I think it works beautifully.

[quote]and though some people hate that it was done this way in the movie, I think it works beautifully.

Thank you so much!

You're welcome, Michele :-)

r115, I was about to say the same thing. You can see why they did it, too--without that first sincere iteration of the song, the movie might have seemed too cynical otherwise for 60s mass audiences. They make Rosemary much more sincere by cutting her other songs ("Paris Original" and "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm") which reveal her scheming in the stage musical.

Exactly, R118.

"Happy to Keep Drinking His Warm Piss”