![]() He auditioned with a song he wrote himself called “Out Of Breath, And Scared To Death Of You.” Much to his dismay, the producers loved the song but didn’t love him.Įlla Fitzgerald, “Skylark,” by Hoagy Carmichael & Johnny Mercer, from ‘Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Johnny Mercer SongBook,’ arranged & conducted by Nelson Riddle. Though he was eventually caught, he ultimately made it to his destination, and within days was trying out for a popular stage revue called Garrick Gaities. Though he couldn’t afford train fare, his determination led him to stowaway on a ship bound for New York harbor. ![]() Returning home to Savannah, he saw that the Depression had eroded any plans his family had to send him to college, so he decided to return to New York. Joining a local acting club, he went with them up north to New York, where he was instantly entranced by Broadway, and even won an acting competition. In fact, it was because of one of his first failed pursuits at acting that he became a professional songwriter. Growing up, Johnny loved singing in the church choir, but was also interested in acting, a profession he decided to pursue after graduation from high school. If you let it pass, someone else can pick it up and write it down before you do.“ “As soon as you think about a song, its vibration is already in the air. He caught his first song at the age of 15, a little ditty called “Sister Susie Strut Your Stuff,” and went on to write or co-write more than 1500, including such standards as “Blues in the Night,” “That Old Black Magic,” “One For My Baby,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Autumn Leaves,” “Tangerine,” “On The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe,” “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening,” “Moon River,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “Lazy Bones,” “Too Marvelous For Words,” “Skylark,” and more. If you let it pass, someone else can pick it up and write it down before you do.” “As soon as you think about a song,” he said in 1965, “its vibration is already in the air. With diligence you might catch one occasionally, but most of them fly away before you can get them. Like Mercer’s good friend and collaborator Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny knew that songwriting is an ephemeral process that’s not unlike catching fireflies. “Anyone who can rhyme ‘aurora borealis’ with ‘red and ruby chalice’ is not bad!” When I asked Harry Nilsson who he felt was the greatest lyricist of all, his answer was immediate and absolute: But Shakespeare was no Johnny Mercer!”Įven songwriters who emerged in the lyrically expansive wake of Dylan and The Beatles pointed to Mercer as the master. Others, such as the great lyricist Sammy Cahn, disagreed. Some said he was more than a great lyricist, that he was a poet. His name became shorthand for a standard of excellence in songwriting, as in, “Yeah, I’m a good songwriter. But Shakespeare was no Johnny Mercer!” – Sammy CahnĮven the greatest songwriters tended to think of him in a whole other league.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |