Harry Warren

Salvatore Guaragna
BORN: 1893, Brooklyn, NY

American songwriter and publisher Harry Warren was responsible for hits spanning over 30 years, starting with his first successful tune, "Rose of the Rio Grande," in 1922. Born Salvatore Guaragna in 1893 in Brooklyn, NY, the composer wrote hundreds of popular songs and show tunes, including three for which he received Oscars: "Lullaby of Broadway," "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe," and "You'll Never Know," which was also his biggest seller in sheet music. Other well-known tunes penned by Warren include "I Only Have Eyes for You" (1934), "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" (1938), "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (1941), "That's Amore," and many more. He teamed up with numerous lyricists over the years, including Sam M. Lewis, Mort Dixon, Bud Green, and even Johnny Mercer for a brief period, but Warren collaborated more with Mack Gordon than any other lyricist. His last hit came in 1957 with "An Affair to Remember." ~ Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide
 
Born Salvatore Guaragno in Brooklyn, composer Harry Warren changed his name while working as a drummer and pianist in various travelling bands. His parents were Swiss immigrants whose parents had their hearts set on him becoming a doctor, but he wanted to be a songwriter. He was not exactly heartbroken when he was expelled from medical school for gambling with a group of disreputable musicians. He went right into songwriting and very soon found himself in Hollywood in the 1920s as the demand for screen musicals soon began. His first taste of Hollywood came via a series of handyman jobs at the Vitagraph Studios, but it wasn't until the arrival of talkies that Warren and Hollywood linked arms for keeps. From 1930 through 1967, Warren composed some 300 songs for over 50 films -- roughly a rate of 6 songs per picture. In a business that was dominated by Jewish songwriters, he was one of the few Italian songwriters to rise to the top.  Writing the music for the Eddie Cantor musical Roman Scandals (1933), Warren so impressed the film's choreographer Busby Berkeley that Berkeley brought Warren with him to Warner Bros. for 42nd Street (1933). Just after the success of "The Jazz Singer", Warner Brothers bought several publishing houses in New York. One of them was Remicks, which Harry Warren worked for, so suddenly they inherited Harry Warren. He was then partnered with Al Dubin. Working in collaboration with Al Dubin, Warren penned such everlasting tunes as "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," "Young and Healthy" and the title song "42nd Street." They got along beautifully and wrote together quite easily. They wrote hit after hit. They wrote 23 scores together in JUST five years.  That was amazing output. No other team had that kind of record.  In rapid-fire order, Warren worked on two more Berkeley pictures within the same year: Footlight Parade ("By a Waterfall," "Honeymoon Hotel," "Shanghai Lil") and The Gold Diggers of 1933 ("We're In the Money," "Pettin' in the Park," "Remember My Forgotten Man"). The list of Harry Warren songs is virtually a shorthand history of movie musicals: "I Only Have Eyes for You," "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," "Jeepers Creepers," "Chattanooga Choo Choo," "The More I See You," "That's Amore," and his three Oscar-winning numbers: "Lullaby of Broadway," "You'll Never Know" and "The Acheson Topeka and the Santa Fe." Despite the familiarity of his output, Harry Warren's name was never a household word: perhaps the more impressionable fans thought all those songs wrote themselves, or that someone more famous like Harold Arlen or Irving Berlin came up with them. Harry Warren's one chance for latter-day adulation was squelched when producer David Merrick, utilizing over a dozen Warren songs for his 1983 Broadway musical 42nd Street, perversely refused to put Warren's name on the advertising or in the programs! In recent years, singer/pianist Michael Feinstein has worked diligently in bringing the invaluable contributions of his late friend Harry Warren to the attention of audiences who'd grown up humming "Shuffle off to Buffalo" or "By a Waterfall" without ever knowing who'd put the notes on paper in the first place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide