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