Each month, Jason Fortner spotlights one or more musical theatre composers and/or lyricists, offering his own unique perspective on the songwriting legends of musical theatre. Send your comments/questions on this column to happgood@aol.com.

Oscar Hammerstein II Source: nytimes.com

In honor of the recent release of the 2 CD complete recording of ALLEGRO, I thought I'd take time this month (and the next two) to look at the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II. As anyone who knows me will know, I consider Oscar to be the most influential figure on modern musical theatre of the 20th century, responsible for changing the way musicals were written forever, raising the prominence of the book, writing songs for character, and bringing social issues to the musical stage.

In writing about his partner in 1949 for the preface to Hammerstein's book LYRICS, Rodgers wrote “It should be immensely rewarding to examine [his lyrics] out of context if only to discover their indispensability to the context itself.” 

Irving Berlin is quoted as saying “the difference between Oscar and the rest of us lyricists is that he is a poet”.

Let's look at some examples of the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II.

The earliest example of a Hammerstein lyric comes from a 1916 Columbia University Players show entitled THE PEACE PIRATES. In this song, entitled “Shakespeare Up-To-Date”, Hammerstein relates a strange dream that came 300 years after the death of the Bard. Here's a partial lyric:

Oh there was Romeo and Imogen parading around the room
Lady Macbeth was getting married with Hamlet as the groom
Then Juliet and Lear were playing cards
While Portia was keeping score
Now this may all seem wrong to you
But I'm sure it would be true
If George Bernard Shaw had but written
Some of Bill Shakespeare's plays.

Like many of his early efforts, Oscar's style seems more like Lorenz Hart or Ira Gershwin than he would in his later efforts, writing largely for comic effect.

Here's a comic number from the 1917 Columbia Players show entitled HOME, JAMES, co-written with Herman Axelrod. The song is entitled “Annie McGinnis Pavlova”, about an Irish girl in the Ballet Russe:

Clancey was fond of a show
From opera to movies he'd go
On dancin' and prancin' Clancey was keen
But the Ballet Russe he never had seen.
For five dollars a throw he decided to go,
And he bought him a seat in the very first row.
During one of the ballets, daring and risky
There came on a maiden who danced very frisky.
Then Clancey arose in his seat and yelled “Stop her!”
She ain't no Roosian, for I knew her Popper!

Annie McGinnis Pavlova
I'll stop you from puttin' one over
'Twas in Hogan's back alley
You learned the bacchanale
And now you're the pride of the Ballet Russe.
They call you a zephyr, a fairy, an elf-
Put on your flannels, take care of yourself!
For the costume you're wearin's a shame to old Erin,
Oh, Annie, you'd better go home.

Another fun lyric from HOME, JAMES deals with the current trend (in 1917) of Hawaiian themed pop songs. It's entitled “Another Hawaiian Song”:

They're all a-tryin'
Those songs Hawaiian today
The new composers
Of musical shows are
Successful that way.
They find names in some geography,
Then they write Hawaiian songs like this-

Oh, you beautiful Hawaiian belle
In your gown of shredded wheat,
You always look so neat.
From Anoloa to Li-li-wi
There's not a maiden fair to see.
At Nakelele, your ukelele
Just wins my heart with its tone so sweet.
When you whisper “Halehakulu”
Then I don't know what to do.
Waikiki, Anahola
Hula-hula, Coca-cola
That means I'm in love with you.

In 1920 Oscar wrote the book and lyrics for a show entitled JOAN OF ARKANSAW, which played briefly in New York as ALWAYS YOU. The music was by Herbert P. Stothart, best known for his later work as a composer at MGM Studios. Here's the lyric to a song entitled “Syncopated Heart”:

My poor heart is thumping, jumping-
Listen, can you hear?
How it flutters, stops and stutters-
Must be out of gear.
At other times my pulse is normal,
But when I know that he is near-

I've got a syncopated heart
That beats in ragtime.
It will not regulate, you see
A most seductive melody
Keeps jingling, ting-a-ling in me.
What can it be?
I've called upon physicians, but
No pill can cure, but still
A kiss from him will turn the trick.
That's my prescription;
He'd better hurry and start,
Because this wicked little heart
Just wants to dance.
All the music of romance
Is in my syncopated heart,
My little syncopated heart.

Highland Farm in Bucks County, PA was home to Oscar Hammerstein and his wife, Dorothy, from 1941 until his death in 1960.  It is now a bed & breakfast. Source: highlandfarmbb.com

Co-written with Otto Harbach and featuring music by Herbert Stothart, the musical JIMMIE played 71 performances in the fall of 1920. Here's one of the songs, entitled “Toodle-Oodle-Um”:

It's the biggest hit in the show,
Don't you love it?
It's a tune that's certain to go,
Don't you love it?
I just can't remember all the words precisely-
Words don't matter, my dear, you know.
Words are clouded up in doubt-
What are these songs all about?

This is all you hear:
Toodle-oodle-um, toodle-oodle-um.
Dimly ringing in your ear:
Toodle-oodle-um, toodle-oodle-um.
Girls don't have to sing, dance or anything;
All they do is just appear:
Toodle-oodle-um, toodle-oodle-um.
Though their vocal chords are numb,
Still they dance and bravely hum,
And somehow they seem to put it over
With their toodle-oodle-um.

Hammerstein had a hit in 1923 with WILDFLOWER, collaborating again with Otto Harbach with music by Vincent Youmans. Here's the title tune:

Wildflow'r, I love you
My little wildflow'r, my little wildflow'r.
What else can I do?
My little wildflow'r, my little wildflow'r.
When I see you swaying,
While the breezes caress you,
Then my heart is praying
That I too may hold you and press you.
Wildflow'r, tell me true,
My little wildflow'r, my little wildflow'r.
If you only knew
My little wildflow'r, my little wildflow'r.
How I want the blisses
That the sun gets from your kisses,
Would you love me, too?

Hammerstein had an even bigger hit in 1924 with ROSE-MARIE, the operetta with Mounties and maidens in the Canadian Rockies, with book & lyrics co-written with Otto Harbach and music by Rudolph Friml and Herbert Stothart. Here's a comic lyric from a tune entitled “Hard Boiled Herman”:

Hard-boiled Herman
Hard-boiled Herman
A gold-diggin', gun-totin', poker-playin' fool
A big-hearted pal of the rough-and-ready school.
Quick at shootin'
You're darn tootin'
Them he likes he loves,
'N them he hates, he kills!
Herman the he-man,
The quick-to-disagree man
Herman, the hellcat of the hills.

Jimmy Stewart, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in the 1936 film version of ROSE MARIE Source: jeanetteandnelson.net

The most famous song to come out of ROSE-MARIE is one that is still parodied today, the “Indian Love Call”. This loud and lilting love duet has been used again and again, and garnered hit records for Paul Whiteman, Artie Shaw and that whistling country singer Slim Whitman! (The Slim Whitman version was used in the film MARS ATTACKS as the only way to kill the invading aliens!)

There's a story that during the auditions for the London production a young girl actually sang “when I'm calling you, double-o, double-o” but this may be apocryphal.

Here's the lyric of the refrain, as performed in 1924:

When I'm calling you
Oo-Oo-Oo, Oo-Oo-Oo
Will you answer too?
Oo-Oo-Oo, Oo-Oo-Oo

That means I offer my life to you to be my own
If you refuse me I will be blue, waiting all alone

But if when you hear my love call ringing clear
And I hear your answering echo, so dear
Then I will know our love will become true
You'll belong to me, I'll belong to you

And we'll close part one with this immortal song.

In next month's Part Two we'll look at SHOW BOAT and the subsequent shows Hammerstein wrote between 1927 and 1942, then in Part Three we'll explore the Rodgers & Hammerstein years.