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Origins: As Time Goes By
DigiTrad:
AS TIME GOES BY
Related threads:
'As Time Goes By' - 'mandotenor' demo (13)
Lyr Add: I just wrote a new 'As Time Goes By' (11)
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Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune/Origins: As Time Goes By From: Jeremiah McCaw Date: 20 Aug 07 - 02:08 AM Jeez, I was well into the thread without having taken note of the dates of the first posts. Then I saw the posts from Rick. Actually a bit of a shock, bringing very much home how much we have lost. 'As Time Goes By', indeed. |
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Subject: RE: Tune Req: As Time Goes Buy From: Ron Davies Date: 19 Jan 07 - 12:03 AM Amos--It's true--wonderful stories. Thanks so much for bringing it up again. How did you come across it? My source for information about the song is a book called Round Up the Usual Supects, by Aljean Harmetz--which I'd recommend to anybody with the slightest interest in Casablanca. I hope the following information has not already been discussed to death. What I think is absolutely fascinating about As Time Goes By--so strongly identified with Casablanca, is that Max Steiner, who wrote the score for the movie, never intended to use it at all. It also appears that its use was due to a haircut. As noted in another thread, by 1942 it had been forgotten--but it had been a favorite of Murray Bennett, who wrote it into Everybody Comes to Rick's, the play on which the movie was based. It was written by Herman Hupfeld, who also wrote "When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba", among others. After Casablanca was released, Hupfeld tried to get a contract at Warner--no go. As I said, Max Steiner got the job as composer of the score for Casablanca. He was an amazing guy. Child prodigy. Student of Mahler. Wrote over 300 movie scores, including Gone With the Wind. Steiner only liked to see a movie when the editing was done. When he saw Casablanca in a Warner Bros. projection room, "he decided to dump 'As Time Goes By' and replace it with a theme of his own". He had in fact just finished the score for "Now Voyager" which was to win him the 1942 Oscar. But Ingrid Bergman had managed to snag the role she was dying to have--in For Whom The Bell Tolls. For that role, she had already cut her hair. So Steiner could not have her sing a Steiner love song but had to take the one already on film---As Time Goes By. He did more than give in gracefully. He made the song a major character in the movie. As the book says "It functions in the plot. It ushers in the past. And, to some extent, it implies humanity in a world thrown out of kilter." Dooley Wilson sings the song. He was called Dooley due to having sung a song called "Mr. Dooley" in an earlier show while in whiteface. He was a drummer, not a pianist--the pianist was Elliot Carpenter. Curtiz found Carpenter unsuitable for the role of Sam--book does not say why. Hal Wallis, producer of Casablanca, had first intended to change Sam to a woman--one of the proposed actresses was Lena Horne. "How or by whom Wallis was talked out of turning Sam into a woman is not recorded". In May 1942 Warners borrowed Wilson from Paramount for a guaranteed 7 weeks, at $500/wk. Wilson's normal salary was $350/wk. Paramount kept the difference. As Time Goes By was #1 in the hit parade for 4 weeks in the spring of 1943. Normally Wilson would have recorded the song--and made a lot on it. But "the musicians' union was locked in a long strike with the record companies. So Rudy Vallee's record was rereleased instead". The book has a lot more information. |
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Subject: RE: Tune Req: As Time Goes Buy From: Amos Date: 17 Jan 07 - 06:18 PM What a wonderful thread -- the kind that is pure Mudcat gold. My thoughts go out to Sourdough, Hoagy, Rick, Peter T., Pete, and the songs that are evoked herein, with thanks. A |
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Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: As Time Goes By From: GUEST,Ronno Date: 13 Dec 01 - 05:05 AM Mrrzy, Follow this link, it's the first CD I found on the net but there will be more I'm sure. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/REVIEWS/r0501_083.htm |
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Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: As Time Goes By From: Mrrzy Date: 12 Dec 01 - 10:39 AM At my wedding, we had wanted to dance our first dance to this, and could not for the life of us find a recording, not even a DVD of the film! Where can one find this already being sung/played? We'd have settled for an instrumental... |
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Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: As Time Goes By From: M.Ted Date: 12 Dec 01 - 09:51 AM I will be curious as to how you manage to sort all of this stuff out, Trevor--it seems to confuse things more than anything else when people start posting chords in so many different keys-- For my money, the arrangement that GaryT posted is as good as the other, and, with a bit of tinkering, is very servicable(some of the chords are "ornamental" and can be cut out without changing the song)--the discussion thread that Mark Clark is, by it's nature, unresolved, and you don't need to go there to play the tune-- |
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Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: As Time Goes By From: Trevor Date: 12 Dec 01 - 08:37 AM Thanks for all the help with this - can't wait to get cracking. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: As Time Goes By From: Gary T Date: 11 Dec 01 - 12:40 AM Thanks for the compliment, Mark, but I'm not sure how qualified I am. I learned that chord sequence from a book. I do agree that they're nice chords. I think they fit the song quite well, and they sure sound good to me. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: As Time Goes By From: Mark Clark Date: 11 Dec 01 - 12:26 AM J.P., Thanks for digging those out. It's interesting that whoever posted the information at your link thought the actor who played Sam was the composer of the song. I read somewhere that Dooley Wilson a very small sum—like $150 or so—for his work in the film. Wilson didn't actually play the piano and wasn't the studio's first choice for the part. Gary T., Nice chords. I had been off working on my post for a long time, trying to get all the HTML working, and didn't see yours until after I had submitted mine. You are certainly far more qualified than I am to judge the work that John Wilson left on the Yahoo board. - Mark |