Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute

Subject: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Alice
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 08:03 AM

Speaking of songwriters.... I was listening this morning to recordings of Hoagy Carmichael talking about how he wrote songs. It was on the National Public Radio tribute to the 100th anniversary of his birth. He was describing how he was whistling while he was walking across the college campus and the first lines of "Stardust" came out, and he knew right away that he 'had something' with that tune. He had started picking out tunes on his mother's piano at age 12. She had played ragtime to silent movies in the theaters. He said he would write about things, about his childhood memories, about feelings, and that a real songwriter knew the difference between having something that made a good song... and not.

His degree was in law, but he said he didn't make a good lawyer, and when he heard a recording of one of his songs that was recorded by Red Nichols, he realized that he really was meant to be a songwriter, not a lawyer, (and I'm so glad he was).

alice

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: JedMarum
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 09:09 AM

Nice story, Alice. I believe I am related to him. My mother's mother's side were Carmichaels somewhere along the line. I have never researched it, but should, one day.

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Bill Cameron
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 10:22 AM

They're doing a special on Hoagy Carmichael right now on CBC radio too. Certainly one of the geniuses of the intricate marriage of chord, melody and lyric. One of the only writer from that era I know of who never seemed to get corny--always a believable sentiment behind the music.

Bill

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Dale Rose
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 11:29 AM

And let's not forget his acting career, most notably for me as Butch in one of my very favorite films, The Best Years Of Our Lives, 1946.

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Jack (who is called Jack)
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 12:01 PM

Say what you want about comercialism in music, but Tin Pan Alley was the estuary for some transcendent songwriters.

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 02:41 PM

Truly one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time!

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Frank Hamilton
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 05:11 PM

If you get a chance, rent the movie "To Have And Have Not" with Bogart and Becall. There is a fabulous performance of Hoagy's "Hong Kong Blues" in there.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: fox4zero
Date: 22 Nov 99 - 05:56 PM

You know of course that STAR DUST was written as a rag-time-tune and was an big instant failure. Shortly afterwards Isham Jones(I think) slowed the tempo to a ballad and MITCHELL PARISH wrote the lyrica, It then became dynamite with >1600 DIFFERENT RECORDINGS through the years...Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Willie Nelson among many others.

The lyrics are beautiful, especially the verse. Sinatra once recorded just the verse.

Mitchell Parish was not a one-shot wonder...he wrote Sophisticated Lady with the Duke, Moonlight Serenade.... Glen Miller's theme song, Stars Fell on Alabama. Syncopated Clock and Sleighride with Leroy Anderson...plus another thousand or so. Of course he had his share of "dogs" like "Yep the Zep Came Over" (the Graf Zeppelin) and "I Wish There Was ao Heaven" 1930.

As you may have noticed, we shared the same surname, which makes sense since he was my father. I try to give him his rightful due whenever I can.

Signed PARISH

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: DougR
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 02:20 AM

Well, Parish, you had a very gifted father. He had a hand in writing some of the best. I'm glad you replied to this thread. Many times the less known are lost in the shadow of those they worked with. It's sad, because they are due as much credit as the well known.

DougR

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Sourdough
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 03:27 AM

I worked with Hoagy Carmichael back in th Sixties. I think he was the one who told me the story about someone telling Mitchell Parris's wife that Hoagy Carmichael had written Stardust. She corrected him by saying, "He did not. My husband wrote Stardust, Hoagy Carmichael wrote 'La da da da da di da da da dum dee da dee da da". As I recall, Hoagy used to like to tell that story on himself.

In another thread I wrote about how we were having dinner in a small restaurant in Cambridge, MA when a woman came over to the table and gushed at him, "You're Hoagy Carmichael!" Apparently, she was afraid that this realization might have passed him by. Now that she had established a personal connection with him, she felt free to let him know how much she had enjoyed his performance in "Casablanca"! Without betraying any untoward emotion and without making her feel the least bit uncomfortable, he thanked her and she left happy.

In every way that I could tell over the few months we worked together, he was a gentleman.

A little note about some often overlooked Carmichael tunes: Hoagy wrote a series of songs for his own children. They were published in a hardcover music book which I have in the other room. I can get the title if anyone is interested. I worked on a television series with Hoagy Bix Carmichael, Hoagy's son. He produced a series called "Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop" based on the music his father had written for him and his brother. The music came out on a double LP played by a group called "The Stark Reality". A diehard Carmichael fan might want to locate these recordings because as far as I know they are the only commercial recordings of these twelve or fifteen songs. Sourdough

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Art Thieme
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 10:49 AM

I tried to post this last night but it wouldn't take.

Indiana University (Bloomington) has a celebration site for Hoagy's 100th. ALL KINDS OF WONDERFUL STUFF.

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collection/hoagy/index.html

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Art Thieme
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 10:59 AM

also:

http://calliope.ucs.indiana.edu/ead/hoagy.html

ENJOY !

Art

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Dale Rose
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 11:00 AM

Indiana U Hoagy site The url was missing the s on collection. Thanks, Art, very nice site.

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Alice
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 12:29 PM

Sourdough, what is the title of the music book?

Parish, thanks for adding the well deserved tribute to your dad.

alice

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Tony Burns
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 12:49 PM

Thanks for sharing the information about your father Parish.

For more on Hoagy and Mitchell visit this site.

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Alice
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 01:05 PM

Parish, I was sorry to read of your father's passing. I tried to read the obituary at the website Tony linked, but the background colors of their pages made them illegible. I just email to the makers of the Startdust site to request that they change the backgrounds to white. Thanks for that link, Tony.

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Tony Burns
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 09:19 PM

I hate those sites that are hard to read because of color choices too Alice. Here's a trick that works much of the time. Put your cursor at the beginning of the text, hold down the left mouse button and drag to the end of the text. This will highlight the text and make it easier to read in most cases.

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Alice
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 09:41 PM

I usually go into preferences and just change the background temporarily to grey. I have a Mac... one button mouse.

alice

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Will Bakker
Date: 24 Nov 99 - 02:17 AM

On one of my favourite albums -Maria Muldaurs "Sweet Harmony"- Hoagy Carmichael himself does the harmonies on Rockin' Chair. By the way, does Maria Muldaur still perform?

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: fox4zero
Date: 24 Nov 99 - 06:13 AM

To: Tony Burns

Thanks for the Star Dust site, it was relatively fair in its reporting.

Alice..thanks for your concern.

One last bit...Mitchell Parish wrote a few songs with Hoagy..."Riverboat Shuffle" and "One Morning in May". Hoagy said that the latter was his mother's favorite. PARISH

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Alice
Date: 24 Nov 99 - 10:32 AM

Parish, do you perform or have you personally recorded your dad's songs?

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Callie
Date: 25 Nov 99 - 02:06 AM

Parish, I'd be really interested in the title of the book of children's songs. I love Hoagy's music and would love to know what he wrote for children. Many thanks.

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: fox4zero
Date: 25 Nov 99 - 03:51 AM

ALICE: Out of respect for my father and the fear of drastically reducing royalties, I never perform anything of my father's in public. I do play old-timey banjo in private.

CALLIE: It was someone earlier in the thread who recomended a Hoagy Carmichael Childrens Songbook...SOURDOUGH.

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 26 Nov 99 - 03:48 AM

Starting tonight (Friday) on BBC radio 2 in the UK, Georgie Fame is presenting a series commemorating Hoagy's centenary.

Subject: RE: Hoagy Carmichael 100th Tribute
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 26 Nov 99 - 10:29 AM

Parish,

Your father's lyrics had a wonderfully subtle yet luminous quality to them, and they tend to roll off the tongue in the same way, every time--His lyrics are easy to remember, as well, because they have a sort of rhythmic "rightness"--

Did you know any of his collaborators? I am particularly thinking of Peter DeRose--