ADD: I Wish I Were In Love Again Rodgers & Hart

08 Apr 21 - 08:09 PM (#4101454)
Subject: I Wish I Were In Love Again Rodgers & Hart
From: keberoxu

Hopefully a kind Mud-elf can get the songwriters into the thread title, my own data entry doesn't have enough spaces for both their names.

Richard Rodgers, music, and Lorenz Hart, lyrics,
this song was from their Broadway musical
Babes in Arms circa 1937.
When filmed in Hollywood, the musical had this song cut from it.
Later on, when Lorenz ("Larry") Hart had died
and the story of his life was turned into a musical biopic
(I forget the title of the film) with the likes of
Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, and Mickey Rooney,
the latter two film stars performed a duet version for the film.

The initial publisher was Chappell & Co.;
today there is an Estate for the Richard Rodgers catalog
which includes this song in its many copyrights.


I WISH I WERE IN LOVE AGAIN
(Rodgers & Hart)


the one and only verse
You don't know that I felt good, when we up and parted.
You don't know I knocked on wood, gladly broken-hearted.
Worrying is through: I sleep all night,
Appetite and health restored.
You don't know how much I'm
BORED.


the first of two full choruses: initial chorus tune
The sleepless nights, the daily fights,
The quick toboggan when you reach the heights;
I miss the kisses, and I miss the bites --
I WISH I WERE IN LOVE AGAIN.

The broken dates, the endless waits,
The lovely loving, and the hateful hates,
The conversation with the flying plates --
I WISH I WERE IN LOVE AGAIN.

chorus bridge tune
No more pain,
No more strain,
I'm all sane, now --
But I would rather be ga-ga!

reprise of initial chorus tune
The pulled-out fur of cat and cur,
The fine mismating of a Him and Her;
I've learned my lesson -- but, I wish I were
in love again.

second, and final, full chorus
The furtive sigh, the blackened eye,
The words, "I'll love you 'til the day I die",
The self-deception that believes the lie:
I WISH I WERE IN LOVE AGAIN.

When love congeals, it soon reveals
The faint aroma of performing seals;
The double-crossing of a pair of heels --
I WISH I WERE IN LOVE AGAIN.

chorus bridge tune
No more care,
No despair,
I'm all there now --
But I would rather be punch-drunk!

initial chorus tune, for the last time
Believe me, sir, I much prefer
The classic battle of a Him and Her:
I don't like quiet, and I wish I were
in love again.

---

08 Apr 21 - 08:12 PM (#4101455)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Wish I Were In Love Again Rodgers & Ha
From: keberoxu

This is one of those occasions in which
Lorenz Hart took his lyrical skills to the limit,
and Richard Rodgers tactfully got out the lyricist's way
and came up with a serviceable, but not distracting, setting.
So the tune isn't much,
and there aren't all that many chords.

My first encounter with this song was a performance by the team of
Joan Morris, singer, and her husband William Bolcom, piano,
and they rocked the house with this one --
I can still hear the laughter from the audience.

Nothing trad or folk about this, but it is a lyric
that I quote with pleasure in mixed company.

---

09 Apr 21 - 12:51 PM (#4101541)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Wish I Were In Love Again Rodgers & Ham
From: keberoxu

New York cabaret/club style:

Margaret Whiting and Elaine Stritch live onstage

---

09 Apr 21 - 08:09 PM (#4101613)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Wish I Were In Love Again Rodgers & Ham
From: keberoxu

Or maybe you would prefer a big-band arrangement with
the very sophisticated-sounding (AND -looking)
Carmen McRae.

---