SONG HITS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 218, 3 December 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

SONG HITS

How to Write Them SHIPPED TO ENGLAND BY THE THOUSAND Have you ever thought it curious that all the songs of the moment invariably hail from across the Atlantic? I mean, one might almost imagine that only Americans can write good jazz music.

There are big corporations on Broadway employing dozens of song writers; although their methods might well bring distress to Gilbert and Sullivan. For instance, the words are written to the music; seldom the music to the words, a procedure productive of the best results, I am told, in the English language, says a London writer. The lyric writer then steps in and jots down a dummy rhythm—just any words that fit the music. Then he goes away into the lyric writing department and produces his little verse. Few—they tell me—of the great song successes of the day are the result of pure inspiration. This, then, is the birth of the song. So far, not so bad.

The trouble arises when these songs are shipped across the Atlantic, just like so much crockery or hardware, and dumped in London. The firms here who work in association with the New York houses simply sell the copies on a percentage basis; there is no risk; they all “sell like hot cakes!” I sympathise most completely with the point of view of the enterprising London publishing houses, “Why should we want to publish songs by English writers when we can get more than we want without any trouble at all from America?” Behind each move in this vast business of selling the public songs moves the shadow of the “ballyhoo” merchant. It is he who arranges with the pro ducers of a certain show that they can have the exclusive performing rights of a certain number on the condition that they “plug” it not less than fourteen times during each performance. It is he who writes those luscious lines that compare “Wow” Glooper with Wagner, to the discredit of the latter. It is he who arranges that an army of music-hall artists shall sing “Green Skies Lead to Heaven, Darling,” wherever they go. . . . Ah! there are some men with high ideals in the world of music these days, I can tell you. I know of one man who, in the sacred cause of art, swore to sell 50,000 copies of a single song in one month. And he did it! Yes, he did it: in face of every difficulty. Who can but envy those of the theatre who work in close association jvvith men o£ such high purpose?

“Rose Marie,” opening in Auckland j on December 21, is said to be the most spectacular musical comedy J. C. Williamson has ever sent to the Dominion. The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company at His Majesty’s Theatre is enjoying the success it deserves. The operas have all the charm aflU! freshness of something new, despite their age in years. Marie Burke writes me from Sydney that she is sailing next week for Egypt where she will stay with her sister and then go on to England and later America. Miss Burke says that she hopes to do vaudeville work in the States. Earl Carroll, the famous New York producer, who was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for his celebrated champagne bath-tub party, has been released on parole after serving for four months. New York papers print tearful stories of the “great” man's return and family reunion. “Outward Bound,” which has been extremely popular in Australia, was revived in Melbourne last week at the Theatre Royal. As before, Zillah Bateman appeared as Ann, Peter Gawthorne as the Examnier, and B. N. Lewin as the Charon-like steward Scrubby; but Ronald Ward was the dissolute youth Prior. Reginald Wykeham the pro fiteer Lingley, F. St. H. Jellicoe the Rev. William Duke, and Emma Temple Mrs. Midget, the charwoman. All these were in the Sydney cast. In one visit to Australia Mr. Ward took part in “The Man from Toronto,” and more re cently he was in the revival of “Aren’t We All?” and in other Boucicault and Williamson productions.