merubin75 --
The song that interests you is "Are You Havin' Any Fun." It was
written by Sammy Fain (music) and Jack Yellen (lyrics) for a Broadway
production called "George White's Scandals of 1939."
For copyright reasons I can?t post the complete lyrics here, but they
are conveniently available at this linked Web page:
Lyrics Playground: "Are You Havin' Any Fun"
http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/a/areyouhavinanyfun.shtml
Here's an excerpt from the chorus, which I am sure you will recognize:
"You ain't gonna live forever
Before you're old and gray, still okay
Have yourself some fun, son
Have yourself some fun
This song is not one of Fain's or Yellen's best-known tunes, although
it has often been recorded, and the Tony Bennett version is certainly
one of the most popular. The rather obscure show in which it
appeared, "George White's Scandals of 1939," was the last of a series
of revues produced by White that were similar in style and content to
the more famous "Ziegfeld Follies." There is conflicting information
about who sang the song in the show, with one source saying it was
Ella Logan and another saying it was The Three Stooges. My guess is
that it was probably both.
While White's revues were successful annual events from 1919 to 1926,
popular tastes changed and the frequency and length of their runs
diminished, with the 1939 version running from August 28 to December 9
of that year. Here is a link to an interesting description of White
and his productions:
PBS: Stars Over Broadway: George White
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/white_g.html
As for the songwriters, Sammy Fain (1902-1989) had a long career
writing popular songs, including many for Broadway and for Hollywood,
working with many of the best lyricists of the time. His better
known tunes range from "Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of
Mine" (1929) to "That Old Feeling" (1937) to 1950s hits like "Secret
Love" and "Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing." Here is a link to
biographical information about Fain:
Big Bands Database: Composers/Lyricists
http://nfo.net/cal/tf1.html#Fain
Jack Yellen (1892-1991) lived to the age of 99, but his most
productive period of lyric writing was in the 1920s and 1930s. His
most famous hits included "Ain't She Sweet," "Hard-Hearted Hannah,"
and the immortal "Happy Days Are Here Again." Here is a link to some
biographical information about Yellen:
Big Bands Database: Composers/Lyricists
http://nfo.net/cal/ty1.html
Search Strategy:
I am familiar with the song, so I used a Google search on its title
(including "havin'" with its apostrophe) to find the show in which in
appeared and its songwriters, and then did more focused searches to
fill out the information for you. Here are a few of those searches:
"are you havin OR having any fun"
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&q=%22are+you+havin+OR+having+any+fun%22+
"george white's scandals" 1939
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&q=%22george+white%27s+scandals%22+1939
"are you havin OR having any fun" fain lyrics
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&q=%22are+you+havin+OR+having+any+fun%22+fain+lyrics
I am confident that is the information you are seeking. If anything
is unclear, please ask for clarification before rating the answer.
markj-ga |
