Word: berlin
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...Blue Skies," 1926. This slightly jazzy, plenty-perky number earned a #1 for Ben Selvin and registered five other hits in 1927; the same year it was the first song performed in the first talkie, Jolson?s "The Jazz Singer." In 1946, the year the Berlin oldies musical "Blue Skies" was released, the title tune returned to the pop charts, twice: #8 with Count Basie and #9 with Benny Goodman. Finally, Willie Nelson made the song a #1 country hit in 1978 - 52 years after it was written...
...Marie," 1929. The dawn broke for this genial lilter with a waltz-time hit (#2) by Rudy Vallee. Then the moon in all its splendor shone on Berlin in 1937, when a Tommy Dorsey version, in swingin' 4/4 time, reached #1. It was also a #13 charter for the Four Tunes in 1953 and a #15 for the Bachelors in 1965 - 36 years after its first appearance...
...Puttin? on the Ritz," 1930. This instant standard, with one of Berlin's most intricately syncopated choruses, is associated with Fred Astaire, who danced to it in the 1946 "Blue Skies." But Astaire was the third star to sing it on film. First was Harry Richman, who had a #1 hit when he premiered the song in a 1930 film of the same name. Dear Mr. Gable "sang" it in "Idiot?s Delight," in 1939; then Astaire made it his own. For Mel Brooks fans, the definitive rendition is by Peter Boyle, as the top-hatted monster...
...Berlin, suffering from a bout of self-doubt, had written, then written off this pleading ballad (along with another plaint, "How Deep Is the Ocean?"). Then a Berlin associate let megaphone man Rudy Vallee perform it on his radio show. The song was a #1 hit for George Olsen and awarded top-10 perches to versions by Connee Boswell and Ozzie Nelson?s band. In her pop-diva phase, Aretha Franklin had a minor flurry with her single of the song in 1963 - 31 years later...
...Love to Keep Me Warm," 1937. A high-stepping replay of the reverse-weather-report love song "Isn't This a Lovely Day (To Be Caught in the Rain)," which Berlin wrote for Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the 1935 film "Top Hat." Why didn?t he give it to Astaire, instead of handing it Dick Powell for the 1937 "On the Avenue"? Anyway, the song was a hit, with four top-12 versions (including Billie Holiday?s). It cuddled up and went to sleep for a dozen years; and then, when Les Brown revived the tune, it woke...