Johnny Burke

Now I don't think there was actually any songs in today's episode of Goodnight Sweetheart so we're going to look at the episode title which if you don't know all Goodnight Sweetheart episode titles are based on song titles from back in the day.

Today's episode title was Pennies from Heaven and Pennies from Heaven was a song that was released in 1936 and it was written by by composer Arthur Johnston and lyricist Johnny Burke, and it was made famous by Bing Crosby in the film of the same name.

The song arrived during the Great Depression when millions of Americans were struggling financially.

Its cheerful message, imagining pennies falling from the sky, offered a little hope during difficult times.

During my undergraduate days, our school always had a fine glee club, and tonight it's my pleasure to play host to the members of the current excellent group who are visiting in Hollywood.

Here is the school song, Gonzaga Men, written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen, which has been adopted as official by all Gonzaga men.

I welcome this opportunity to sing in the university glee club at long last.

[audience laughs] [singing] To meet Gonzaga men is to hear Gonzaga's pray The nights that aren't forgotten, and the well-remembered days.

19, uh, 36 was a, a minor year for heart songs, I would say.

Titles include Let's Call a Heart a Heart, Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnson; Does Your Heart Beat for Me, Mitchell Parish, Russ Morgan, and Arnold Johnson; Take My Heart, Fred Ahlert and Joe Young; and The Curse of an Aching Heart by Henry Fink and Al Piantadosi.

And on we go to 1937 and a song written by Jack Lawrence, 1912-2009, and Peter Tinterin, 1910-2007.

We featured, uh, Jack before, although not in his own episode.

And in this movie, John Barrymore, slumming beyond belief, is bribed with a lucrative radio contract to turn Kay Kyser into a Shakespearean actor.

The movie also starred the comedian known as Ish Kabibble.

Anyway, speaking of slumming, RKO secured the services of a fine songwriting team for the picture, Jimmy Van Heusen, who's had two episodes here, and Johnny Burke, who's had one, and they wrote this monster heart song.

And this is the bad piano player and the nursery rhyme singer with Humpty Dumpty Heart.

Thank you.

So, It Could Happen to You is one of the many early successful ballads by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen dating back to 1944.

Again, Kenny takes over the spotlight first to outline the melody, but this time Jimmy takes over from him at the halfway mark.

Notice how closely he adheres to the theme of his first 16 bars and how smoothly he makes a transition into free blowing on the next chorus with Kenny feeding soft, supple chords.

Louis or Louis Alter, lyrics by Sidney Mitchell.

Pennies from Heaven from the film Pennies from Heaven, music by Arthur Johnston, lyrics by Johnny Burke.

The Way You Look Tonight from the film Swing Time, music by Jeremy Kern, lyrics by Dorothy Fields.

When Did You Leave Heaven (Sing, Baby, Sing), music by Richard A. Whiting, lyrics by Walter Bullock.

Then we went to a session in 1938 with a smaller group out of the Lewis Russell Orchestra, and we heard the Four Sides recorded then.

James Monaco and Johnny Burke's On the Sentimental Side, vocal number It's Wonderful, and then Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer's Something Tells Me and Gershwin's Love Walked In.

From there, we went to the great up-tempo Tour de Force from 1936 with Horace Gerlach, Swing That Music.

And finally, we've been listening to a session from 1939 of Lewis Russell Orchestra.