Word & Song by Anthony Esolen

Share this post

Stormy Weather

anthonyesolen.substack.com
Sometimes a Song

Stormy Weather

Music: Harold Arlen; Lyrics: Ted Koehler

Debra Esolen
Oct 1, 2022
13
Share this post

Stormy Weather

anthonyesolen.substack.com

American popular music was already sizzling in the 1930’s, but even in a hot market Sometimes a Song can become iconic overnight. “Stormy Weather” was such a song, written by a prolific composer whose name few people recognized in his own day and fewer still recognize now. But Harold Arlen was well known and highly respected by professional singers and musicians and other lyricists with whom he worked, among them the likes of Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, and Oscar Hammerstein. During his career, Arlen composed over five hundred songs, including too many American Songbook standards to list here. If Arlen himself was something of an “unsung” musical hero, his songs were most definitely sung everywhere and all the time in the U.S. and around the world. And if you’ve heard “Over the Rainbow” — or any of the songs from The Wizard of Oz — or "It’s only a Paper Moon,” or “That Old Black Magic,” or “One for My Baby,” or Judy Garland’s other signature piece, “The Man That Got Awa…

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Word & Song by Anthony Esolen to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
Previous
Next
© 2023 Anthony Esolen
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing