The Complete Lyrics of Frank Loesser - Hardcover

Kimball, Robert; Nelson, Steve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679450599 ISBN 13: 9780679450597

Publisher: Knopf, 2003

Synopsis

“Frank Loesser could write authoritatively in virtually any style and, frankly, did,” observed composer-lyricist Maury Yeston. “A genius melodist and a supergenius lyricist, only he would ever rhyme ‘pelts’ with ‘else’ [“Take Back Your Mink”] or ‘India’ with ‘been to ya’ [“They’re Either Too Young or Too Old”] while simultaneously combining a crackling intellect with a heart as big as the moon.”

Frank Loesser–who, like Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, wrote both music and lyrics for his shows–has been called the most versatile of Broadway composers. His five musicals are among Broadway’s most creative and enduring achievements: Where’s Charley?, Guys and Dolls (for which he won his first Tony Award), The Most Happy Fella, Greenwillow, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (for which he won both the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize). But well before Loesser wrote his first show, he was known to America for the song hits of his Hollywood career, including the Oscar-winning “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” “On a Slow Boat to China,” “Two Sleepy People,” “Heart and Soul,” “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You,” and “Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year,” as well as the wartime hit “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.”

Robert Kimball and Steve Nelson have gathered lyrics from such varied sources as rare private recordings, the personal files of Frank Loesser, and the archives of various film studios. Here, too, are photographs of the stars who helped make Loesser’s songs famous, such as Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Marlene Dietrich, Ray Bolger, and Betty Hutton. Kimball and Nelson’s research has yielded many previously “lost” lyrics, making it possible for the first time to fully grasp the extent of Frank Loesser’s extraordinary talent.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Kimball was educated at Yale College and Yale Law School. He has been the music critic of the New York Post and is the co-author or editor of several books on musical theater, including Cole, the celebrated book about Cole Porter that he edited with Brendan Gill. He also edited Knopf’s four previous books in the Complete Lyrics series. He is co-editor, with Robert Gottlieb, of Reading Lyrics. Mr. Kimball lives in New York.

Steve Nelson is a professor of musical theater at New York University and the producer of the Songwriter Series for the Library of Congress, which releases recordings of Broadway songwriters performing their own material. He is also the author of Only a Paper Moon: The Theatre of Billy Rose. Mr. Nelson lives in New York.

From Booklist:

The fifth of Kimball and Nelson's big, square, lavishly illustrated books full of the best American words ever set to music corrals the complete songs of a figure who somehow always gets second billing to Hart, Hammerstein, Porter, and Ira Gershwin. Perhaps Loesser (1910-69) wasn't as consistently witty as Hart, as romantic as Hammerstein, or as both as Porter and Ira. But he wrote words and music for Guys and Dolls; the "operatic" Most Happy Fella (the major through-sung show between Porgy and Bess and Sondheim); and the Pulitzer Prize-winning How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Great shows, all of 'em. And how about "Baby, It's Cold Outside," his Oscar winner? Rodgers himself said it was one of the best songs he'd ever heard. And after Coltrane and Sheila Jordan, what self-respecting bopper doesn't blow Loesser's "Inch Worm" (from the movie Hans Christian Andersen)? Stands to reason that the trove containing stuff that good has scads more as good or close. It does, it does. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0679450599
• ISBN 13: 9780679450597
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352