The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer

Overview

The seventh volume in Knopf's critically acclaimed Complete Lyrics series, published in Johnny Mercer's centennial year, contains the texts to more than 1,200 of his lyrics, several hundred of them published here for the first time.

Johnny Mercer's early songs became staples of the big band era and were regularly featured in the musicals of early Hollywood. With his collaborators, who included Richard A. Whiting, Harry Warren, Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, and Harold Arlen, he wrote the lyrics to some of the most famous standards, among them, "Too Marvelous for Words," "Jeepers Creepers," "Skylark," "I'm Old-Fashioned," and "That Old Black Magic."

During a career of more than four decades, Mercer was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song an astonishing eighteen times, and won four: for his lyrics to "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe" (music by Warren), "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (music by Carmichael), and "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses" (music for both by Henry Mancini).

You've probably fallen in love with more than a few of Mercer's songs-his words have never gone out of fashion-and with this superb collection, it's easy to see that his lyrics elevated popular song into art.

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Author Information

Bio of Robert Kimball

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 many books on musical theater, including Cole, the celebrated book about Cole Porter that he edited with Brendan Gill. He also edited for the Complete Lyrics series the volumes of Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Frank Loesser. He is co-editor, with Robert Gottlieb, of Reading Lyrics. He lives in New York.

Bio of Barry Day

Barry Day is the author of books on No�l Coward, Oscar Wilde and P. G. Wodehouse. He was one of the original team that rebuilt Shakespeare's Globe playhouse on London's Bankside. He has published five Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels in England.

Bio of Miles Kreuger

No bio available for Miles Kreuger.

Bio of Johnny Mercer

No bio available for Johnny Mercer.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Knopf

Filesize

48.24 MB

Number of Pages

488

eBook ISBN

9780307273222