"Hooray for Hollywood" is a popular song first featured in the 1937 movie Hollywood Hotel , and which has since become (together with "That's Entertainment" and "There's No Business like Show Business") the staple soundtrack element of any Academy Awards ceremony. It is even frequently played during non-American movie ceremonies, e.g. the French César Awards. The popularity of the song is notably due to an exciting and memorable melody and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, which reference the American movie industry and satirize the desire to become a Hollywood movie star.
The music was composed by Richard A. Whiting. Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics. In the original movie it was sung by Johnnie Davis and Frances Langford, accompanied by Benny Goodman and his orchestra.
Its lyrics can be difficult to fully understand today, as they refer to people (e.g. Aimee Semple) or cultural elements (e.g. rotos) which have since been largely forgotten. The lyrics have also evolved over the years. Notably, the line "where any shopgirl can be a top girl, if she pleases the tired businessman" vanished quite quickly, and is absent from the 1958 Doris Day version, having been replaced with "and any barmaid can be a star made if she dances with or without a fan" The latter part of the line refers to Sally Rand and her fan dance. Today the song is performed mostly as a melody. It also includes reference to Walt Disney and his cartoons with the lines "You could be Donald Duck."
Broadway Melody of 1936 is a musical film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1935. In New York, the film opened at the Capitol Theatre, the site of many prestigious MGM premieres. It was a follow-up of sorts to the successful The Broadway Melody, which had been released in 1929, although, there is no story connection with the earlier film beyond the title and some music.
John Herndon Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallichs.
Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, including "Over the Rainbow", which won him the Oscar for Best Original Song, he was nominated as composer for 8 other Oscar awards. Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow" was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the RIAA and the NEA.
"Mah Nà Mah Nà" is a popular song by Italian composer Piero Umiliani. It originally appeared in the Italian film Sweden: Heaven and Hell. It was a minor radio hit in the United States and in Britain, but became better known internationally for its use by the Muppets and on The Benny Hill Show.
Richard Armstrong Whiting was an American composer of popular songs, including the standards "Hooray for Hollywood", "Ain't We Got Fun?" and "On the Good Ship Lollipop". He also wrote lyrics occasionally, and film scores most notably for the standard "She's Funny That Way".
Forbidden Hollywood is a parody show that opened Off-Off-Broadway and was taped live in Hollywood. It was created by Gerard Alessandrini, who also created the popular series of Off-Broadway parodies of Broadway theatre, Forbidden Broadway. But this production, instead of spoofing Broadway, lampooned popular films such as Forrest Gump, Sense and Sensibility, Pulp Fiction, Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz and Disney's Aladdin, and songs featured in them, although most of the score consists of songs from musicals used to comment on the films. It also spoofs movie stars like Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves, Barbra Streisand, Ann-Margret and Whoopi Goldberg. A New York Times reviewer wrote that although the production had funny moments, "the tone that defines the show is a glib disaffection for Hollywood", lamenting that the show missed the opportunity to use more songs from films, and concluding: "It's fine if Mr. Alessandrini wants to see Hollywood as the enemy, but you have to know your enemy to take good aim at it."
Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds, and featuring Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell, Rita Moreno and Cyd Charisse in supporting roles. It offers a lighthearted depiction of Hollywood in the late 1920s, with the three stars portraying performers caught up in the transition from silent films to "talkies".
"I Got Rhythm" is a piece composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and published in 1930, which became a jazz standard. Its chord progression, known as the "rhythm changes", is the foundation for many other popular jazz tunes such as Charlie Parker's and Dizzy Gillespie's bebop standard "Anthropology ".
"Blues in the Night" is a popular blues song which has become a pop standard and is generally considered to be part of the Great American Songbook. The music was written by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for a 1941 film begun with the working title Hot Nocturne, but finally released as Blues in the Night. The song is sung in the film by William Gillespie.
"Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" is a popular song written in 1928 by Cole Porter. It was introduced in Porter's first Broadway success, the musical Paris (1928) by French chanteuse Irène Bordoni, for whom Porter had written the musical as a starring vehicle.
"The Man that Got Away" is a torch song, published in 1953 and written for the 1954 version of the film A Star Is Born. The music was written by Harold Arlen, and the lyrics by Ira Gershwin. In 1954, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. In 2004, Judy Garland's performance of the song was selected by the American Film Institute as the eleventh greatest song in American cinema history.
Dennis Day was an American actor, comedian and singer. He was of Irish descent.
"Polly Wolly Doodle" is a traditional American children's song. It was sung by Dan Emmett's Virginia Minstrels, who premiered at New York's Bowery Amphitheatre in February 1843, and is often credited to Emmett (1815–1904).
"Big Spender" is a song written by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields for the musical Sweet Charity, first performed in 1966. Peggy Lee was the first artist to record the song for her album of the same name also that year. It is sung, in the musical, by the dance hostess girls; it was choreographed by Bob Fosse for the Broadway musical and the 1969 film. It is set to the beat of a striptease as the girls taunt the customers.
"Makin' Whoopee" is a jazz/blues song, first popularized by Eddie Cantor in the 1928 musical Whoopee!. Gus Kahn wrote the lyrics and Walter Donaldson composed the music for the song as well as for the entire musical.
"You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)" is a popular song from 1913 composed by James V. Monaco with lyrics by Joseph McCarthy. It was introduced by Al Jolson in the Broadway revue The Honeymoon Express (1913), and used in the 1973 revival of the musical Irene.
"The Gold Diggers' Song " is a song from the 1933 Warner Bros. film Gold Diggers of 1933, sung in the opening sequence by Ginger Rogers and chorus. The entire song is never performed in the 1933 movie, though it introduces the film in the opening scene. Later in the movie, the tune is heard off stage in rehearsal as the director continues a discussion on camera about other matters.
"There's a Small Hotel" is a 1936 song composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. Originally written for but dropped from the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo (1935), it was used in On Your Toes (1936), where it was introduced by Ray Bolger and Doris Carson, and repeated by Jack Whiting and Vera Zorina in the London West End production that opened on 5 February 1937, at the Palace Theatre.
Hollywood Hotel is a 1937 American romantic musical comedy film, directed by Busby Berkeley, starring Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, Hugh Herbert, Ted Healy, Glenda Farrell and Johnnie Davis, featuring Alan Mowbray and Mabel Todd, and with Allyn Joslyn, Grant Mitchell and Edgar Kennedy.
"The Lonesome Road" is a 1927 song with music by Nathaniel Shilkret and lyrics by Gene Austin, alternately titled "Lonesome Road", "Look Down that Lonesome Road" and "Lonesome Road Blues." It was written in the style of an African American folk song.