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Harold Arlen ( February 15, 1905 - April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music.
Arlen was born Hyman Arluck, in Buffalo, New York, the child of a Jewish cantor. He learned the piano as a youth and formed a band as a young man. He achieved some local success as a pianist and singer and moved to New York City in his early 20s. As this point, he changed his name to Harold Arlen. He performed on record with the "Buffalodians" orchestra, as well as those of Red Nichols, Henny Hendrickson and Arnold Johnson.
In 1929, Arlen composed his first well-known song: "Get Happy" (with lyrics by Ted Koehler). Throughout the early and mid-1930s, Arlen and Koehler wrote shows for the Cotton Club, a popular Harlem night club, as well as BroadwayThis article is about the street in New York City. For other articles with the name Broadway, see: Broadway (disambiguation). Broadway as the name implies, is a big, wide avenue in New York City, New York, and is one of the main north-south thoroughfares musicalsMusical theater is a form of theater combining music, songs, dance, and spoken dialogue. It is closely related to opera, frequently being distinguished by the use of popular music of various forms (and thus usually different instrumentation), the use of u and HollywoodFor other uses, see Hollywood (disambiguation Hollywood is a district of the City of Los Angeles, California, U. that runs from about Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the wes filmsA musical film belongs to a film genre that features songs, sung by the actors, interwoven into the narrative. The songs are usually used to advance the plot or develop the film's characters. A sub-genre of the musical is the musical comedy, which include. Arlen also continued to perform with some success, most notably on records with Leo Reisman's society dance orchestra.
Arlen's compositions have always been popular with jazzFor other article subjects named Jazz see jazz (disambiguation). Jazz is a musical art form characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation. It has been called the first original art form to develop in th musicians because of his facility at incorporating a bluesBlues is a vocal and instrumental musical form which evolved from African American spirituals, shouts, work songs and chants and has its earliest stylistic roots in West Africa. Blues has been a major influence on later American and Western popular music, feeling into conventional American popular songs.
Alren and Koehler wrote the following hit songs during the early and mid-1930s:
In the mid-1930s, Arlen married, and spent increasingly more time in California, writing for movie musicals. It was at this time that he began working with lyricist Yip HarburgYip Harburg ( April 8, 1896 March 5, 1981) was a lyricist who worked with many well-known composers. Born Isidore Hochberg to immigrant parents on the Lower East Side of New York, his name was changed to Edgar Harburg . He is best known by his nickname, Y. In 1938, the team was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-MayerFor alternate meanings of "MGM", see MGM (disambiguation . Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM for short, is a large media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of cinema and television programs. Its principal subsidiaries are MGM (Metro-G to compose songs for The Wizard of Oz. The most famous of these is the song " Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
In the 1940s, Arlen teamed up with lyricist Johnny Mercer, and continued with song hits "Blues In The Night", and Ac-cent-uate The Positive".
Arlen, Harold Arlen, Harold Arlen