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“A reconstructed
full-score recording of
St. Louis Woman has become
available as a result of the Manhattan
City Center Theater Encores!
Series.”
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- JW
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“Come Rain or Come Shine” was
introduced by
Ruby Hill and
Harold Nicholas in the Broadway
musical St. Louis Woman.
Set in St. Louis in 1898, the
story revolved around Della Green
(Hill), a woman who wants out of
her relationship with bar owner
Biglow Brown (Rex Ingram) when she
falls for Li’l Augie, (Nicholas),
a jockey on a winning streak. The
show opened on March 30, 1946, at
the Martin Beck Theatre to lackluster
reviews and attendance and closed
after only 113 performances.
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St. Louis Woman was beset
with problems before it even opened.
Songwriter Harold Arlen and lyricist
Yip Harburg had just scored
two successes with Metro Goldwyn
Mayer’s
Wizard of Oz, for which
they won an Academy Award for Best
Song, and the long-running Broadway
musical, Bloomer Girl (1944).
Profiting from stakes in both productions,
MGM was eager to back Arlen’s
St. Louis Woman, an all-black
show based on Arna Bontemps’ first
published novel,
God Sends Sunday (1931).
MGM was further willing to provide
Lena Horne as the leading lady,
and Johnny Mercer signed on to write
the lyrics. Lightning did not strike
again. Author and critic Steven
Suskin, in
Playbill Online, comments,
Trouble arose
before they even got out of
the gate. The NAACP denounced
the show for “offering roles
that detract from the dignity
of our race.” Horne withdrew,
announcing that St. Louis
Woman sets the Negro back
one hundred years.”
Additional setbacks followed,
including the death of the co-librettist
and the dismissals of various cast
and crewmembers.
In spite of its problems,
St. Louis Woman did have the
Arlen/Mercer score going for it.
Pearl Bailey, in her extraordinary
Broadway debut, sang the show-stopping
“Legalize My Name” and “It’s A Woman’s
Prerogative,” winning the Donaldson
Award as the best newcomer of the
year. Also included in the score
were, “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is
Home,” “Ridin’ on the Moon,” “And
I Had Myself a True Love,” and of
course, the jazz standard, “Come
Rain or Come Shine.”
“Come Rain or Come Shine” became
a modest hit during the show’s run,
making the pop charts with a Margaret
Whiting (Paul
Weston and His Orchestra) recording
rising to number seventeen, and,
shortly after, a Helen Forrest and
Dick Haymes recording rising to
number twenty-three.
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In Max Wilk’s
They're Playing Our Song: Conversations
With America's Classic Songwriters,
Johnny Mercer is quoted as saying
that finding the right mood for
a song is the luckiest thing that
can happen to a lyric-writer. Mercer
goes on to characterize “Come Rain
or Come Shine” as “a really simple
way of saying ‘I love you’ … the
way a guy in a saloon would feel
it.”
On the S. A. (Samuel Arlen) Music
website for Harold Arlen, the lyrics
are discussed further.
Harold played the tune for Johnny,
the lyricist liked it and even came
up with a fitting opening line,
“I’m gonna love you, like nobody’s
loved you,” after which he paused
for a moment. Into the brief silence
Arlen jokingly injected, “Come hell
or high water...,” to which Mercer
reacted by saying, “Of course, why
didn’t I think of that - ‘Come rain
or come shine.’”.
For those interested in hearing
the full score of St. Louis Woman,
there is a relatively recent recording
available. In 1998 the City Center
Theater in Manhattan revived
St. Louis Woman, starring Vanessa
Williams, as part of their Encores!
Series. The score had to be reconstructed
from second source material, as
every bit of original orchestrated
material had been lost. The cast
recording is available on the Decca
Broadway label,
St. Louis Woman (1998 Encores!/City
Center Cast).
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While many of the great song composers used repeated
notes as a device to build tension and emphasize
their harmonies, Harold Arlen, as a rule, was not
one of them. “Come Rain or Come Shine,” however,
is not just a rare Arlen exception; it may very
well be the repeated-notes-champion among the top
jazz standards.
The song has a 4-bar introduction, no verse,
and a 32-bar refrain that may be diagrammed as A-B-C.
The A section and the B section (bridge) are both
eight bars. The C section is sixteen bars, the first
eight of those echoing the A section.
The A section begins with a repeated a
note (thirteen times!) and ends the first eight
bars by dropping to an f which is repeated
and then held. The second eight bars reprise the
first with one exception, the second measure starts
off with a c. The melody could not be much
flatter, providing a driving feeling that supports
Mercer’s insistent lyrics, “I’m going to love you
like nobody’s loved you…”
-JW
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Musical analysis of
“Come Rain or Come Shine”
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| Original
Key |
One flat,
starting in F major and ending in Dminor |
| Form |
A1 – B –
A2 – C |
| Tonality |
Unsettled;
goes back and forth between major and minor;
some shifting key centers |
| Movement |
Primarily
steps and small skips; large number of repeated
notes |
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Comments
(assumed
background)
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The initial harmonic progression is actually
quite simple and common, being a variation
of I – III7 – vi – II7 – V7 – I, but
the use of a vii๘7 after the opening I chord
leading to the III7 gives it a more sophisticated
sound. The “B” section is a bit more complicated.
It is actually in the parallel minor key,
starting with a iv – V7 – I sequence. The
next two measures descend by whole steps
from iv down to ii7 – V7 but then the melody
goes into a false key change by going to
a minor chord one step higher (functioning
as a ii7 of the old V7, which has now become
the new “tonic of the moment”). The following
sequence: i – vi๘7 – ii7 (embellished with
a bVI7 [augmented sixth] chord before the
ct๘7 based on a vi with a flatted fifth)
gets the progression back to the original
tonic when theV7 resolves to a I7 that becomes
the pivot chord and V7 of the original tonic
of Section “A.” At first glance/hearing,
Section “C” seems to be quite a detour,
but what sounds initially like deceptive
resolutions are actually variations of standard
ones. For example, Arlen’s original progression
at “C” was coming from a Dm chord: F#m11–
B7 – Em7 – A7, with one chord change per
measure. It sounds odd, but really all Arlen
is doing is leaving out some secondary dominants
(that could easily be included). Possible
chord progression here might be: F#m11 (four
beats), B7 (two beats) – E7 (two beats)
– A7 (eight beats). (An Em chord could be
thrown in for the last two beats of measure
7 of Section “A2” to avoid monotony.) After
this, the final “C” section does, indeed,
contain deceptive cadences and resolutions,
giving the aural impression that the song
will return to F major. Instead, when Arlen
reaches the II7 in measure four, he goes
not to the V7 (C7) but to D minor, finishing
the song with a cadence that leaves no doubt
that the tonic is now, indeed, that key.
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K. J. McElrath - Musicologist for JazzStandards.com
Check out K. J. McElrath's book of Jazz Standards Guide Tone Lines at his web site (www.bardicle.com). |
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“Come Rain or Come Shine” is a wonderful composition
with a fantastic melody and very challenging changes.
For the jazz musician, there are many openings for
altering the changes and heading in different directions
harmonically.
David
Friesen, jazz bassist
www.davidfriesen.net
Are you a published Vocalist or
Instrumentalist?
Add a comment and we'll credit you with a link
to your site. (more...)
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“Come Rain or Come Shine”
was included in these films:
- King of Comedy (1983, conflicting
information)
- For the Boys (1991, Bette
Midler)
- Forget Paris (1995, David
Sanborn)
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and
Evil (1997, Alison Eastwood)
- Harold Arlen: Somewhere over the Rainbow
(1998)
- The Other Sister (1999, Juliette
Lewis)
- Leaving Las Vegas (2000, Don
Henley)
- Stormy Weather: The Music of Harold
Arlen (2003, Sandra Bernhard)
And on stage:
- St. Louis Woman (1946, Ruby
Hill, Harold Nicholas) Broadway
- Free and Easy (1959) Amsterdam
and Paris "blues opera"
- Dream: The Johnny Mercer Musical
(1997) Broadway revue
- Wizard: The Music of Harold Arlen
(2004) cabaret
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Click on a CD for more details
at Amazon.com
Art Pepper
Intensity
1991, Orig. Jazz Classics 387
Original recording, 1960
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| Alto saxophonist Art Pepper’s heart
is on his sleeve as he delivers this deeply
moving reading of the ballad. The emotion
is genuine on this wistful track. |
Diane Schuur
Timeless
1990, GRP 9540
Original recording, 1986
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| The album’s “Timeless” title describes
the selections, the orchestral arrangements,
and vocalist Schuur’s soaring soprano, which
invests “Come Rain or Come Shine” with passion.
Among the guest artists is Stan Getz. |
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
Moanin’
1990, Blue Note 46516
Original recording, 1958
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| On this hard bop version of “Come
Rain or Come Shine” drummer Blakey gives
the song the Messenger touch with Benny
Golson’s sax and Lee Morgan’s trumpet coolly
punctuating a dynamite Bobby Timmons piano
solo. |
Bill Evans Trio
Portrait in Jazz
2001, Riverside Records
Original recording, 1959
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| Pianist Bill Evans is his usual
innovative self on this interpretation of
the song. His playing is discordant yet
sensitive as he reinvents the song with
the help of bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer
Paul Motian. |
Dinah Washington
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Collection, 1999, Recall
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| Vocalist Washington is all sass
and confidence on this wonderful live version
of the torch song classic. |
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Talented trumpet player Clifford Brown had a
brilliant career cut short by his untimely death
in an auto accident at age 25. However, during his
four years of recording he managed to leave a large
body of work with many great moments of jazz.
In Paris, as a member of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra
in 1953, Brown was in the studio with a small group
made up of his compatriots from the Hampton band,
performing arrangements written by Quincy Jones
(also a member of the Hampton group). On the CD
reissue of their recording of “Come Rain and Come
Shine” we have the opportunity to hear two takes
of the tune, illustrating Brown’s inventive genius.
(The album has multiple takes of other numbers also.)
Chris Tyle - Jazz Musician and Historian
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| This section shows the jazz standards
written by the same writing team. Click on a name
to see all of a writer's jazz standards.
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Additional information on “Come Rain or Come Shine” may be found in:
7 pages including the following types of information: history, lyric analysis, music analysis and song lyrics. (Book includes CD).
1 paragraph including the following types of information: history and performers.
3 paragraphs including the following types of information: music analysis.
5 pages including the following types of information: music analysis.
1 paragraph including the following types of information: summary.
1 paragraph including the following types of information: history and performers.
1 page including the following types of information: anecdotal and history.
Includes the following types of information: song lyrics.
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