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Yesterdays (1933)

Origin and Chart Information
Roberta starred Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers and once again was well received on the strength of the Kern-Harbach score* as well as the Astaire-Rogers dance routines.

- JW

Rank 9
Music

Jerome Kern

Lyrics Otto Harbach

On November 18, 1933, “Yesterdays” was introduced to a New Amsterdam Theater audience. The song was included in the score of Roberta, a Broadway musical that would enjoy a successful run of 295 performances. “Yesterdays” was an instant hit, appearing on the recording charts a week after the show opened. The recording by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra (Frank Luther, vocal) would climb all the way to third place.

 

Chart information used by permission from
Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954

Roberta, based on Alice Duer Miller’s novel, Gowns by Roberta, told the story of a college football player who inherits a dress shop in Paris. The plot was panned as overly romantic and just plain ridiculous; however, the songs purportedly saved what was to be Jerome Kern’s last successful Broadway show. Along with “Yesterdays” the score included such notable songs as “I’ll Be Hard to Handle,” “Let’s Begin,” and “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.” The Herald Tribune reported that there was a “sudden outburst of public whistling, humming, and crooning of its score.”

Hot on the heels of its Broadway success, Roberta found new life as a 1935 Hollywood musical. The film starred Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers and once again was well received on the strength of the Kern-Harbach score* as well as the Astaire-Rogers dance routines. The 1952 remake, Lovely to Look At, was not as well reviewed.

Another major strength of the original Broadway run was a stellar cast that included Tamara, Lyda Roberti, Sydney Greenstreet, George Murphy, Bob Hope and Fred MacMurray. Fay Templeton was given the honor of performing the lovely “Yesterdays”

 

Fay Templeton was born into a theatrical family and toured with her own light opera company in the early 1880’s. (more...)

Jerome Kern was slow to embrace new styles, and there is considerable discussion about his 1930’s melodies clinging to the qualities of an operetta. Author-editor-publicist Eric Myers says, “Jerome Kern had planned Roberta as a semi-operetta along the lines of his previous hits, The Cat and the Fiddle and Music in the Air. What finally emerged was closer to traditional musical comedy, although the refulgent melodies of “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “The Touch of Your Hand” and “Yesterdays” definitely have their roots in the florid ground of operetta.”

 

Jerome Kern was an established composer of popular song who no doubt influenced young up-and-comers George (more...)

 

Otto Harbach gave up careers as professor of English, New York newspaperman, and advertising executive for the (more...)

*According to Clive Hirschhorn’s book Hollywood Musicals the film Roberta retained four of the show’s original numbers, “Let’s Begin,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “Yesterdays,” and “I'll Be Hard to Handle,” the latter with new lyrics by Bernard Dougall. Three more were used as background music and two were commissioned from Kern and lyricist Dorothy Fields: “Lovely to Look At” and “I Won’t Dance” which was originally written by Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II for a London show called Three Sisters.

Music and Lyrics Analysis

Written without a verse, “Yesterdays” is not as well known in the pop world as the other Roberta hit “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” As a jazz standard, however, it has been recorded by nearly twice as many instrumentalists and vocalists, due in part to its chord progressions.

Operetta qualities, beyond Kern’s melody, come through in such Otto Harbach lyrics as “Joyous free and flaming life” “Forsooth was mine.” His message is not one of lost love, as with “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” but of lost youth. The lines, “Sad am I,” “Glad am I,” speak of the mixture of pain and joy in remembering “mad romance” and “gay youth.” -JW

Musical analysis of “Yesterdays”

Original Key C minor
Form A – B – A – B
Tonality Minor throughout
Movement Slow; sustained pitches in the lower range, followed by an eight-note ascending scale and more sustained pitches in the upper range

Comments     (assumed background)

This is a dark and haunting tune. The melody has little substance, but the chord progression – similar to “Alone Together” in the first four bars (i – vi – ii7 – V7) and the chromatic descent of “My Funny Valentine” in the second four (in the present key, Cm – G7/B – Eb/Bb – Am7(b5) – has proven popular among jazz improvisers. A cycle-of-fifths progression in mm. 9-12, leading to Ab and Db, surprises the ear as it moves up a half-step to ii7 and then descends chromatically back to the tonic.
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).
Musician's Comments

“Yesterdays” is a great jazz standard penned by one of the most prolific of the American Songbook’s writers, Jerome Kern. The melody is strong and easily played or sung, and the tune works at any tempo. The changes consist of a simple minor turnaround that’s repeated, a middle section with a cycle of dominant chords, and a quick resolution to a major. The progression is fun to play on and lends itself to endless variations and embellishments. It’s a little gem.

John Stowell, jazz guitarist
www.johnstowell.com


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Soundtrack Information
Yesterdays” was included in these films:
  • Roberta (1935, Irene Dunne)
  • Till The Clouds Roll By (1946, Chorus)
  • Lovely to Look At (1952, Kathryn Grayson)

And on the small screen:

Also on This Page...

Music & Lyrics Analysis
Musician's Comments
Soundtracks

Jazz History Notes
Also by the Same Writers...
Reading & Research

CD Recommendations for This Tune
Click on a CD for more details at Amazon.com
Charles Mingus

Mingus Three
1997, Blue Note 57155
Original recording, 1957
This album contains a version highlighting wonderful dialogue between bass player Mingus, pianist Hampton Hawes, and drummer Dannie Richmond.

Elmo Hope

Hope Full
1995, Original Jazz Classics 1872
Original recording, 1961
On this arrangement hard bop pianist Elmo Hope is joined by his wife Bertha in a great piano duo.

Buddy Rich/Max Roach

Rich vs. Roach
1991, Polygram 826987
Original recording, 1959
What seems like a novelty act actually means twice the value for the listener. The Buddy Rich Quintet dukes it out with the Max Roach Quintet as each group is fed through opposite channels in the recording.

John Bishop/Jeff Johnson/Rick Mandyck/John Stowell

Scenes
2003, Origin Records
This quartet of drums, bass, tenor sax, and guitar makes a new, freewheeling creation of “Yesterdays” before returning to the melody.

Fred Hersch/Bill Frisell

Songs We Know
1998, NoneSuch 79468
Spontaneous and intimate, “Yesterdays” allows guitarist Frisell and pianist Hersch to showcase their innate sense of camaraderie and obvious reverence for the music.
Jazz History Notes

Clarinetist and bandleader Artie Shaw had a great disdain for most of the output of Tin Pan Alley, which he derided on many occasions as “crap.” But then Shaw pointed out that the music of the great craftsmen of song---Porter, Kern, Gershwin, Rodgers---is music worth playing.

Shaw’s approach definitely had a strong impact on the bebop generation of musicians who tended to favor Shaw’s playing and his band over his rival, Benny Goodman. The Shaw discography lists many tunes that became standards for the next generations. A case in point is Artie’s recording of “Yesterdays,” not so much for being innovative but for the excellent arrangement and musicianship on a song not often played by swing bands.

Chris Tyle - Jazz Musician and Historian


Artie Shaw

Artie Shaw, 1938
Classics 965
Written by the Same Composer or Team...
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.

Otto Harbach and Jerome Kern

YearRankTitle
19339“Yesterdays”
193399“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”

Dorothy Fields, Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern and Jimmy McHugh

YearRankTitle
1935999“I Won’t Dance”
Reading and Research

Additional information on “Yesterdays” may be found in:


4 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.

Includes the following types of information: song lyrics.

2 paragraphs including the following types of information: lyric analysis and music analysis.

2 paragraphs including the following types of information: history.

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