# 3100-03 FDC - 1996 32c Songwriters

US #3100-03
1996 Songwriters

• First Day Cover
• Features four legendary Songwriters
• 8^th pane in the Legends of Music series
• Stamps were issued on same day as Big Band Leaders stamps in same series

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Set:  American Music series
Value:  32¢, First-Class mail rate
First Day of Issue:  September 11, 1996
First Day City:  New York, New York
Printed by:  Ashton-Potter (USA) Ltd.
Printing Method:  Lithographed
Format:  Panes of 20 (4 across, 5 down) from plates of 120 (12 across, 10 down)
Perforations:  11.1 x 11

Why the stamp was issued:  The five stamps in the Songwriters set honor two talented composers - Harold Arlen and Hoagy Carmichael - and two lyricists – Johnny Mercer and Dorothy Fields.

About the stamp design:  The portraits of the four big band leaders were made by Bill Nelson, who works in colored pencils on recycled charcoal paper.  He had previously designed album covers for big band recordings compiled by Time-Life Records.

First Day City:  The set of songwriters stamps was dedicated at Shubert Alley in New York City.  The Big Band Leaders stamps from the same series were issued at the same time.  It kicked off the US Postal Service’s American Music Stamp Festival 1996.  Family members of the people featured on the stamps were present at the ceremony.

About the Legends of American Music Series:  The Legends of American Music Series debuted on January 8, 1993, and ran until September 21, 1999.  More than 90 artists are represented from all styles of music:  rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm and blues, country and western, jazz and pop, opera and classical, gospel and folk.  In addition to individual singers and Broadway musicals, subjects include band leaders, classical composers, Hollywood songwriters and composers, conductors, lyricists, and more.  The Legends of American Music Series was a huge advancement for diversity because it honored many Black and female artists.

History the stamp represents:  Honored as part of the Legends of American Music series in 1996 were four of the most popular and successful lyricists and composers of all time - Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Dorothy Fields, and Hoagy Carmichael. The talents of these individuals gave us such popular songs as "Over the Rainbow," "Jeepers Creepers," "I'm in the Mood for Love," and "Stardust."

Harold Arlen: Harold Arlen showed great musical promise early in life. However, he rejected formal training in favor of playing nightclubs. Later a composer convinced him to write music for one of his piano pieces, which with the lyrics of Ted Koehler became the song “Get Happy.” Arlen began working for a music publishing company, and produced the songs “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” and “I’ve Got the World on a String.”
Arlen produced scores for the Broadway musicals You Said It, Life Begins at 8:40, Hooray for What?, Bloomer Girl, St. Louis Woman, and Saratoga. For Hollywood films Arlen wrote, among others, “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “Let’s Fall in Love,” “That Old Black Magic,” and Groucho Marx’s theme song, “Lydia the Tatoo’d Lady.”
Other popular Arlen songs include: “Blues in the Night,” “I Love a Parade,” and “Stormy Weather.” His song “Over the Rainbow,” with lyrics by E.Y. Hapburg, was introduced by Judy Garland in the film The Wizard of Oz, and won an Academy Award. Garland also premiered Arlen’s, “The Man that Got Away,” with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, in the movie A Star is Born. Gershwin collaborated with Arlen again for the film Country Girl, starring Bing Crosby.

Johnny Mercer: John Herndon Mercer was born on November 18, 1909, in Savannah, Georgia.  A lyricist, songwriter, and singer, Mercer wrote more than 1,500 songs during his career, many of which were popularized in films and on Broadway.
Mercer grew up with a natural appreciation for music.  His grandmother said he would hum songs when he was six months old, and both of his parents sang to him.  The family also had a summer home surrounded by mossy trees and saltwater mosses that would later inspire some of Mercer’s songs.
Mercer began singing in a choir when he was six.  By the time he was 12, he memorized almost every song he heard and wanted to know more about the people who wrote them.  At one point, Mercer hoped to become a composer, but he struggled to read musical scores and used his own notation system.  He also played the trumpet and piano, but found his real talents lay in writing lyrics and singing.  Mercer was greatly influenced by the blues and jazz singers of the day, including Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong.
Mercer attended a boarding school in Virginia where he was part of the literary and poetry societies.  He also experimented with songwriting, with such tunes as “Sister Susie, Strut Your Stuff.”  Mercer intended to go to Princeton, but had to help with his father’s struggling business.  When he grew bored with that, he moved to New York in 1928.  He found work as a bit actor and spent lots of time writing songs and singing.  He passed one of these songs to Eddie Cantor who encouraged him to keep writing.  And his girlfriend’s father, a music executive, helped him publish his first song.
The following year, Mercer went to California to work on lyrics for the musical Paris in the Spring.  Returning to New York, Mercer found a job as a staff lyricist at Miller Music, giving him a stable income.  He also made his recording debut singing with Frank Trumbauer’s Orchestra and apprenticed with Yip Harburg on Americana.  Mercer was then paired with Hoagy Carmichael and the pair wrote “Lazybones,” which became a hit one week after it was released.
In 1935, Mercer moved to Hollywood to write songs for and appear in films.  His first was the musical Old Man Rhythm, followed by To Beat the Band.  Mercer then wrote “I’m an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande” for the Bing Crosby film Rhythm on the Range.  That song was well-received and established Mercer as an in-demand lyricist.  He followed that with “Too Marvelous for Words,” “Hooray for Hollywood,” Jeepers Creepers,” and “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.”  When he wasn’t writing, Mercer also sang – he wrote and performed several songs with Bing Crosby.
Mercer scored another hit in 1939 with “And the Angels Sing,” a title that was later inscribed on his tombstone.  Mercer then began working with the Camel Caravan radio show and wrote more hits – “You Ought to be in Pictures,” “Day In, Day Out,” and “Fools Rush In.”  At one point five of the top ten songs on Your Hit Parade were Mercer tunes.
In the 1940s, Mercer began working with Harold Arlen.  The pair scored several hits including “Blues in the Night,” “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road),” “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive,” “That Old Black Magic,” and “Come Rain or Come Shine.”  In 1946, Mercer earned the first of four Academy Awards for Best Song for “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,” for the film The Harvey Girls.  Mercer also founded Capitol Records, releasing his own music and the work of others.
In the 1950s, Mercer wrote songs for the films Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Merry Andrew and the musicals Top Banana, Li’l Abner, and Saratoga.  Hit songs of the era included “The Glow-Worm,” “Something’s Gotta Give,” “Moon River,” “Charade,” “I Wanna Be Around,” and “Summer Wind.”
In 1969, Mercer helped found the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and served as its first president.  He did on June 25, 1976, suffering from an inoperable brain tumor.  Four years later the Songwriters Hall of Fame created the Johnny Mercer Award as its highest honor.

Dorothy Fields: Lyricist Dorothy Fields was born on July 15, 1904, in Allenhurst, New Jersey. She wrote more than 400 songs for Broadway and film, including “The Way You Look Tonight” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”
Fields came from a theatrical family. Her father had been part of a popular vaudeville duo and later became theater producer. Fields was a bright student, performing particularly well in English and drama. Early on she wanted to be an actress, but her father discouraged this. So, she worked as a teacher and laboratory assistant, while secretly sending some of her stories to magazines.
Fields performed on stage a few times before she met composer J. Fred Coots, who suggested they write songs together. While they never did collaborate, Coots introduced Fields to composer Jimmy McHugh. McHugh asked her to write lyrics for Blackbirds of 1928, which became an instant hit. Fields and McHugh then became a song writing team until 1935. Together they wrote “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “Exactly Like You,” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” They also wrote songs for the Cotton Club, many of which Duke Ellington recorded.
Fields began writing for Hollywood films in the mid-1930s, frequently teaming up with Jerome Kern. Together they worked on Roberta (1935) and Swing Time (1936). Their song, “The Way You Look Tonight,” from Swing Time, earned the pair the 1936 Academy Award for Best Original Song.  Fields went on to provide the lyrics for the film The King Steps Out, and the plays, Stars in Your Eyes, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Let’s Face It!, Something for the Boys, and Mexican Hayride.
In 1945, Fields presented the famed Rodgers and Hammerstein with her idea for a musical based on the life of Annie Oakley. They signed on to produce it and Fields worked with her brother and Irving Berlin. Annie Get Your Gun, starring Ethel Merman, was a major success and ran for 1,147 performances.
One of Fields’s greatest successes was the play Redhead (1959), which won five Tony Awards.  She also collaborated with Cy Coleman on Sweet Charity (1966) and Seesaw (1973).
Fields’s career spanned 48 years, and she was one of the first successful female Tin Pan Alley songwriters. She co-wrote over 400 songs for 15 plays and 26 movies. Her gift for creating simple, yet interesting lyrics - which often utilized catchy phrasing - made her one of the most popular lyricists on Broadway.

Hoagy Carmichael: Self-taught pianist, composer, singer, and actor Hoagland Howard Carmichael composed many of the most popular songs of the Big Band Era. While earning a degree in law at Indiana University, Carmichael met jazz musicians, including Bix Beiderbecke, and soon decided to become a composer. His first composition, “River Boat Shuffle,” was recorded by Beiderbecke and the Wolverines in 1924, and became a jazz classic.
Due to their superior melodic structure and harmonic composition, Carmichael’s songs attracted the attention of many great musicians, including Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden. Among his most popular works are “Rockin’ Chair,” “Lazy River,” and “Georgia on My Mind,” which was adopted as the state song of Georgia. His most successful song, “Stardust,” is the most recorded song ever.
Carmichael began working in Hollywood as a writer and then as a character actor, often portraying a folksy pianist. In Hollywood he wrote the hit songs “Hong Kong Blues,” “Two Sleepy People,” and “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening,” for which he won an Academy Award in 1951. Carmichael continued to write songs and perform as an actor into the 1970s.