Harold Arlen

Harold Arlen (1905-1986) wrote some of the greatest hits from the 30's and 40's, including the entire score to the classic movie The Wizard of Oz. Songs such as “Over the Rainbow,” “Get Happy,” “Stormy Weather,” “It's Only a Paper Moon,” “I've Got the World on a String” and “Last Night When We Were Young” are just some of the standards that live on today and have distinguished Harold Arlen as one of the Great American Composers of the 20th Century.

Born and bred in New York, Harold Arlen began his career as an accompanist in vaudeville and appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records, often singing his own compositions. During his career he wrote over 500 songs, including “Let’s Fall in Love,” “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” and "I Love a Parade” (all with lyrics by Ted Koehler). Arlen had a long and productive partnership with Johnny Mercer with many resulting hits, including “That Old Black Magic,” “Blues in the Night,” “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” and “One For My Baby (and One More for the Road).”

His Broadway musicals include Bloomer Girl, St. Louis Woman, House of Flowers, Jamaica and Saratoga. Films include The Singing Kid (1936), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), The Petty Girl (1950), My Blue Heaven (1950), The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953), and Gay Purr-ee (1962). With Ira Gershwin he wrote the songs for 1954’s A Star is Born, starring Judy Garland, including the Oscar-nominated “The Man That Got Away.” Arlen won an Academy Award for the song "Over the Rainbow," voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).