Joseph H Trent (1892-1954) was a lyricist who worked with notable jazz composers, including James P Johnson.
With Louis Alter, Trent contributed ‘Gotta Feelin’ for You’ to The Hollywood Revue of 1929.
Category: Songwriters
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Louis Alter
Louis Alter (1902-1980) was a pianist and composer perhaps most celebrated for his piece ‘Manhattan Serenade’. He regularly contributed to films, although only once to an MGM musical, writing ‘Gotta Feelin’ for You’ with Jo Trent for The Hollywood Revue of 1929. He was twice nominated for the Oscar for Best Song.
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Andy Rice
Andy Rice (1881-1963) apparently started out as a monologist in vaudeville before developing into a song and sketch writer. He wrote two editions of George White’s Scandals whilst continuing to perform himself.
Rice contributed songs to The Hollywood Revue of 1929, Children of Pleasure, The Florodora Girl and the unfinished The March of Time.
Thanks to Travalanche for the biographical information.
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Fred Fisher
Originally Alfred Breitenbach, German-born Fred Fisher (1875-1942) wrote the popular ‘Peg O’My Heart’ and many other Irish-themed ballads. He also co-wrote ‘Whispering Grass’ with his equally-successful daughter, Doris Fisher.
Songs by Fisher, usually written in collaboration with others, are featured in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, So This Is College, Chasing Rainbows, Children of Pleasure, For Me and My Gal and In the Good Old Summertime. He also contributed a number to The March of Time.
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Martin Broones
Martin Broones (1892-1971) was a prolific, if little-remembered, composer who worked in theatre, radio, television and moving pictures. He was also the creator and first director of MGM’s music department.
Broones only composed songs for two of Metro’s earliest musicals: The Hollywood Revue of 1929 and So This is College. For the latter, he collaborated on the number ‘Campus Capers’ with his wife, the actor and eccentric dancer Charlotte Greenwood.
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Jesse Greer
Jesse Greer (1896-1970) published over 100 songs, but perhaps only ‘Just You, Just Me,’ written with Ray Klages for Marianne, and reprised years later in This Could Be the Night, has become a standard.
Greer and Klages also wrote a number featured in So This is College.
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Ray Klages
Raymond Klages (1888-1947) and his composer-partner Jesse Greer are perhaps the least-known of the three songwriting partnerships that contributed to Marianne, but it is their song ‘Just You, Just Me’ that went on to become a jazz standard that has been recorded by dozens of artists. It was used again by Metro almost thirty years later in This Could Be the Night.
Klages and Greer’s only other work for the studio was a song in So This is College.
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Roy Turk
Lyricist Roy Kenneth Turk (1892-1934) had his biggest hit posthumously when Elvis Presley recorded his 1927 ‘Are You Lonely Tonight,’ written with composer Lou Handsman. His most frequent collaborator was composer Fred E Ahlert, with whom he and Bing Crosby wrote ‘Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)’
Turk and Ahlert wrote numbers for Marianne, Free and Easy, Children of Pleasure and In Gay Madrid. In addition, they contributed to the abandoned The March of Time and ‘Mean to Me’ was included in Love Me Or Leave Me.
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Fred E Ahlert
Frederick Emil Ahlert (1892-1953) was a composer of popular music who most frequently worked with lyricist Roy Turk. The pair collaborated with Bing Crosby on the singer’s ‘theme song’ ‘Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)’. Ahlert also wrote ‘I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter’ with Joe Young.
Ahlert and Turk contributed songs to Marianne, Free and Easy, Children of Pleasure and In Gay Madrid. In addition, ‘Mean to Me’ was included in Love Me Or Leave Me.
Ahlert’s music for ‘Poor Little G-String,’ written with Turk for the abandoned The March of Time, was used for a dance number in Broadway to Hollywood.
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Nacio Herb Brown
Nacio Herb Brown (1896-1964) was hired by MGM in 1928 to write scores for sound pictures; it was at a point when synchronized music was still perceived by many as the most promising feature of the new system.
Brown was paired with lyricist Arthur Freed to produce songs for the studio’s first all-talking picture, The Broadway Melody. Their partnership continued for many years as the contributed numbers to The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (in which he and Freed appeared onscreen), Marianne, Lord Byron of Broadway, Montana Moon, Dancing Lady, Going Hollywood, Student Tour, Broadway Melody of 1936, A Night at the Opera, San Francisco, Broadway Melody of 1938, Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry, Ice Follies of 1939, Babes in Arms, Two Girls on Broadway, Hullabaloo, Little Nellie Kelly, Lady Be Good, Born to Sing, Presenting Lily Mars, Meet Me in St Louis, Three Little Words, Pagan Love Song, Singin’ in the Rain and The Affairs of Dobie Gillies.
Brown also worked with other lyricists on It’s a Great Life, Ziegfeld Girl, The Big Store, Swing Fever, Holiday in Mexico, On an Island With You, The Kissing Bandit and Seven Hills of Rome.
