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The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer
The seventh volume in Knopf’s critically acclaimed Complete Lyrics series, published in Johnny Mercer’s centennial year, contains the texts to more than 1,200 of his lyrics, several hundred of them published here for the first time.
Johnny Mercer’s early songs became staples of the big band era and were regularly featured in the musicals of early Hollywood. With his collaborators, who included Richard A. Whiting, Harry Warren, Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, and Harold Arlen, he wrote the lyrics to some of the most famous standards, among them, “Too Marvelous for Words,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “Skylark,” “I’m Old-Fashioned,” and “That Old Black Magic.”
During a career of more than four decades, Mercer was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song an astonishing eighteen times, and won for his lyrics to “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” (music by Warren), “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” (music by Carmichael), and “Moon River” and “Days of Wine and Roses” (music for both by Henry Mancini).
You’ve probably fallen in love with more than a few of Mercer’s songs–his words have never gone out of fashion–and with this superb collection, it’s easy to see that his lyrics elevated popular song into art.
Johnny Mercer’s early songs became staples of the big band era and were regularly featured in the musicals of early Hollywood. With his collaborators, who included Richard A. Whiting, Harry Warren, Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, and Harold Arlen, he wrote the lyrics to some of the most famous standards, among them, “Too Marvelous for Words,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “Skylark,” “I’m Old-Fashioned,” and “That Old Black Magic.”
During a career of more than four decades, Mercer was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song an astonishing eighteen times, and won for his lyrics to “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” (music by Warren), “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” (music by Carmichael), and “Moon River” and “Days of Wine and Roses” (music for both by Henry Mancini).
You’ve probably fallen in love with more than a few of Mercer’s songs–his words have never gone out of fashion–and with this superb collection, it’s easy to see that his lyrics elevated popular song into art.
488 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Robert Kimball
42 books2 followersRobert Kimball (1939-) is a musical theatre historian and critic.
Kimball was educated at Yale College and Yale Law School and has been the music critic of the New York Post. He is the co-author or editor of several books on musical theatre.
Kimball was one of the four participants who hammered out a bipartisan compromise in October 1963 that helped lead to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Kimball was educated at Yale College and Yale Law School and has been the music critic of the New York Post. He is the co-author or editor of several books on musical theatre.
Kimball was one of the four participants who hammered out a bipartisan compromise in October 1963 that helped lead to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 29, 2009
Two words: “Moon River.” Even Morrissey has to bow down to Johnny Mercer’s greatness as a lyricist. The Manchurian Wonder even did a 9-minute version of “Moon River.” I kid you not!
In this beautiful production you get 1,200 lyrics. Songs co-written by fellow greats like Richard A. Whiting, Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, and Harold Arlen among others. The classics “Jeepers Creepers,” “On The Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” (the ultimate road song) and of course the classic work done with Henry Mancini. A must for those who like tunes when they were toons.
In this beautiful production you get 1,200 lyrics. Songs co-written by fellow greats like Richard A. Whiting, Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, and Harold Arlen among others. The classics “Jeepers Creepers,” “On The Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” (the ultimate road song) and of course the classic work done with Henry Mancini. A must for those who like tunes when they were toons.
March 23, 2011
What an incredible book! The "complete lyrics" series is a must have for anyone with an interest in the music of (particularly) the first half of the twentieth century, Porter, Hart, Ira Gershwin, Berlin, Loesser and Hammerstein have all been covered in the last 30 years, but Mercer for me at least was obviously going to be something even more special and this massive tome doesn't disappoint. The amount of work that has gone into the book is phenomenal, I did spot a few second choruses that were missing and a few words that had obviously been transcribed incorrectly, but the faults are so minor in work of this size that they are not really worth mentioning. Mercer wrote so many incredible lyrics that if I list some of his best titles, the list will go on for an awfully long time but, here are a few, off the top of my head: Skylark, Moon River, Blues in the night, Glow worm, Lazy bones, moon country, Come rain or come shine, the days of wine and roses, I'm an old cowhand, Jeepers creepers...........etc...etc....etc
December 20, 2023
Progress report -- Reading in conjunction with Eskew biography and while listening to as much of Mercer as I can find. Good stuff! Have gone through much of the late 1930s and the 1940s.
12/20/23 -- 4.5 stars, marked up to 5 by Goodreads. Can't give it a pure 5 stars, as I caught a couple errors*, but in a book this vast and a subject this -- what, fluid? imprecise? hard to document? subject to different views? -- whatever . . . it's pretty darn impressive, to say nothing of useful.
I marked it as "read," but in reality it's not the sort of book one can just sit down and read (and read every page), especially if it's a library book, as this was. it needs to be used as (or like) a reference book . . . hear a song, use this book to look up the lyrics and the story behind the song. Or, mostly in my case, read (or leaf) through the book, then use the Wonderful World Wide Web to listen to or watch the song. I was pretty thorough reading the sections covering Mercer's best years, then less involved toward the end of his career.
This book is in one of those very large "coffee-table book" formats that really do work better if one is sitting at a table. I wasn't most of the time. Silly me!
*"error" equals a discrepancy with the scholarly Mercer biography by Glenn T. Eskew, which I reviewed recently,
12/20/23 -- 4.5 stars, marked up to 5 by Goodreads. Can't give it a pure 5 stars, as I caught a couple errors*, but in a book this vast and a subject this -- what, fluid? imprecise? hard to document? subject to different views? -- whatever . . . it's pretty darn impressive, to say nothing of useful.
I marked it as "read," but in reality it's not the sort of book one can just sit down and read (and read every page), especially if it's a library book, as this was. it needs to be used as (or like) a reference book . . . hear a song, use this book to look up the lyrics and the story behind the song. Or, mostly in my case, read (or leaf) through the book, then use the Wonderful World Wide Web to listen to or watch the song. I was pretty thorough reading the sections covering Mercer's best years, then less involved toward the end of his career.
This book is in one of those very large "coffee-table book" formats that really do work better if one is sitting at a table. I wasn't most of the time. Silly me!
*"error" equals a discrepancy with the scholarly Mercer biography by Glenn T. Eskew, which I reviewed recently,
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews