Let's Celebrate This Talented Treasure Who Was Born in November

And “WHEN OCTOBER GOES” and November enters, and the “AUTUMN LEAVES” fall, it’s time to answer the question: Who gets this month’s BroadwayWorld Cabaret Salute?  It’s someone who was born in November long ago, but left behind a treasure of songs still heard here in the cabaret shows we cover “DAY IN, DAY OUT,” as we happily travel to the nightclubs and concert halls “COME RAIN OR COME SHINE”?  If you were at some of those venues in the “EARLY AUTUMN,” you, too, probably heard some of his lyrics if you were “DRINKING AGAIN” to satisfy a 2-drink minimum “IN THE COOL, COOL, COOL OF THE EVENING” before heading home to “HIT THE ROAD TO DREAMLAND” to chase away the “BLUES IN THE NIGHT” for a sweet “DREAM.”  Yes, it’s ....Johnny Mercer, born in November of 1909 — who wrote the words to all the songs with titles squeezed into this opening paragraph in capital letters. (He also composed the music for the last one.) 

Marilyn Maye sang a few Mercer memorables in her show, as she usually does, Tony Yazbeck did a croon of “MOON RIVER,” Linda Purl brightened our world with “OUT OF THIS WORLD” and “ANY PLACE I HANG MY HAT IS HOME,” Jonathan Karrant, who’s made “CHARADE” a choice, included the aforementioned number about October’s end, when an audience member shouted out a request, and Ben Jones has been around with “I WANNA BE AROUND.”   

Mr. Mercer also enriched the world of song as a singer covering material by other writers (as well as his own) and was the co-founder of Capitol Records. 

He collaborated with more composers than anybody — the phrase “more than 200” has been stated. They include Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, and Henry Mancini.  Even if you never ventured into a cabaret room, you heard his words sung on recordings, on radio and TV, in many movies (he’s been nominated for 14 Academy Awards and even wrote the words to the filmdom’s cheerleader tune, “Hooray for Hollywood”), and some of his lyrics were introduced in Broadway musicals Li’l Abner; Texas Li’l Darlin’; St. Louis Woman; Saratoga; Foxy; Walk with Music; and (with his own melodies) Top Banana. He contributed to other stage scores and, in the years since his death in 1976, there have been 20 presentations on Broadway shows incorporating something or other from the  memorable Mercer catalogue. Most notably, there was 1997’s Dream, which focused on it. The Johnny Mercer Foundation sponsors programs that nurture new songwriters and teach students about its namesake’s legacy.  There’s a statue of him in his hometown of Savannah, Georgia, where a street and a theatre are named for him, too.   

So, how can we not smile and fondly say (or sing) “I REMEMBER YOU” when we think of Johnny Mercer’s ever-present catalogue in his birth month of November.  He’s a man for all seasons, having written the lyrics for “AUTUMN LEAVES,” “SPRING, SPRING, SPRING,” “THE SUMMER WIND” and, addressing the remaining season, turned to other writers’ words for “WINTER WONDERLAND” and “JINGLE BELLS.”  And, using his own lyric, we can praise the wordsmith who is “TOO MARVELOUS FOR WORDS.” 

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