well, That's Show Biz, 11-10-2023 3-31 Johnny Mercer, Savannah's Native Son

Johnny Mercer, Savannah’s Native Son

“Well, That’s Show Biz!”

11-10-2024

• You are listening to [Station ID].

• Welcome to “well, That’s Show Biz!”. I am your host, Jeremy Freedman, and I am back bringing you music from Broadway, Movies, and Entertainers along with some anecdotes, information, and commentary all based on a theme.

• <Play “When October Goes”>

• October has gone and you just heard Barry Manilow singing “When October Goes”, lyrics by Savannah’s Native Son, Johnny Mercer. After Mercer’s passing in 1976, Mercer’s widow passed on to Barry Manilow some unfinished lyrics that she found.  The result was this beautiful song, “When October Goes”.

• Johnny Mercer was born into a wealthy Savannah family on November 18, 1909. A prolific member of tin pan alley, he preferred to write individual songs as he considered “each lyric as complete in itself, a little poem”. Yet he provided music for over 90 movies and a few Broadway musicals. He collected 18 Academy Award nominations, winning 4 times.

• When I told my brother that I was going to do Johnny Mercer as a theme for my show, he told me that he couldn’t think of any songs that Mercer wrote.  I told him that he probably knew a lot of them and I guessed that he would know at least 90% of the songs that I am playing today.

• Which leads me to the structure of this show. For each set, I am just going to name the artists so that you can decide for yourselves how many of these songs you know and you can revel in the lyrics of Johnny Mercer.

• For the first set, we are going to hear Frank Sinatra, Nat “King’ Cole, Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, and Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers.  Here’s Frank.

• You just heard the Johnny Mercer tunes, “Summer Wind”, “Too Marvelous for Words”, “Blues In the Night”, and “Goody Goody”.

• We are celebrating Savannah’s Native Son, Johnny Mercer, today by simply playing his songs and letting you revel in his lyrics.

• For this next set, the performers will be Count Basie and Tony Bennett, British pop and soul singer songwriter Seal, Linda Ronstadt, and Sammy Davis, Jr. Here’s Count Basie & Tony Bennett.

• You just heard the tunes, “Jeepers Creepers”, “Autumn Leaves”, “Skylark”, and “Something’s Gotta Give” as we celebrate the lyrics of Savannah’s Native Son, Johnny Mercer, today on “well, That’s Show Biz!”.

• <Station Promo>

• You are listening to “well, That’s Show Biz!” on [Station ID].

• We are celebrating Savannah’s own, Johnny Mercer, today by simply telling you the names of the performers and having you determine how many of his songs you recognize. Johnny was a master of the lyric so pay attention to his lyrics as well.

• For our next set, we are going to hear the artists Rosemary Clooney, James Darren, Nancy Wilson, and Judy Garland. Here’s Rosemary Clooney.

• You just heard the Johnny Mercer classics, “Hooray for Hollywood”, “That Old Black Magic”, “Satin Doll”, and “Come Rain or Come Shine”.

• Johnny Mercer was also known for his singing and recorded some of his own songs as well as others’. He also was a co-founder of Capitol Records. I thought that you might like to hear him sing. Here are two of his songs, sung by Johnny Mercer himself.

• You just heard Johnny Mercer singing two of his songs, “Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive” and “One For My Baby (And One More For the Road)”.

• We are going to conclude today’s show with perhaps his most famous song, with music composed by Henry Mancini for the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s and winning the Oscar for Best Original Song for 1961. It also won the 1962 Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Johnny Mercer was a master of the lyric, and in this song, his use of the simple phrase, “My Huckleberry Friend” evokes emotions and senses that far exceed those three words. Here is Andy Williams with “Moon River”.

• You just heard “Moon River” which concludes today’s show on Savannah’s Native Son, Johnny Mercer.

• (Next Week’s Show)

•  <Other Show Promo>

• <Station Promo>

• <Donation Copy>

• <PSA>

• <Closing Statement>