Harold Arlen

Harold Arlen
Name	Harold Arlen
Birth name	Hyman Arluck
Birth date	March 15, 1905
Birth place	Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Death date	April 23, 1986
Death place	New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Composer, songwriter
Years active	1920s–1980s

Harold Arlen Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, best known for composing the music of the song "Over the Rainbow" and numerous standards that shaped American musical theater and Great American Songbook repertoire. His work spans collaborations with lyricists, performances in Broadway productions, and contributions to Hollywood film scores and jazz standards. Arlen's melodies were recorded by leading vocalists and instrumentalists across the twentieth century, influencing popular music and American culture.

Early life and education

Harold Arlen was born Hyman Arluck in Buffalo, New York to immigrant parents and spent his youth in the Buffalo and New York City areas during the era of Progressive Era and the rise of Tin Pan Alley. He took piano lessons influenced by local synagogue music and the immigrant Jewish musical milieu that connected to figures such as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Cole Porter. Arlen moved to Chicago as a teenager, where he worked in bands and absorbed influences from ragtime, blues, and the vibrant Chicago jazz scene centered around venues like the Savoy Ballroom and clubs patronized by artists including Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, and Jelly Roll Morton.

Career beginnings and Broadway work

Arlen's early professional work in the 1920s and 1930s involved arranging and performing with orchestras and working for Tin Pan Alley publishers who also employed composers such as Jerome Kern and Richard Rodgers. He began writing for revues and musicals on Broadway, collaborating with lyricists and producers connected to the Shubert Organization and impresarios of the Great White Way; contemporaries included George Gershwin and Irving Berlin. Arlen's Broadway engagements led to work on Broadway shows and revues that featured performers like Ethel Merman, Fred Astaire, and Al Jolson, linking him to theatrical productions that toured to West Coast venues and influenced arrangements used by bands such as those led by Paul Whiteman and Benny Goodman.

Major songs and notable collaborations

Arlen is best known for composing music to lyrics by collaborators including Yip Harburg, Johnny Mercer, and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg—with whom he created "Over the Rainbow" for the film The Wizard of Oz. His catalog includes standards recorded by prominent singers and instrumentalists such as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie. Other notable songs include "Stormy Weather" (famously associated with Lena Horne and introduced in the Cotton Club milieu), "Get Happy" (popularized by Judy Garland), and "Come Rain or Come Shine" (with lyrics by Johnny Mercer). Arlen worked with lyricists and figures such as Ted Koehler, E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (again), and producers connected to MGM and RKO Pictures, while his compositions were arranged by orchestrators including Adolph Deutsch and performed by conductors such as Artie Shaw.

Film and Hollywood contributions

Arlen's association with Hollywood studios produced songs for films and musicals during the golden age of cinema, notably including "Over the Rainbow" in The Wizard of Oz produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He wrote for performers who transitioned between screen and stage like Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, and his music appeared in productions involving studio executives and producers at MGM, RKO, and studios that employed composers such as Alfred Newman and Max Steiner. Arlen's film work connected him to arrangers and bandleaders who recorded soundtrack versions used in concert halls and radio broadcasts on networks like NBC and CBS. His songs were featured in film retrospectives, revivals, and soundtracks curated by directors and music supervisors tied to Hollywood musicals.

Later career and legacy

In his later career, Arlen continued to write songs and saw his works absorbed into the Great American Songbook repertory, recorded by successive generations of artists including Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Diana Krall, Nat King Cole (again), and jazz instrumentalists inspired by the harmonic language of composers like Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. His compositions have been preserved in archives and celebrated in tributes by institutions such as the Songwriters Hall of Fame and performed at venues like Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. Arlen's influence is evident in the work of later composers and lyricists who cite the melodic craft of figures like Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, and Irving Berlin as part of a shared lineage.

Personal life and honors

Arlen married and had familial relationships that intersected with his professional life and was part of a cultural network including performers such as Judy Garland and collaborators like Johnny Mercer and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg. He received honors and recognition from music institutions and was posthumously celebrated by halls of fame and retrospective collections issued by labels and curators associated with Columbia Records, Decca Records, and RCA Victor. Arlen's awards and recognitions link him to organizations such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (through Oscar-winning songs by collaborators) and the Grammy Awards community that later documented standards from the twentieth century.

Category:American composers Category:20th-century American musicians