Written by: Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II
First recorded by: Louanne Hogan
First recorded by: Louanne Hogan
The wind chill below zero degrees changed my mind fast: bye-bye "White Christmas," and in with springtime. Rodgers and Hammerstein were fond of season songs ("Younger than Springtime," "June is Bustin' Out All Over"). They won the 1945 Best Song Oscar for this charmer. A mopish Iowa lass pines at her windowsill, taking in the summer heat, for the calendar to turn backward:
They opened their stage career together with the rousing Oklahoma!, and Rodgers and Hammerstein contribute many more hearty all-American songs into State Fair, their first film musical. But "It Might As Well Be Spring," ten minutes in, imbues the film with an underlying uneasiness. Just listen to Rodgers' clever oscillating melody.
The first line, "I'm as restless as a willow in a windstorm," is a series of sighs (on "restless," "willow," and "windstorm") that monotonously droop to the same tonic note. But Rodgers animates the second line, mirroring the words with sprightly upward leaps: "I'm as jumpy as a puppet on a string." Even then, the leaps descend the scale wearily. When the melodic line repeats ("Like a nightingale"), the singer deflates on the words "without a song to sing." The end addresses the song's desperate ebb-and-flow:
Louanne Hogan premiered this song by dubbing Jeanne Crain in State Fair. But it found radio success with Dick Haynes, her on-screen brother. Then came the usual recording suspects: Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mathis, Doris Day. In the 1962 State Fair, a young Pamela Tiffin (who longs for a "boy" she's yet to meet) sang it while swinging on fence rails like an audition for The Wizard of Oz.
They opened their stage career together with the rousing Oklahoma!, and Rodgers and Hammerstein contribute many more hearty all-American songs into State Fair, their first film musical. But "It Might As Well Be Spring," ten minutes in, imbues the film with an underlying uneasiness. Just listen to Rodgers' clever oscillating melody.
The first line, "I'm as restless as a willow in a windstorm," is a series of sighs (on "restless," "willow," and "windstorm") that monotonously droop to the same tonic note. But Rodgers animates the second line, mirroring the words with sprightly upward leaps: "I'm as jumpy as a puppet on a string." Even then, the leaps descend the scale wearily. When the melodic line repeats ("Like a nightingale"), the singer deflates on the words "without a song to sing." The end addresses the song's desperate ebb-and-flow:
But I feel so gay, in a melancholy way,So laissez-faire, that phrase "might as well." As with "White Christmas," the anxiety of World War II feeds into what could have been a straightforward romance song. Notice how Hammerstein slips it in discreetly: "Hearing words that I have never heard / From a man I've yet to meet."
That it might as well be spring.
It might as well be spring.
Louanne Hogan premiered this song by dubbing Jeanne Crain in State Fair. But it found radio success with Dick Haynes, her on-screen brother. Then came the usual recording suspects: Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mathis, Doris Day. In the 1962 State Fair, a young Pamela Tiffin (who longs for a "boy" she's yet to meet) sang it while swinging on fence rails like an audition for The Wizard of Oz.
2 comments:
I love State Farm! I miss it!
State Farm? The insurance company? ;-)
I know on the DVD version of State Fair they have a really cool extra feature where Rodgers and Hammerstein talk about this song. They say exactly what you do about the music matching the lyrics, especially the puppet on a string line.
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