George M. Cohan.

Cafe Society
1

Ever since I saw Yankee Doodle Dandy I’ve been interested in the life and music of Mr. Cohan. My problem is that there is very little information about him, either on the web or in print. My BIG problem is that I can’t find any compilations of his work, except for the Yankee Doodle soundtrack. Does anybody know where I can find a CD or three of original Broadway productions (or just compilations) of his music?

Also, is there any songwriter out there who has had more of his lyrics made into movie titles than Mr. Cohan*? Right off the top of my head I can come up with:

Yankee Doodle Dandy
Born on the Fourth of July
Johnny Got his Gun**
Give my Regards to Broad Street**
Over There

*Without actually being somewhat responsible for the movie that is - perhaps the Beatles can beat him, certainly Elvis can, but they appeared in the movies and sang songs for them. Except for YDD, Cohan had nothing at all to do with the other movies, and he didn’t even appear in YDD.

**Rephrasing of lyrics.

2

There was a broadway musical in the sixties called GEORGE M with Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters telling his life story. The cast album should be out there somewhere.

3

And a quick trip to AMAZON says George M is on CD. You can also get YANKEE DOODLE DANDY

4

In terms of movie titles, Irving Berlin has him beat:

White Christmas
Alexander’s Ragtime Band
Easter Parade
Blue Skies
Top Hat
Puttin’ On The Ritz
Always
There’s No Business Like Show Business

…and that’s just song titles used as movie titles.

5

He really needs a good bio–the only ones ever written were by Ward Morehouse (1943) and John McCabe (1973), and were only so-so.

Man was a genius. Here is a good web site on him.

6

And as Eve and I and other Dopers can tell you, HIS MAUSOLEUM HAS A LEAKY ROOF!
(Boy there’s a song title for ol’ Irving B. or one of the other boys from the Tin Pan clan: “Georgie’s Mausoleum’s Got a Leaky Roof.” I can hear it now. Give me a C. Give me a bouncy C!)