September Song

GoogaMooga · 02 Aug 2006

I've got the Sinatra version (one of my favorite recordings of his), and I think maybe also the Jimmy Durante version on a single, not sure:

from http://www.wicn.org/song-week/september-song-1938

"SEPTEMBER SONG" (1938)
Submitted by linda@wicn.org on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 2:41pm.
Writers
Music – Kurt Weill Lyrics – Maxwell Anderson
Covered
Monty Alexander, Ray Anthony, Chet Baker, Sidney Bechet, Tony Bennett, Earl Bostic, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Clifford Brown, James Brown, Les Brown, Dave Brubeck, Don Byas, Maurice Chevalier, June Christy, Roy Clark, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Dion and the Belmonts, Eddy Duchin, Jimmy Durante, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Errol Garner, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Johnny Hartman, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Harry James, Stan Kenton, Mario Lanza, Lotte Lenya, John Lewis, Liberace, Dean Martin, Marion McPartland, Mills Brothers, Willie Nelson, Red Norvo, Dave Pell, Art Pepper, Oscar Peterson, John Pizzarelli, The Platters, Chris Potter, Lou Reed, Django Reinhardt, Artie Shaw, George Shearing, Don Shirley, Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Sarah Vaughan, Kenny Werner, Roger Williams, Teddy Wilson
Recorded
1938 – Introduced by Walter Huston in the musical comedy Knickerbocker Holiday and recorded on Brunswick Records
History
"September Song" was written to accommodate the limited vocal range of Walter Huston, who played the role of Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of New Amsterdam, in the musical comedy Knickerbocker Holiday. As the middle-aged Stuyvesant, he sang it to a much younger woman in an attempt to convince her to marry him. Huston was a well-known character actor of stage and film and the father of director John Huston; he accepted the role of Stuyvesant on the condition that he would be given one romantic song to sing in the musical. After listening to Huston sing, Maxwell Anderson wrote the lyrics to "September Song" in an hour and Kurt Weill added the music later that day. It has been reported that Huston had such difficulty memorizing the lyrics that at one point it was suggested that the song only be used as an instrumental. However, Huston persevered, and by opening night he had mastered the song and it stopped the show. Although many vocalists sing only the refrain now, Huston sang both the verse and the refrain in the show.
"September Song" was Kurt Weill’s first American hit. Knickerbocker Holiday was the second musical he wrote when he arrived in the US after fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933 and it was his first collaboration with Anderson. They collaborated again in 1949 to write Lost in the Stars. William Zinsser, in his book Easy to Remember, has this to say about the melody of "September Song": "...it seemed to be a simple 32-bar ballad. But there was no escaping the Weill tinge of desolation. It came in the very first bar (of the refrain)... The C-minor chord that falls on ‘long, long, while’ is as bleak as the days that dwindle down to a precious few for an old man in love with a young girl."
Maxwell Anderson, who wrote the play as well as the lyrics for Knickerbocker Holiday, adapted it from Washington Irving’s A History of New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker. He frequently used historical and political themes and this play is set in New Amsterdam in 1647. Narrator Washington Irving controls the action, which revolves around two men: Governor Peter Stuyvesant and nobody Brom Broeck, whose most notable trait is an urge to attack anyone who gives him an order. Brom stays alive by his strength and wits, which are superior to those of anyone else in New Amsterdam. When Brom falls in love with Tina, the daughter of the corrupt Town Councilor, the Councilor is furious and tries to have him hanged. The arrival of Peter Stuyvesant, the new Governor, saves Brom. However, the Town Councilor has promised her to Stuyvesant, who sings "September Song" to her to urge her to hurry and marry him. Then, when Stuyvesant explains his vision of an idyllic existence for all with him as a benevolent dictator, Brom protests and is jailed again. This time Stuyvesant intends to hang him for insubordination. Stuyvesant further announces that the country will go to war, as a peaceful country is a stagnant one. Irving intervenes to remind him that he had better change his ways if he is going to be remembered kindly in history. Then Stuyvesant relents and allows Brom to go free and to marry Tina.
The show’s bitingly satirical reflections on democracy and American politics, with specific reference to Roosevelt and the New Deal, were novel for musical theater at that time and gave rise to the speculation that Knickerbocker Holiday was a thinly concealed allegory equating the New Deal with fascism. Anderson was a self-professed pacifist with a deep distrust of big government. He believed strongly in the dignity of the human spirit and his plays often focused on the concepts of personal liberty and justice. In the preface he wrote to Knickerbocker Holiday, he stated the following: "...there has been a good deal of critical bewilderment over the political opinions expressed in the play, and not a little resentment at my definitions of government and democracy. I should like to explain that it was not my intention to say anything new or shocking on either subject, but only to remind the audience of the attitude toward government which was current in this country at the time of the revolution of 1776 and throughout the early years of the Republic. At that time it was generally believed, as I believe now, that the gravest and most constant danger to a man's life, liberty and happiness is the government under which he lives."
Knickerbocker Holiday was only moderately successful on Broadway, running for 168 performances, but "September Song" became an immediate hit. In spite of his limited vocal abilities, Huston performed a very moving rendition of the song with his raspy, half-spoken delivery, and made a recording for Brunswick Records that peaked at 12th place on the pop charts in 1938. In keeping with Huston’s autumnal style, Jimmy Durante released another classic version in 1963. However, although it may have begun as a lament for old men, the countless subsequent recordings of "September Song" belie the circumstances of its birth. Versions by Frank Sinatra, Stan Kenton and Liberace made the pop charts and, in addition to becoming a jazz standard, the song has crossed over to every style, including blues, country, doo-wop, easy listening, operatic and rock.
September Song by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson
Verse
When I was a young man courting the girls
I played me a waiting game.
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
I'd let the old Earth take a couple of whirls
While I plied her with tears in lieu of pearls
And as time came around she came my way
As time came around, she came.
When you meet with the young girls early in Spring
You court them in song and rhyme.
They answer with words and a clover ring,
But if you could examine the goods they bring
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
And the plentiful waste of time of day,
A plentiful waste of time.
Refrain
Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn't got time for the waiting game.
Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
These precious days I'll spend with you.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGuFPPr1xKQ[/youtube]

Zane · 05 Aug 2006

I always liked that one, but I prefer "September of My Years" from that same album(obviously). That is a great album.

Tricky Kid · **Joined:** 23 Sep 2007 **Posts:** 8297

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHVqWRxpqXk[/youtube]

September Song

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