Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A songwriter best known for composing "People" and the music for Funny Girl.
On the island
Eight records
That glorious voice was a very important song to me, funny girl.
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466Favourite
Vladimir Ashkenazy with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt
My second record is the little thing that won me the scholarship, the Mozart D minor.
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
We have here one of the great jazz singers of all time. And she is going to, one of my favorite things, she's going to sing Let It Snow.
I got Sinatra to record it in the main title and we won an Oscar for it. And it was a memorable win because as I think back now, Crosby was the presenter of that award to me. That's why I'm taking it to Desert Island, understand.
André Previn with the London Symphony Orchestra
Gershwin inspired you to be a broad man.
I'll Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry
That was from the first show that closed out of town, but it the song became a standard, nevertheless.
I wrote it as a piano instrumental piano piece, and then I used it in Funny Girl because it had a drive to it, and it's a dramatic piece, but sung beautifully by Barbara.
Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington
From my favorite show that I've done in the past. Gypsy, and a sage called All I Need Is the Girl.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:02How old were you when you left London [and where did you settle]?
I was seven and a half. ... Chicago. My father was an egg inspector and the English egg inspectors were the best in the world because England used to pack eggs for all of its colonies. So they the United States imported all these egg handlers because United States started shipping eggs all over the world. And so that's took us to Chicago.
Presenter asks
2:30Did you grow up with a musical background?
I was a Harry Lauder imitator as a child, you know, at parties and so on. At parties and for for hire, you know, a child entertainer. ... When I was five years old, the family took me to the hippodrome. ... and Harry Lauder appeared there. and I jumped over the box on the stage ... He handed me his crook and I did his She's my Daisy ... Went back to his dressing room to apologise ... And he said, Never imitate, and you should take up a musical instrument, such as a piano. So indirectly, he was responsible for my starting. My piano lessons.
Presenter asks
4:45What happened to your piano playing?
A sad day happened when I was about 12. ... I was studying with a great Teacher Harold Bauer. Who said ... you will never be what you intend to be. Be great because you have too small a hand. ... And I went back to school and I was very dejected. And at every lunch hour the boys and girls would dance in the gymnasium. And I went over to the piano casually, played a couple of Chopin etudes, and nobody paid no mind to me. and the next day I came in, And I played Alexander's rack time band in St. Louis Blues, and I was the smash of the whole school. And so I said, goodbye. Look at this, I'm no longer lonely,'cause being a concert pianist lonely is proxy. Everybody loves me and I'm a big favorite at school. So from then on I started playing with bands, etcetera
The keepsakes
The book
Anna Sewell
Well, this may sound like Sounds childish, but the book I've taken. It's a child's book. 'Cause I'm the eternal Peter Pan myself. I never get tired of reading it.
The luxury
Well I'd like a picture. My family My father, my mother. and all my children. And my wife.
Presenter asks
15:00Why did you decide to go to Broadway?
Well, the thing that made me go to to the theater, I said, Well, if I'm going to be a songwriter. I want to try and find a media that can draw the very best in me. I just feel myself gonna grow old out here. and not write any better, because I w they can't let me write better. And so I said the theater must be the place. Rogers started in the theater, Gershwin, Kern, Colporter. That must be the place. That's where I want to go. And that's where I went inspired. By the greatness of George Gershwin. I soon learned, though, in the theater, that it isn't inspiration, it's perspiration. I mean, Only amateurs get inspired, actually.
Presenter asks
17:51Why was it such a long time before we saw Gypsy in London?
Princess Margaret's favorite show is Gypsy, and when she heard the album, In London, she was hoping we'd bring it over. I worked on it hard and I got the producer to Greedor London Company, but only Ethel Merman. because the illness of her parents could not go. ... The reason was that of Merman. parents' illness. That's why we didn't bring Gypsy for a long time. And but we did Angela came over and did it just beautifully.
Presenter asks
21:30What made you perform a solo act [at the Rainbow Grill]?
All my life I never wanted to be an actor or a performer. ... But some strange thing happened. We live in the same apartment house in New York City that Neil Sadaka lives in, and he's crazy about my two children ... My daughter at dinner one night said, You know, Dad, You never play anywhere, do you? ... I said, well, I could if I wanted to. My son said, oh, well. So, you know, I booked myself into the rainbow grill. Where I did a whole act of fifty four songs out of my fourteen hundred ... and I finally made it with my children. They knew I was something. That's the only way I could prove that I could prove it.
“I soon learned, though, in the theater, that it isn't inspiration, it's perspiration. I mean, Only amateurs get inspired, actually.”
“I'm the eternal Peter Pan myself. I'm seventy one now. Is going to seventy-two. And I still enjoy Something that I read Way, way back, and that is a book called Black Beauty.”