Stories of Standards: “Skylark”

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“Skylark” (1941) by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer made the pop chart four times in 1942. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra (Ray Eberle vocalist) went to #7. Harry James (Helen Forrest vocalist) went to #11. Rosario Burden (Dinah Shore vocalist) went to #5 and John Scott Trotter (Bing Crosby vocalist) went to #14. Carmichael originally wrote the tune for a musical about his friend Bix Beiderbecke, and based the melody on Beiderbecke’s solos, which gave rise to the original title “Bix Licks”. After the musical was cancelled Carmichael worked on the tune and gave it to Johnny Mercer, who worked on it for about a year before calling Carmichael and singing the finished “Skylark” to him. By that time Carmichael had forgotten it entirely. The Buick Skylark series (starting in 1953) was named for this song and Jazz Standards ranks it as number 62 on the list of top jazz standards.

Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981) was at Indiana University in the law program when he met Bix Beiderbecke, played an improvised tune for him and was asked the question that redirected his life: “Why’nt you write music, Hoagy?”. Carmichael had only two music teachers: Reggie Duval, a black barber and dance hall pianist, was one; Carmichael’s mother was the other. Reggie gave him his creed: “Never play anything that don’t sound right. You might not make any money–but at least you won’t get hostile with yourself.”

Johnny Mercer (1909-1976) went from an upper-class childhood in Savannah to New York City, where he didn’t get a role in a musical and started writing music. He went on to Hollywood, where he gained renown as a brilliant songwriter.  He was one of the founders of Capitol Records and of ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), established the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1969 (and was inducted into it in 1971). The river that ran by his house in Savannah was renamed “Moon River” for his song of the same name. The Johnny Mercer Foundation said: “The Special Collections Department at the Georgia State University Library maintains a database of over 1,400 published and unpublished songs with lyrics and/or music by Johnny Mercer.”