You make me smile with my heart.
That is one of my favorite lyrics of all time. It comes to mind when I think about my husband. It is from the song My Funny Valentine by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
I’m willing to bet that you’ve heard of Rodgers and Hammerstein, composers of The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, and a host of other Broadway musicals. But, before he worked with Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers worked with Lorenz Hart. {Hmm. Hart died in 1943, Hammerstein died in 1960. Rodgers lasted until 1979. He was rough on lyricists. (Lyrics are a fancy way of saying the words to a song. A lyricist is someone who writes the words to songs.)} Rodgers and Hart wrote some of the most beautiful songs of all time.
My Funny Valentine is from the 1937 musical Babes in Arms. (If you’ve seen the 1939 movie version starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, you may be confused trying to place this song. It, along with a lot of the other songs, was taken out of the movie.) The musical, as it was originally written, was quite progressive. There were references to Nietzsche, communism, and racism. Quite a lot for 1937.
Babes in Arms also gave us the meme of teenagers putting on a show in the barn out back. The plot revolves around a group of kids whose parents are leaving them to go on a vaudeville tour. The sheriff threatens to put the kids on a work farm to keep them out of trouble. They decide to put on a show. And hilarity, along with a fair bit of politics, ensues.
The song, My Funny Valentine, is not about Valentine’s Day. It so happens that one of our teens is named Valentine. He goes by Val.
Behold the way our fine-feathered friend
His virtue doth parade.
Thou knowest not, my dim-witted friend
The picture thou hast made.
Thy vacant brow, and thy tousled hair
Conceal thy good intent.
Thou noble, up-right, truthful, sincere,
And slightly dopey gent,
You’re my funny Valentine.
Sweet, gentle Valentine.
You make me smile with my heart.
You’re looks are laughable, unphotographable.
Yet, you’re my favorite work of art.
Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak,
Are you smart?
But don’t change a hair for me,
Not if you care for me.
Stay, little Valentine, stay.
Each day is Valentine’s day.
Because of the opening verse, with its sparse, as in absent, orchestration, and the language, with its thy and thou. There is a certain medieval feel to the song that I really like.
The show had a lot of hit songs: Johnny One-Note, Where or When, The Lady Is a Tramp. My Funny Valentine got lost in the shuffle. At least until the 1950s when it was discovered and recorded by jazz legend Chet Baker. His recording, with both dusky voice and clear trumpet, brought the song to everyone’s attention, and made it a hit. Then Sinatra got a hold of the song, and it was guaranteed a place in the Great American Songbook. Now, My Funny Valentine is one of the most recorded songs ever.
But it does seem a little odd that the song was made famous with men singing it, and not women. The lyrics which seem sweet when sung by a woman, seem a bit rude when sung by a man. Although, I suppose that is just proof of a double standard. If I think it’s sweet when sung by a woman, why can’t it also be sweet when sung by a man? Perhaps because men so often put women down. Will Friedwald, in his book Stardust Melodies: The Biography of 12 of America’s Most Popular Songs, (how’s that for a title?) said this: “My Funny Valentine is a man’s idea of the way he imagines women think about men.” Makes sense.
Do you have any stories about My Funny Valentine? Who did your favorite version? I’ll be posting a bunch of different versions of the song this week on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out.
Until next time!
That is one of my favorite lyrics of all time. It comes to mind when I think about my husband. It is from the song My Funny Valentine by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
I’m willing to bet that you’ve heard of Rodgers and Hammerstein, composers of The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, and a host of other Broadway musicals. But, before he worked with Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers worked with Lorenz Hart. {Hmm. Hart died in 1943, Hammerstein died in 1960. Rodgers lasted until 1979. He was rough on lyricists. (Lyrics are a fancy way of saying the words to a song. A lyricist is someone who writes the words to songs.)} Rodgers and Hart wrote some of the most beautiful songs of all time.
My Funny Valentine is from the 1937 musical Babes in Arms. (If you’ve seen the 1939 movie version starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, you may be confused trying to place this song. It, along with a lot of the other songs, was taken out of the movie.) The musical, as it was originally written, was quite progressive. There were references to Nietzsche, communism, and racism. Quite a lot for 1937.
Babes in Arms also gave us the meme of teenagers putting on a show in the barn out back. The plot revolves around a group of kids whose parents are leaving them to go on a vaudeville tour. The sheriff threatens to put the kids on a work farm to keep them out of trouble. They decide to put on a show. And hilarity, along with a fair bit of politics, ensues.
The song, My Funny Valentine, is not about Valentine’s Day. It so happens that one of our teens is named Valentine. He goes by Val.
Behold the way our fine-feathered friend
His virtue doth parade.
Thou knowest not, my dim-witted friend
The picture thou hast made.
Thy vacant brow, and thy tousled hair
Conceal thy good intent.
Thou noble, up-right, truthful, sincere,
And slightly dopey gent,
You’re my funny Valentine.
Sweet, gentle Valentine.
You make me smile with my heart.
You’re looks are laughable, unphotographable.
Yet, you’re my favorite work of art.
Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak,
Are you smart?
But don’t change a hair for me,
Not if you care for me.
Stay, little Valentine, stay.
Each day is Valentine’s day.
Because of the opening verse, with its sparse, as in absent, orchestration, and the language, with its thy and thou. There is a certain medieval feel to the song that I really like.
The show had a lot of hit songs: Johnny One-Note, Where or When, The Lady Is a Tramp. My Funny Valentine got lost in the shuffle. At least until the 1950s when it was discovered and recorded by jazz legend Chet Baker. His recording, with both dusky voice and clear trumpet, brought the song to everyone’s attention, and made it a hit. Then Sinatra got a hold of the song, and it was guaranteed a place in the Great American Songbook. Now, My Funny Valentine is one of the most recorded songs ever.
But it does seem a little odd that the song was made famous with men singing it, and not women. The lyrics which seem sweet when sung by a woman, seem a bit rude when sung by a man. Although, I suppose that is just proof of a double standard. If I think it’s sweet when sung by a woman, why can’t it also be sweet when sung by a man? Perhaps because men so often put women down. Will Friedwald, in his book Stardust Melodies: The Biography of 12 of America’s Most Popular Songs, (how’s that for a title?) said this: “My Funny Valentine is a man’s idea of the way he imagines women think about men.” Makes sense.
Do you have any stories about My Funny Valentine? Who did your favorite version? I’ll be posting a bunch of different versions of the song this week on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out.
Until next time!
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