“I’m Old Fashioned”

Well… I am!  Which is why I’m particularly pleased about this week adding the 1942 song of the same name to my repertoire of vintage numbers.

“I’m Old Fashioned” was originally featured in the film “You Were Never Lovelier” in a fantastic routine featuring Rita Hayworth (miming to Nan Wynn’s vocals) and Fred Astaire.

It was written by composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Johnny Mercer.  They also wrote “Dearly Beloved” for the same film which was nominated for that year’s Academy Award Best Original Song (between them they notched up 26 Academy Award nominations in all, 8 for Kern and 18 for Mercer).

             

They’re best know for their work with other writing partners.  Kern worked with Dorothy Fields (“A Fine Romance”, “The Way You Look Tonight”) and Oscar Hammerstein II (“Show Boat”) while Mercer wrote with something like 170 different people including Hoagy Carmichael (“Lazy Bones”, “Skylark”), Henry Mancini (“Moon River”, “The Days of Wine and Roses”) and Harold Arlen (“Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive”, “Blues in the Night”, “That Old Black Magic”).

They wrote some of the most enduring numbers in the history of popular music and although this collaboration is not one of their better-known songs it’s a beautiful song that sound as freash today as it ever did.  It’s a perfect marriage of melody and lyric and one that pretty much sums up why I love these great old songs and get such pleassure from siging them.

I”ll be premiering “I’m Old Fashioned” next Saturday (October 2nd) at the Vintage Chic Wedding Fair in Worcester.  I’m delighted to have been able to add it to my repertoire and look forward to singing it on many, many more occasions.