Harry Warren
Salvatore Guaragna
BORN: 1893, Brooklyn, NY
American songwriter and publisher Harry Warren was responsible for hits
spanning over 30 years, starting with his first successful tune, "Rose of
the Rio Grande," in 1922. Born Salvatore Guaragna in 1893 in Brooklyn, NY,
the composer wrote hundreds of popular songs and show tunes, including three
for which he received Oscars: "Lullaby of Broadway," "On the Atchison, Topeka,
and the Santa Fe," and "You'll Never Know," which was also his biggest seller
in sheet music. Other well-known tunes penned by Warren include "I Only Have
Eyes for You" (1934), "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" (1938), "Chattanooga
Choo Choo" (1941), "That's Amore," and many more. He teamed up with numerous
lyricists over the years, including Sam M. Lewis, Mort Dixon, Bud Green,
and even Johnny Mercer for a brief period, but Warren collaborated more with
Mack Gordon than any other lyricist. His last hit came in 1957 with "An Affair
to Remember." ~ Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide
Born Salvatore Guaragno in Brooklyn, composer Harry Warren changed his name
while working as a drummer and pianist in various travelling bands. His first
taste of Hollywood came via a series of handyman jobs at the Vitagraph Studios,
but it wasn't until the arrival of talkies that Warren and Hollywood linked
arms for keeps. From 1930 through 1967, Warren composed some 300 songs for
over 50 films -- roughly a rate of 6 songs per picture. Writing the music
for the Eddie Cantor musical Roman Scandals (1933), Warren so impressed the
film's choreographer Busby Berkeley that Berkeley brought Warren with him
to Warner Bros. for 42nd Street (1933). Working in collaboration with Al Dubin,
Warren penned such everlasting tunes as "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," "Young
and Healthy" and the title song "42nd Street." In rapid-fire order, Warren
worked on two more Berkeley pictures within the same year: Footlight Parade
("By a Waterfall," "Honeymoon Hotel," "Shanghai Lil") and The Gold Diggers
of 1933 ("We're In the Money," "Pettin' in the Park," "Remember My Forgotten
Man"). The list of Harry Warren songs is virtually a shorthand history of
movie musicals: "I Only Have Eyes for You," "You Must Have Been a Beautiful
Baby," "Jeepers Creepers," "Chattanooga Choo Choo," "The More I See You,"
"That's Amore," and his three Oscar-winning numbers: "Lullaby of Broadway,"
"You'll Never Know" and "The Acheson Topeka and the Santa Fe." Despite the
familiarity of his output, Harry Warren's name was never a household word:
perhaps the more impressionable fans thought all those songs wrote themselves,
or that someone more famous like Harold Arlen or Irving Berlin came up with
them. Harry Warren's one chance for latter-day adulation was squelched when
producer David Merrick, utilizing over a dozen Warren songs for his 1983
Broadway musical 42nd Street, perversely refused to put Warren's name on
the advertising or in the programs! In recent years, singer/pianist Michael
Feinstein has worked diligently in bringing the invaluable contributions of
his late friend Harry Warren to the attention of audiences who'd grown up
humming "Shuffle off to Buffalo" or "By a Waterfall" without ever knowing
who'd put the notes on paper in the first place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie
Guide