Ralph Rainger
Ralph Rainger | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Ralph Reichenthal |
Born | (1901-10-07)October 7, 1901 New York City, U.S. |
Died | October 23, 1942(1942-10-23) (aged 41) near Palm Springs, California, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Composer |
Instrument(s) | Piano |
Years active | 1922–1942 |
Ralph Rainger (né Reichenthal; October 7, 1901 – October 23, 1942)[1] was an American composer of popular music principally for films.
Biography
Born Ralph Reichenthal in New York City, United States,[1] Rainger initially embarked on a legal career, having obtained his law degree at Brown University in 1926.[2] He had, however, studied piano from a young age and attended the Institute of Musical Art in New York.[1] Public performances include radio broadcasts from New York and WOR (New Jersey) as early as 1922.[3] These were as soloist, accompanist to singers, and as duo-pianist with Adam Carroll or "Edgar Fairchild" (the name Milton Suskind used for commercial work).[4]
He also prepared piano rolls between 1922 and 1928 for Ampico, Standard, and DeLuxe. Some of these used the "Reichenthal" surname, others the "Rainger" name he was gradually adopting commercially.
Other early musical activities include arranging for bandleader Ray Miller.[4] His own band leading included a 1923 engagement—Ralph Reichenthal Orchestra—at the Asbury Park (NJ) Claredon-Brunswick Hotel.[5][6]
Rainger's first credit on Broadway, 1926's "Queen High", was as duo-pianist in the pit with Fairchild, following the show's break-in in Philadelphia.[7] He later played for 1928's "Angela" and "Cross my Heart".
His first hit "Moanin' Low", with lyrics by Howard Dietz, was written for Clifton Webb's co-star Libby Holman in the 1929 revue The Little Show.[1] Webb, tracing the song's origin, noted that Rainger was Webb's accompanist in vaudeville when Webb was invited to appear in the new show, and that Webb had asked Rainger for a contribution.[8]
With the advent of motion picture sound and the film musical, Rainger and other songwriters found work in Hollywood.[1] He teamed up with lyricist Leo Robin to produce a string of successful film songs,[9] including "I'll Take An Option On You",[1] from the Broadway hit show Tattle Tales (1933).
In the years that followed, Rainger wrote or collaborated on such hit songs as "I Wished on the Moon", "Love in Bloom" (comedian Jack Benny's theme song), "Faithful Forever", "Easy Living", "June in January", "Blue Hawaii", and with Leo Robin on the 1938 Oscar-winning song "Thanks for the Memory", sung by Bob Hope in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938.[1][9]
Songwriting for Hollywood's mass audience had its challenges, as lyricist Leo Robin noted:
On the stage after all, you can aim at a particular audience. You can please just New York, or just a small portion of New York. In pictures you have to please the whole country, and most of the world besides. The songs must have universal appeal, get down to something that every human being feels and can understand. That isn't so hard really, once you get the trick of simplicity.[10]
Rainger paid one year's tuition fees to the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg in advance, so that Schoenberg could pay for the transportation of his belongings to Los Angeles from Paris in 1933.
Rainger died in a plane crash near Palm Springs, California, in 1942.[1] He was a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 28, a DC-3 airliner that was involved in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Army Air Corps bomber. Rainger, then age 41, was survived by his wife, Elizabeth ("Betty"), an eight-year-old son, and two daughters, aged five and one. In the initial 1942 press coverage of the crash, the collision was not acknowledged; Betty Rainger later sued American Airlines and won a substantial judgement late in 1943.[11]
Film credits
Film credits include:[12]
- 1930 - Tom Sawyer
- 1930 - The Virtuous Sin
- 1932 - The Big Broadcast
- 1932 - A Farewell to Arms
- 1932 - This Is the Night
- 1933 - A Bedtime Story
- 1933 - From Hell to Heaven
- 1933 - She Done Him Wrong
- 1933 - International House
- 1933 - Three-Cornered Moon
- 1934 - Kiss and Make-Up
- 1934 - Come on Marines
- 1934 - Bolero
- 1934 - All of Me
- 1934 - Little Miss Marker
- 1934 - Search for Beauty
- 1934 - Six of a Kind
- 1935 - The Devil Is a Woman
- 1935 - The Big Broadcast of 1936
- 1935 - Ruggles of Red Gap
- 1936 - The Big Broadcast of 1937
- 1936 - Rhythm on the Range
- 1936 - Rose of the Rancho
- 1936 - Poppy
- 1936 - Palm Springs
- 1936 - Three Cheers for Love
- 1937 - King of Gamblers
- 1937 - The Big Broadcast of 1938, including the Academy Award-winning song "Thanks for the Memory"
- 1937 - Blossoms on Broadway
- 1937 - Hills of Old Wyoming
- 1937 - Ebb Tide
- 1937 - Swing High, Swing Low
- 1937 - Waikiki Wedding
- 1937 - Souls at Sea
- 1938 - Her Jungle Love
- 1938 - Artists and Models Abroad
- 1938 - Romance in the Dark
- 1938 - The Texans
- 1939 - Gulliver's Travels, including the Academy Award nominated song "Faithful Forever"
- 1939 - $1000 a Touchdown
- 1941 - Cadet Girl
- 1941 - A Yank in the R.A.F.
- 1941 - Tall, Dark and Handsome
- 1941 - Rise and Shine
- 1941 - New York Town
- 1942 - Footlight Serenade
- 1942 - True to the Army
- 1942 - My Gal Sal
See also
- Category:Songs with music by Ralph Rainger
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 2034. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
- ^ Brown Alumni Monthly 31:6 (January 1931)
- ^ “Radio: News and Programs.” The Corning (NY) Evening Leader, 4 May 1922.
- ^ a b “Round the Radio Circuit.” New York Telegram and Evening Mail, 2 July 1924.
- ^ “Summer Resorts” (advertising) New York Times, 29 July 1923.
- ^ Chisholm, Elise. “Biography for Two Pianos.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 2 May 1937.
- ^ “What Playgoers Have in Store.” Philadelphia Inquirer, 27 June 1926.
- ^ Webb, Clifton. “The Story of ‘Moanin’ Low’.” New York Evening Post, 25 May 1929.
- ^ a b Doug Ramsey (December 30, 2008). "Another Who's Been Unjustly Forgotten". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ “Picture Plays and Players: The Song-Writing Team of Rainger and Robin Talk of ‘The Big Broadcast'." New York Sun, 25 May 1936.
- ^ “Widow of Plane Victim Granted $77,637 Award.” Ellicottville (NY) Post, 24 November 1943.
- ^ For a complete film score list, see: Songwriters Hall of Fame; Ralph Rainger film scores
External links
- Ralph Rainger at the Internet Broadway Database
- Ralph Rainger at IMDb
- Ralph Rainger at the Songwriters Hall of Fame
- "The Film Music of Ralph Rainger". artsjournal.com.
- Ralph Rainger at Find a Grave
- Ralph Rainger recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
- v
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- "The Continental"
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- Lyrics: Herb Magidson (1934)
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- Music: Harry Warren
- Lyrics: Al Dubin (1935)
- "The Way You Look Tonight"
- Music: Jerome Kern
- Lyrics: Dorothy Fields (1936)
- "Sweet Leilani"
- Music and lyrics: Harry Owens (1937)
- "Thanks for the Memory"
- Music: Ralph Rainger
- Lyrics: Leo Robin (1938)
- "Over the Rainbow"
- Music: Harold Arlen
- Lyrics: E. Y. Harburg (1939)
- "When You Wish Upon a Star"
- Music: Leigh Harline
- Lyrics: Ned Washington (1940)
- "The Last Time I Saw Paris"
- Music: Jerome Kern
- Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II (1941)
- "White Christmas"
- Music and lyrics: Irving Berlin (1942)
- "You'll Never Know"
- Music: Harry Warren
- Lyrics: Mack Gordon (1943)
- "Swinging on a Star"
- Music: Jimmy Van Heusen
- Lyrics: Johnny Burke (1944)
- "It Might as Well Be Spring"
- Music: Richard Rodgers
- Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II (1945)
- "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"
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- Lyrics: Johnny Mercer (1946)
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- Lyrics: Ray Gilbert (1947)
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- Lyrics: Ray Evans (1948)
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- Music and lyrics: Frank Loesser (1949)
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- Music and lyrics: Ray Evans and Jay Livingston (1950)
- "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening"
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- Lyrics: Johnny Mercer (1951)
- "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin')"
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- Lyrics: Ned Washington (1952)
- "Secret Love"
- Music: Sammy Fain
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- Lyrics: Sammy Cahn (1954)
- "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing"
- Music: Sammy Fain
- Lyrics: Paul Francis Webster (1955)
- "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)"
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- "All the Way"
- Music: Jimmy Van Heusen
- Lyrics: Sammy Cahn (1957)
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- Lyrics: Alan Jay Lerner (1958)
- "High Hopes"
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- Lyrics: Sammy Cahn (1959)
- "Never on Sunday"
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- "Moon River"
- Music: Henry Mancini
- Lyrics: Johnny Mercer (1961)
- "Days of Wine and Roses"
- Music: Henry Mancini
- Lyrics: Johnny Mercer (1962)
- "Call Me Irresponsible"
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- Lyrics: Sammy Cahn (1963)
- "Chim Chim Cher-ee"
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- "The Shadow of Your Smile"
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- Lyrics: Paul Francis Webster (1965)
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- Lyrics: Don Black (1966)
- "Talk to the Animals"
- Music and lyrics: Leslie Bricusse (1967)
- "The Windmills of Your Mind"
- Music: Michel Legrand
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- "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"
- Music: Burt Bacharach
- Lyrics: Hal David (1969)
- "For All We Know"
- Music: Fred Karlin
- Lyrics: Robb Royer and Jimmy Griffin (1970)
- "Theme from Shaft"
- Music and lyrics: Isaac Hayes (1971)
- "The Morning After"
- Music and lyrics: Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn (1972)
- "The Way We Were"
- Music: Marvin Hamlisch
- Lyrics: Alan and Marilyn Bergman (1973)
- "We May Never Love Like This Again"
- Music and lyrics: Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn (1974)
- "I'm Easy"
- Music and lyrics: Keith Carradine (1975)
- "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)"
- Music: Barbra Streisand
- Lyrics: Paul Williams (1976)
- "You Light Up My Life"
- Music and lyrics: Joseph Brooks (1977)
- "Last Dance"
- Music and lyrics: Paul Jabara (1978)
- "It Goes Like It Goes"
- Music: David Shire
- Lyrics: Norman Gimbel (1979)
- "Fame"
- Music: Michael Gore
- Lyrics: Dean Pitchford (1980)
- "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)"
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- "Up Where We Belong"
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- Lyrics: Will Jennings (1982)
- "Flashdance... What a Feeling"
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- "I Just Called to Say I Love You"
- Music and lyrics: Stevie Wonder (1984)
- "Say You, Say Me"
- Music and lyrics: Lionel Richie (1985)
- "Take My Breath Away"
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- Lyrics: Tom Whitlock (1986)
- "(I've Had) The Time of My Life"
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- Lyrics: Franke Previte (1987)
- "Let the River Run"
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- "Under the Sea"
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- Lyrics: Howard Ashman (1989)
- "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)"
- Music and lyrics: Stephen Sondheim (1990)
- "Beauty and the Beast"
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- Lyrics: Howard Ashman (1991)
- "A Whole New World"
- Music: Alan Menken
- Lyrics: Tim Rice (1992)
- "Streets of Philadelphia"
- Music and lyrics: Bruce Springsteen (1993)
- "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"
- Music: Elton John
- Lyrics: Tim Rice (1994)
- "Colors of the Wind"
- Music: Alan Menken
- Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz (1995)
- "You Must Love Me"
- Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Lyrics: Tim Rice (1996)
- "My Heart Will Go On"
- Music: James Horner
- Lyrics: Will Jennings (1997)
- "When You Believe"
- Music and lyrics: Stephen Schwartz (1998)
- "You'll Be in My Heart"
- Music and lyrics: Phil Collins (1999)
- "Things Have Changed"
- Music and lyrics: Bob Dylan (2000)
- "If I Didn't Have You"
- Music and lyrics: Randy Newman (2001)
- "Lose Yourself"
- "Into the West"
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- "Al otro lado del río"
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- "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp"
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- "Falling Slowly"
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- "Jai Ho"
- Music: A. R. Rahman
- Lyrics: Gulzar (2008)
- "The Weary Kind"
- Music and lyrics: Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett (2009)
- "We Belong Together"
- Music and lyrics: Randy Newman (2010)
- "Man or Muppet"
- Music and lyrics: Bret McKenzie (2011)
- "Skyfall"
- Music and lyrics: Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth (2012)
- "Let It Go"
- Music and lyrics: Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (2013)
- "Glory"
- Music and lyrics: John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn (2014)
- "Writing's on the Wall"
- Music and lyrics: James Napier and Sam Smith (2015)
- "City of Stars"
- Music: Justin Hurwitz
- Lyrics: Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (2016)
- "Remember Me"
- Music and lyrics: Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (2017)
- "Shallow"
- Music and lyrics: Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt (2018)
- "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again"
- Music: Elton John
- Lyrics: Bernie Taupin (2019)
- "Fight for You"
- Music: D'Mile and H.E.R.
- Lyrics: H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas (2020)
- "No Time to Die"
- Music and lyrics: Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell (2021)
- "Naatu Naatu"
- Music: M. M. Keeravani
- Lyrics: Chandrabose (2022)
- "What Was I Made For?"
- Music and lyrics: Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell (2023)