• Name: Harold Arlen
• Birthday: 02/15/1905
• Birth Place: Buffalo, NY
• Died: 04/23/1986
• Place of Death: New York, NY
• Period: Modern
• Genre: Classical

Title	Release
St. Louis Woman/Harold Arlen and His Songs W	2006
(3) (You Got Me in between) The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, song
(7) A Sleepin' Bee, song (from "House of Flowers") W
A Star is Born (1954), film score W
(2) A Woman's prerogative W
(4) Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive, song WA
American Minuet, for orchestra	2004
(2) Americanegro Suite, for voice & piano
(3) Any Place I Hang My Hat, song	1990
(3) As Long as I Live, song WA
(7) Bloomer Girl, musical play
(2) Blues in the Night, film score
(16) Blues in the Night, song (from the film "Blues in the Night")
(2) Blues Opera Suite (from "Free and Easy")
Bonbon
(2) Buds Won't Bud, song WA	1940
Cabin in the Sky, songs for the film WA	1942
Casbah, film score WA	2006
Civil War Ballet
Come on midnight
(15) Come rain or come shine, song (from the musical "St. Louis Woman") WA
(3) Cotton Club Paradise (22nd edition), musical	1996
Cotton Club Revue (1933)	2001
Don't like goodbyes, song
(6) Down with Love, song WA	1992
Fancy free
First you make me high (then you have me low)
(2) For every man there's a woman, song
(2) Fun to be fooled, song
Gay Purr-Ee, film score
(13) Get Happy, song (used in "9:15 Revue")	1990
God's country
Green light ahead
(4) Happiness is a thing called Joe, song WA
Heave Ho, Let the Wind Blow, song (for the film "Meet the People") WA	1943
Here Come the Waves, film songs	1935
(2) Here's What I'm Here For, song	2004
Hero Ballet
(4) Hit the Road to Dreamland, song
Hittin' the Bottle WA	1935
(2) Hooray for Love, song
(2) Hooray for What, musical play	1943
(2) House of Flowers, musical play WA	1955
(4) I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues, song
I Had Myself a True Love, song WA
(4) I Love a Parade
(3) I wonder what became of me WA
(7) I've Got the World on a String, song WA
(6) Ill Wind, song	1990
(4) It Was Written in the Stars, song (used in the film "Casbah")
(4) It's a new world	1990

American songwriter Harold Arlen was born Hyman Arluck. His father, Samuel Arluck, was the cantor and choir director at the Clinton Street synagogue in Buffalo. His musical tastes ran from Italian opera to classical music and he was responsible for Harold's musical education. By the age of 15, the young Arluck had dropped out of high school to play piano in local jazz bands and movie houses. He wanted to be a singer and formed his own group, called The Buffalodians. Fletcher Henderson and Arnold Johnson hired him to do song arrangements and Will Marion Cook encouraged him to compose. "Get Happy" was his first big hit and it was later immortalized on film by Judy Garland. On the strength of this success, he was given a year's contract to write songs for the Piantadosi firm, which led to steady work writing music for revues in New York City. Harold Arlen wrote countless songs for musical revues performed in the theaters around the city, particularly revues at the Cotton Club in Harlem. It was here that Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Jimmy Lunceford and their bands performed at night. In one of the 1933 Cotton Club revues, Ethel Waters brought the house down with her emotional performance of "Stormy Weather." Other Arlen songs performed at the Cotton Club include "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" and "I've Got the World on a String." Arlen composed almost three dozen Broadway musicals and film scores, and his inspiration was diverse and eclectic. He could breathe life into all types of subjects, from the children's fantasy The Wizard of Oz to the socially conscious anti-war musical Hooray for What? His subjects include a setting of an Edna Ferber novel called -Saratoga; a setting of a short story about bordello workers in Haiti by Truman Capote called "House of Flowers;" the lighthearted movie My Blue Heaven; and a topical musical about the suffragette Dolly Bloomer. Although The Wizard of Oz is the film for which he is best known and remembered, Arlen's contribution to the development of the film musical is vast. In addition to writing for the theater, Arlen also delved into other types of compositions. His basis was always blues idioms. His Americanegro Suite is a group of songs inspired by the African American spiritual tradition, while his biggest project was a blues opera with over 60 musical numbers. In the score of his blues opera Free and Easy, Arlen seeks to distill the essence of the blues in all its variety and its application to the everyday lives of his characters. Although not a success on the stage, the work ranks as a monument to American popular music next to that of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. ~ Rita Laurance, All Music Guide