Gene Halaburt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I believe Professor Chasan is recalling "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows,"
>perhaps subconsciously because of the recent death of Perry Como.  I
>found the following at:
>
>http://home.istar.ca/~townsend/_private/composer/harry_carroll.htm
>
>In 1918, (Harry) Carroll produced his own Broadway musical 'Oh,
>Look!', and the classic of "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," was written
>with the lyric by Joseph McCarthy. It was revived by Perry Como in
>1946. (Probably Carroll's name should not appear in the credits...the
>credits should read Chopin and McCarthy, because Harry 'borrowed'
>the melody of Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu in C# minor.) Originally
>the song sold over a million copies in 1918. It was revived in the
>1945 film, The Dolly Sisters.

All just about true (but not quite).  Como's "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows"
was released in 1945 (not 1946), although it peaked on the charts in
February 1946.  But a month before Como's surged ahead to #5, the version
by Helen Forrest and Dick Haymes made the strongest showing of the revived
song then to date at #8.

Six years before John Payne sang it in "The Dolly Sisters" it was sung by
Alice Faye (against type but arguably her best rendition of any song) in
the original release of "Rose of Washington Square." Judy Garland also gave
it a try (with Charles Winninger) in the 1941 "Ziegfeld Girl." The song was
featured in at least two other 1940s films before "The Dolly Sisters."

Harry Carroll took credit for the music but always gave attribution to the
Chopin piece (as "based on"), much as did Ted Mossman 27 years later in his
adaptation of Chopin's Polonaise in A-flat Major known as "Till the End of
Time."

John Dalmas
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