Jimmy McHugh is a composer whose songs I have sung extensively through the years yet is not as well known by name as many other songwriters of his time. His versatility, originality, and melodic inspiration distinguished him among a very distinguished group of colleagues. Why? Because Jimmy was a man who was able to adapt and sustain his career over a fifty-year period with a seemingly endless spring of melodic inspirations. Starting after World War 1 with patriotic songs like “My Dream of the Big Parade” and “Hinky Dinky Parlay Vous” and sailing into the sixties with luscious ballads like “Warm and Willing,” he created songs that are assured immortality in the twenty-first century.
It is only time that determines what will truly last. Take for example, “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” a song that had a rather inauspicious beginning. Originally created for a show called “Delmar’s Revels,” the producer ejected the song after opening night, yet Jimmy and lyric writer Dorothy Fields had great faith in it. One year later it was placed in the musical revue “Blackbirds of 1928 and was to achieve a long unmatched run of 518 performances, quickly becoming one of the season’s smash hits. It turned Jimmy McHugh into one of America’s most celebrated songwriters... |
