It’s time for a brief return to Billy May day here at First Draft. This tune comes from an album called Anita O’Day and Billy May Swing Rodgers and Hart. Talk about truth in advertising.
On the surface, To Keep My Love Alive is a chirpy show tune until, that is, you pay closer attention to the lyrics. That’s the sardonic tone Lorenz Hart brought to his collaboration with Richard Rodgers. It’s another reason I’ll take their stuff over the other H in Rodgers’ life: Hammerstein. I do, however prefer Hammerstein’s first name: Oscar, Oscar, Oscar. So does my cat.
Richard Rogers was once asked about how working with Lorenz Hart differed from working with Oscar Hammerstein. Rogers was a man of average height; Hammerstein was taller; and Hart was rather diminutive. Rogers answered the question that when he worked with Hammerstein, producers would say the big guy’s okay, but watch out for that short son of a bitch. When working with Hart, they’d say the short guy was someone you could work with, but you had to watch the tall one like a hawk.
Nice story. Hart *was* a major piece of work. Hammerstein was not.