The Music Goes Round and Round

"The Music Goes Round and Round" is a popular song written in 1935.

History

The music was written by Edward Farley and Mike Riley, the lyrics by Red Hodgson; the song was published in 1935. The song was recorded by Tommy Dorsey and became a hit in 1936.^[1] The song was the musical interlude for the Columbia movie "The Music Goes 'round" in 1936. The New York Times wrote: "If we really wanted to be nasty about it, we could say that this Farley-Riley sequence is the best thing in the new picture. At least it makes no pretense of being anything but a musical interlude dragged in by the scruff of its neck to illustrate the devastating effect upon the public of some anonymous young busybody's question about the workings of a three-valve sax horn. Like the "March of Time," it preserves in film the stark record of a social phenomenon—in this case, the conversion of a song hit into a plague, like Japanese beetles or chain letters."^[2] It has since been recorded by many other artists and has become a pop and jazz standard. It has long been the staple theme of college radio's "Irrelevant Show" on WMUC FM, in College Park, Maryland (United States), as well as the radio program "Nostalgia Unlimited" on 3CR AM in Melbourne, Australia.

A version by Tommy Dorsey's band featuring Edythe Wright (they actually mention each other in the song) is played over the ending credits of Me and Orson Welles (2009).

Danny Kaye performed a version of the song with Susan Gordon in the 1959 film "The Five Pennies." It was included on the 1961 Ella Fitzgerald album Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie! (Verve).

In DTV Disney the song was set entirely to the Donald Duck short Donald and the Wheel (1961) with a bit of Trombone Trouble (1944) for the lyrics "Oh you / I blow through here."

References

1. "'Music Goes Round and Round' Perpetrated by 'Red' Hodgson. Author of Dizzy Tune Settles Controversy With Farley, Riley; Only a Variation of 'Dinah,' He Asserts.". Washington Post. February 7, 1937. Chicago (Associated Press) Less than a year ago the gayer circles of the country were in the throes of a bit of musical mania wherein the song and the singer went round and round deliriously.
2. "The Music Goes 'round (1936). Notes for the Record on 'Music Goes 'Round,' at the Capitol, and Other Recent Arrivals.". New York Times. February 22, 1936. Retrieved 2008-10-02. If we really wanted to be nasty about it, we could say that this Farley-Riley sequence is the best thing in the new picture. At least it makes no pretense of being anything but a musical interlude dragged in by the scruff of its neck to illustrate the devastating effect upon the public of some anonymous young busybody's question about the workings of a three-valve sax horn. Like the "March of Time," it preserves in film the stark record of a social phenomenon—in this case, the conversion of a song hit into a plague, like Japanese beetles or chain letters.