Singin' in the Rain

Written: c. 1927

Music by: Nacio Herb Brown

Words by: Arthur Freed

Written for: Hollywood Music Box Revue of 1927 (show/revue)

On the Main Stage at Cafe Songbook

Jamie Cullum

performing

"Singin' in the Rain"

mashed up with
Rianna's "Umbrella"

live at Music Matters, Hong Kong, June 2009
Interviewed by Ralph Simon

More Performances of "Singin' in the Rain"
in the Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet
(Video credit )

Cafe Songbook Reading Room

"Singin' in the Rain"

Critics Corner || Lyrics Lounge

"Singin' in the Rain" was not, as many think, written for the 1952 movie for which it is the title song. In fact it had been around for over two decades before it was so memorably sung and danced to by Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor in that 1952 film.

"Singin' in the Rain" was written by Nacio Herb Brown (music) and Arthur Freed (words), but the occasion for its composition remains a bit unclear. Most sources indicate it was created for one of the Hollywood Music Box Revues presented at the Hollywood Music Box Theater beginning in 1926. Either the 1927 or 1928 edition of the revue are the most likely candidates for the song's premier. Doris Eaton Travis, a former Ziegfeld girl and later part of the act The Brox Sisters, joined the cast of the Revue in 1926. According to her obituary in The New York Times, she told Interview Magazine in 1999, that not only was she the first to perform "Singin' in the Rain" but also that while appearing in the Music Box Revue, she fell in love with the songwriter Nacio Herb Brown. Mrs. Travis also said she premiered "Singin' in the Rain" "surrounded by a chorus of eight men." (See Douglas Martin, "Doris E. Travis, Last of the Ziegfeld Girls, Dies at 106" The New York Times, May 12, 2010.)

A few sources suggest the song's premier did not take place until 1929, the year during which M-G-M produced its first two musicals: Broadway Melody, which won the academy award for best movie, as well as the musical that they produced to follow up on its success, The Hollywood Revue of 1929. Several renderings of "Singin' in the Rain" are included in the second film, one by the Brox Sisters as well as the "show-stopping" color finale of the film.

In his book M-G-M's Greatest Musicals: The Freed Unit, Hugh Fordin gives the following account of the song's origin:

Hot on Broadway Melody's success, M-G-M conjured up Hollywood Revue of 1929, bringing together practically all of the studio's stars (with the exception of Garbo). Brown and Freed contributed "You Were Meant for Me," Tommy Akins on Parade" and "Singin' in the Rain." "I'll never forget how Herb and I got around to writing "Singin' in the Rain,'" says Freed. "He came to me one afternoon with the news that he'd just written a great tune for a coloratura soprano. He sat down and played it with all the classic trills. All I could think of was that a vamp in the bass and a few minor changes would give it the zip for some lyrics I'd written." Brown played it again Freed's way. "Singin' in the Rain" was the show stopping color finale of the Hollywood Revue of 1929 . . . ."

"Singin' in the Rain" performed by the cast as the finale of
Hollywood Revue Of 1929

Ed's. note: Even though Fordin provides a wonderful window into the creative process for "Singin' in the Rain," his account does not preclude the possibility that what he quotes Freed as saying didn't take place a year or more earlier than the making of "Hollywood Revue of 1929," making it possible that the song was originally written for the stage show Hollywood Revue of a year or two earlier, as other sources have claimed.

By far the most famous film incarnation of "Singin' in the Rain" is in the movie that bears its title. And it is no coincidence that the song "Singin' in the Rain" was written during the time that the story of the movie Singin' in the Rain takes place, that time when the transition from silent movies to "talkies" occurred.

Betty Comden and Adolph Green returned to M-G-M in May of 1950 to begin work on the screenplay for the movie they had been contracted to write believing they were also contracted to write the lyrics for the its songs. M-G-M clarified the terms of the contract to them. It was the studio's option regarding the lyrics and M-G-M's choice was that al the songs would be by the songwriting team of Arthur Freed (the film's producer) and Nacio Herb Brown his songwriting partner. Furthermore, they would be, almost exclusively songs from their existing catalog. While looking at these songs, Comden and Green noticed that Freed-Brown songs such as "Should I?," "All I Do Is Dream of You," "Good Morning," You Were Meant fro me," "You Are My Lucky Star," "Singin' in the Rain," etc. were written in the late twenties which gave them the idea to create a story that came from that period; and the lynch pin of the plot they created was based on the disastrous results that sometimes occurred when silent screen actors and actresses were forced to talk on screen, to be heard no matter how awful they might sound.

It is not surprising that working out Kelly's song and dance for "Singin' in the Rain" would be complicated. It began at the beginning with Kelly worrying about how to start the song. Fordin quotes the star:

Here I found myself with a classic and I always hated the Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy way of going into a song." . . . Roger [Edens, associate producer] came up with the solution: 'Start off with doodedoo do--doodedoo do.'

Everything else happened that could happen from running short of water for the rain storm because of shooting time coinciding with the time local area residents were watering their lawns to Kelly's demand that holes be dug in the sound stage floor to create just the right depth for the puddles he would dance through. Nevertheless it took only a day and a half to complete the scene. (Fordin, pp. 351-358).

Gene Kelly sings and dances to "Singin' in the Rain"
in the 1952 M-G-M movie Singin' in the Rain.

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