"What a Little Moonlight Can Do": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video

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What a Little Moonlight Can Do
Written: 1934	Words and Music by: Harry M. Woods	Written for: Road House (movie, 1934)
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On the Main Stage at Cafe Songbook

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Carmen McRae

performing

"What a Little Moonlight Can Do"

with Pat Coil, piano; Bob Bowman, bass; Mark Pulice, drums
(August, 1986 concert in Japan)

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More Performances of "What a Little Moonlight Can Do"
in the Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet
(Video credit)

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"What a Little Moonlight Can Do"

Critics Corner || Lyrics Lounge

About the Movie Road House / Origins of the Song

Other songs written for Road House currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook: none

For a complete listing of songs used in this movie, see "More Movie Musicls," at Google Books.

(Read our discussion on criteria (currently unavailable)for inclusion of songs in The Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook).

Road House is a Gaumont-British film made in 1934 and released in November 1934 in the UK and April, 1935 in the U.S. All the songs in the film are written by the American songwriter Harry M. Woods (words and music) and sung by Violet Loraine. For "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," she is joined by Horace Kenney, Frank Atkinson and Geraldo and his orchestra. In the finale of Road House Violet Loraine sings "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" while girls in evening dresses disrobe and dive into an indoor swimming pool.

(For further details, especially on the songs written for the movie and a plot synopsis, see John Howard Reid, More Movie Musicals One Hundred Best Films Plus Twenty "B" Pictures, Lulu.com, 2006.)

-- see video and album in right column

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Credits

(this page)

Credits for Videomakers of custom videos used on this page:

Carmen McRae live in Japan: vladimirsmartins

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This section is currently incomplete.

The Cafe Songbook
Record/Video Cabinet:
Selected Recordings of

"What a Little Moonlight
Can Do"

(All Record/Video Cabinet entries below
include a music-video
of this page's featured song.
The year given is for when the studio
track was originally laid down
or when the live performance was given.)

Performer/Recording Index
(*indicates accompanying music-video)

Billie Holiday (1935)
Carmen McRae (1986)

1935
Billie Holiday
album: The Quintessential
Billie Holiday Vol. I

same track as on album referenced above

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iTunes

Notes: The song first took off after its introduction in the 1934 British film Road House, when Billy Holiday and Teddy Wilson recorded it on July 2, 1935, in New York with Roy Eldridge (trumpet), Benny Goodman (clarinet), Ben Webster (tenor sax), Teddy Wilson (piano), John Truehart (guitar), John Kirby (bass), Cozy Cole (drums) Billie Holiday (vocal). The recording reached number 12 on the charts in August, 1935. -- Personnel data courtesy of The Billie Holiday Discography (no longer on-line).
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Year
Artist
album: title

Music-Video

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