Welcome to

Cafe Songbook

Internet Home of the
Songs, Songwriters and Performers of

The Great American Songbook

Madison Square logo, top of page cafe songbook sign for logo

Search Tips: 1) Click "Find on This Page" button to activate page search box. 2) When searching for a name (e.g. a songwriter), enter last name only. 3) When searching for a song title on the catalog page, omit an initial "The" or "A". 4) more search tips.

E. Y. Harburg
aka Yip Harburg

sheet music cover: "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?)

Vintage sheet music for

"How Are Things in Glocca Morra?"
music by xxx; words by xxx
from title

Basic Information

Born: Isidore Hochberg, April 8, 1898, New York City

Died: March 5, 1981, Los Angeles, California

Also known as Yip Harburg, where Yip is short for Yipsl, a chilhood nickname -- Yiddish for squirrel).

Primary songwriting role: lyricist; alsolibrettistand playwright

Co-writers: chiefly Harold Arlen, and Burton Lane. Other Harburg collaborators featured on Cafe Songbook include Jerome Kern, Ira Gershwin, Jay Gorney, Johnny Green, Sammy Fain, and Milton Ager. See also a database of 32 Harburg co-writers.

Page Menu

Basic Songwiter Information
Overview and Commentary
Music-Video Cabinet
Songs by This Songwriter
in the Cafe Songbook Catalog
of The Great American Songbook
Web Research Resources
Print Research Resources
Visitor Comments
Master List of Songwriters
Credits

Overview and Commentary:
Yip Harburg


book cover: Max Wilk, "They're Playing Our Song"

Max Wilk, They're Playing Our Song: Conversations with America's Classic Songwriters (originally published 1973 as They're Playing Our Song: From Jerome Kern to Stephen Sondheim—The Stories behind the Words and Music of Two Generations), New York and Stratford, CT: Easton Studio Press, 2008.

Many of the Songbook songwriters not only collaborated with each other on the songs but commented on each other as well. Wilk elicits in his interview with Harburg, the lyricists comments on some of his collaborators -- and, in other interviews, their comments on him:

Burton Lane, with whom Harburg wrote the songs for Finian's Rainbow, comments on Yip with regard to their collaboration on that show: "You know, "I've known Yip since I was seven, so there is almost a father-son thing in our relationship. And when I write songs with him, I don't think there's a more satisfying creative experience in anything I've ever done, before or since. More than anyone else I've ever worked with, Yip makes my tunes come to life. I mean, he has a tremendous ear--catches every nuance that's in a tune--fits it with lyrics that are right, and it's a joy. He makes me like my own tunes better" (Wilk pp. 261-262).

And here's what Harburg has to say about Vernon Duke: "'I liked Vernon's facility. He was fast and very sophisticated., almost too sophisticated for Broadway. Walk a Little Faster had some very smart stuff in it. . . . Vernon brought with him all of that Noel Coward/Diaghilev/Paris/Russia background. He was a global guy with an ability to articulate the English language that was very interesting. A whole new world for me. He could drive you crazy, and he could also open up a new vista. Maybe it was a little bit chi-chi and decorative, but with my pumpernickel background and his orchid tunes we made a wonderful marriage. . . . Later I felt that his music lacked the essential theatricalism and the histrionics that writing for shows demanded--the drama, the emotions. So gradually I gravitated more and more to Harold Arlen'" (Wilk, p. 295)

Johnny Mercer commenting on his own work habits, how he had to spend hours writing down every line he could think of and then weed out the bad ones one by one, credits Yip Harburg: "Yip Harburg taught me about that. He's a terrific writer. God, he'll sit in a room all day and he'll dig and he'll dig and he'll dig. And it shows, I think. He's witty, he has inventive. words. When Yip writes a comedy song for the stage I think he's almost without equal. Yip was a big influence in teaching me how hard to work" (Wilk, p. 153).


Book cover" William Zinsser, "Easy to Remember"
William Zinsser.
Easy to Remember
The Great American
Songwriters and Their Songs
.
Jaffrey, New Hampshire:
David R. Godine, 2001.

"The lyricist E. Y. Harburg was an incurable socialist and an incurable dreamer. That combination enabled him to write two of America's most powerful songs: "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?", the ultimate hymn of the Depression, and "Over the Rainbow," the ultimate hymn of escape to a happier place" (Zinsser, p. 145).



Ken Bloom, The American Songbook: The Singers, the Songwriters, and the Songs, New York: Black Dog and Leventhal, 2005.

Ken Bloom quotes Harburg on how he was treated—being an adamant advocate for the political left—at MGM:

Every lyric was fingerprinted and the history of it taken and the microscopes were applied to every word to see what hidden meanings there were and I lost many a job and people were afraid to write with me. They used to call you in at Metro and say, "Look it, we don't want any messages . . . . Messages are for Western Union." They would have kicked me out if it wasn't for the fact that I was able to write humorous stuff and things that made the thing work." (Bloom, p. 240)


"Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz?: Yip Harburg, Lyricist" by Harold Myerson and Ernie Harburg
Harold Myerson and Ernie Harburg with Arthur Perlman.
Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz?: Yip Harburg, Lyricist.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993

Harburg acquired his nickname, "Yip" (derived from "yipsl," the Yiddish word for "squirrel") as a child.

"These youngsters are not producing the great songs that a Hart or a pair of Gershwins produced when they - and the century - were in their thirties. . . . I suspect that much of the difference springs from the way in which shows are written today, much from the lack of great composers to challenge the lyricists to write greatly, and much from the climate of our times. . . .

"[A] cross that the Sondheims and Harnicks must bear is that they are not writing with a Richard Rodgers, a Jerome Kern or a Harold Arlen. For a great song requires a great composer." (Harburg --c. 1961-- on later generations of Broadway songwriters, from Myerson and Harburg, p. 314).

Harburg also compares contemporary songs and songwriters to his generation during his interview with Max Wilk:

Nowadays a kid gets a guitar, he goes out and he knows he can make it. Three chords and one sentence repeated over and over again, and there your are. What's terrible is that the broadcasters put out nothing but that stuff. No more Rodgers, no more Gershwin, no more Arlen or Kern. I try to listen, and I think most of what I hear is written very naively and crudely, without real form, real taste. Of course, here and there you see glimmers of some kind of really good talent, but it's usually lost in the noise and raucousness. I can't distinguish one song from another (Wilk, p. 303).



Stephen Sondheim.
Stephen Sondheim.
Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. New York: Alfred A. Knoph, 2010.

 

For one contemporary songwriter, no doubt not one of those Harburg refers to above, Stephen Sondheim says that among his favorite lyrics are Harburg's for Finian's Rainbow; nevertheless, he writes in Finishing the Hat, "Brilliant as some of the songs in Finian's Rainbow and Bloomer Girl* are, Harburg's most consistently superb lyrics were written for the movies Cabin in the Sky and The Wizard of Oz, because despite the occasional solid naturalistic lyric like "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?', Harburg was at his best when the subject matter suited his fanciful style."

*Bloomer Girl, however, is the source, according to Sondheim, of one of his favorite lyric lines as well as one of his favorite couplets. He favors them for the same reason:

They each conjure up an ethos. In the first instance its that of a black man in a Southern prison, in the second that of a repressive middle-class New England community, both instances taking place in the late nineteenth century.

The line is from the song "The Eagle and Me":

Ever since the day
When the world was an onion . . .

The couplet is from "Sunday in Cicero Falls":

Even the rabbits
Inhibit their habits
On Sunday in Cicero Falls.

"Lyrics," says Sondheim, "don't come any better than that."

Finishing the Hat, p 99.

back to top of page

Cafe Songbook
Music-Video Cabinet:
Yip Harburg

 

Harburg himself sings his most famous song (as well as putting it in historical context -- 1979).
Amazon
 
Kaye Ballard and Arthur Siegel in a tribute to lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg. A live performance at Michael's Pub, New York City, 1988. Songs, Part 1: "Fancy Meeting You," "There's a Great Day Comin' Manana," "Today's the Day to Make Way for Tomorrow," "Paper Moon," "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" "Don't Let it Get You Down (Love is a Lovely Thing)," and "Down With Love." Songs, Parts 2: a Groucho Marx impression of the song, "Lydia," Mabel Mercer's "April in Paris," and a medley of songs from "The Wizard of Oz," featuring Kaye playing "Over the Rainbow" on flute.
 
Parts 1 an 2 of a documentary tribute to the life of Yip Harburg from Pacifia Radio Democracy Now Project featuring Ernie Harburg being interviewed about his father, first broadcast November 25th 2004.
Watch Part 3 and Part 4 at YouTube.
video credits
   
back to top of page


Yip Harburg Songs
currently included in the
Cafe Songbook Catalog of
The Great American Songbook
  1. April In Paris
  2. Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
  3. Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead
  4. Down With Love
  5. The Eagle and Me
  6. Fun To Be Fooled
  7. Happiness is Just a Thing Called Joe
  8. How Are Things in Glocca Morra?
  9. I Like the Likes of You
  10. If I Only Had a Brain/a Heart/the Nerve
  11. If This Isn't Love
  12. It's Only a Paper Moon
  13. Last Night When We Were Young
  14. Let's Take a Walk around the Block
  15. Look to the Rainbow
  16. Old Devil Moon
  17. Over the Rainbow
  18. Poor You
  19. Right As the Rain
  20. Then I'll Be Tired of You
  21. What Is There To Say?
  22. When I'm not Near the Girl I Love
  23. The World Is in My Arms
  24. You're a Builder-Upper
Click here for a database of songs written or co-written by Yip Harburg.
back to top of page


DVD cover: The Songwriters Collection
Broadway & Hollywood Legends - The Songwriters Collection (Kander & Ebb / Alan Jay Lerner / E.Y. "Yip" Harburg / Sheldon Harnick / Burton Lane / Mitchell Parish / Arthur Schwartz / Charles Strouse) -- DVD
(interviews with and the music of the songwriters listed above and others)


Research Resources:
Yip Harburg

Yip Harburg research resources on the web (listed alphabetically by web source):
back to top of page
Yip Harburg research resources in print (listed chronologically):
 
back to top of page

Visitor Comments

Submit comments on songs, songwriters, performers, etc.
Feel free to suggest an addition or correction.
Please read our Comments Guidelines before making a submission.
(Posting of comments is subject to the guidelines.
Not all comments will be posted.)
To submit a comment, click here.

Posted Comments on Yip Harburg:

 

No comments as yet posted

back to top of page

Credits

(Yip Harburg page)

 

Credits for Videomakers of videos used on this page:

Borrowed material (text): The sources of all quoted and paraphrased text are cited. Such content is used under the rules of fair use to further the educational objectives of CafeSongbook.com. CafeSongbook.com makes no claims to rights of any kind in this content or the sources from which it comes.

 

Borrowed material (images): Images of CD, DVD, book and similar product covers are used courtesy of either Amazon.com or iTunes/LinkShare with which CafeSongbook.com maintains an affiliate status. All such images are linked to the source from which they came (i.e. either iTunes/LinkShare or Amazon.com).

 

Any other images that appear on CafeSongbook.com pages are either in the public domain or appear through the specific permission of their owners. Such permission will be acknowledged in this space on the page where the image is used.

 

For further information on Cafe Songbook policies with regard to the above matters, see our "About Cafe Songbook" page (link at top and bottom of every page).

 

Cafe Songbook
Master List
of Great American Songbook Songwriters

Names of songwriters who have written at least one song included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook are listed below.

 

Names of songwriters with two or more song credits in the catalog (with rare exceptions) are linked to their own Cafe Songbook pages, e.g. Fields, Dorothy.

 

Names of songwriters with only one song credit in the catalog are linked to the Cafe Songbook page for that song, on which may be found information about the songwriter or a link to an information source for him or her.

 

Please note: Cafe Songbook pages for songwriters are currently in various stages of development.

A B C D E F G H I-J K L M N-O P-Q R S T-U
V W X-Y-Z
back to top of page

Adair, Tom

Adams, Lee

Adams, Stanley

Adamson, Harold

Ager, Milton

Ahbez, Eden

Ahlert, Fred

Akst, Harry

Alexander, Van

Allen, Lewis

Allen, Steve

Alter, Louis

Altman, Arthur

Anderson, Maxwell

Andre, Fabian

Arlen, Harold
Arnheim, Gus

Arodin, Sid

Atwood, Hub

Astaire, Fred

Austin, Gene

Ayer, Nat D.

Barbour, Dave

Barnes, Billy

Barris, Harry

Bassman, George

Belle, Barbara

Bennett, Dave

Bergman, Alan and Marilyn

Berlin, Irving

Bernie, Ben

Bernstein, Leonard

Best, William "Pat"

Blackburn, John

Blackwell, Otis (a.k.a. John Davenport)

Blake, Eubie

Blane, Ralph

Blitzstein, Marc

Bloom, Rube

Bock, Jerry

Block, Martin

Boland, Clay

Borne, Hal

Borodin, Alexander

Bowman, Brooks

Boyd, Elisse

Brent, Earl K.

Bricusse, Leslie

Brooks, Harry

Brooks, Shelton

Brown, Les

Brown, Lew

Brown, Nacio Herb

Brown, Seymour

Burke, Joe

Burke, Johnny

Burke, Sonny

Burnett, Ernie

Burns, Ralph

Burwell, Cliff

Bushkin, Joe

 

A B C D E F G H I-J K L M N-O P-Q R S T-U
V W X-Y-Z
back to top of page

 

Caesar, Irving

Cahn, Sammy

Caldwell, Anne

Campbell, Jimmy

Carey, Bill (William D.)

Carmichael, Hoagy

Carroll, Harry

Carter, Benny

Casey, Kenneth

Casucci, Leonello

Chaplin, Charlie

Chaplin, Saul

Charlap, Moose

Clare, Sidney

Chase, Newell

Churchill, Frank

Clarke, Grant

Clifford, Gordon

Clinton, Larry

Coates, Carroll

Coleman, Cy

Comden, Betty and Adolph Green

Conley, Larry

Connelly, Reginald

Conrad, Con

Cooley, Eddie

Coots, J. Fred

Cory, George

Coslow, Sam

Creamer, Henry

Crosby, Bing

Cross, Douglas

Daniels, Charles N.
Davenport, John (See Otis Blackwell.)

David, Mack

Davis, Benny

Davis, Jimmy

Dee, Sylvia

De Lange, Eddie

Denniker, Paul

Dennis, Matt

De Paul, Gene

De Rose, Peter

De Sylva, B.G. (Buddy)

DeVries, John

Dietz, Howard

Distel, Sacha

Dixon, Mort

Donaldson, Walter

Dorsey, Jimmy

Dougherty, Doc

Drake, Ervin
Drake, Milton

Dreyer, Dave

Dubin, Al

Duke, Vernon

Edens, Roger

Edwards, Michael

Egan, Raymond B.

Eliscu, Edward

Ellington, Duke

Elman, Ziggy

Engvick, William

Evans, Ray

Evans, Redd

Eyton, Frank

 

A B C D E F G H I-J K L M N-O P-Q R S T-U
V W X-Y-Z
back to top of page

 

Fain, Sammy

Fetter, Ted

Fields, Dorothy

Fischer, Carl

Fisher, Dan

Fisher, Fred

Fisher, Mark

Fisher, Marvin

Forrest, George

Freed, Arthur

Freed, Ralph

L. E. Freeman

Gaines, Lee

Gallop, Sammy

Gannon, Kim

Garner, Errol

Gaskill, Clarence

Gensler, Lewis E.

George, Don

Gershwin, George

Gershwin, Ira

Gillespie, Haven

Golden, John

Goodman, Benny

Goodwin, Joe

Gordon, Irving

Gordon, Mack

Gorney, Jay

Gorrell, Stuart

Goulding, Edmund

Grainger, Porter

Grand, Murray

Grant, Ian

Gray, Chauncey

Gray, Timothy

Grever, Maria

Grey, Clifford
Green, Adolph and Betty Comden

Green, Bud

Green, Freddie

Green, Johnny

Gross, Walter

Haggart, Bob

Hamilton, Arthur

Hamilton, Nancy

Hamm, Fred

Hammerstein, Arthur

Hammerstein II, Oscar

Hampton, Lionel

Handy, W. C.
Hanighen, Bernie

Hanley, James F.

Harbach, Otto

Harburg, E. Y. (Yip)

Harling, W. Franke

Harline, Leigh

Hart, Lorenz

Henderson, Jimmy

Henderson, Ray

Herbert, Victor

Herman, Woody

Herron, Joel S.

Herzog Jr., Arthur

Heyman, Edward

Heyward, Dubose

Higginbotham, Irene

Higgins, Billy

Hilliard, Bob

Hirsch, Walter

Hodges, Johnny

Holiday, Billie

Holiner, Mann

Hollander, Frederick

Holofcener, Larry

Homer, Ben

Hopper, Hal

Howard, Bart

Hubbell, Raymond

Hupfeld, Herman

 

A B C D E F G H I-J K L M N-O P-Q R S T-U
V W X-Y-Z
back to top of page

 

I-J

Jacobs, Jacob

Jaffe, Moe

James, Freddy (Pseud. for Teddy Powell)

James, Harry

James, Paul

Jenkins, Gordon

Johnson, James P.

Johnston, Arthur

Johnston, Patricia

Jolson, Al

Jones, Isham

Kahal, Irving

Kahn, Gus

Kahn, Roger Wolfe

Kalmar, Bert

Keith, Marilyn
Kent, Walter

Kern, Jerome

Kisco, Charles

Kitchings, Irene

Koehler, Ted

Kosma, Joseph

Kramer, Alex

Kramer, Joan Whitney

Kurtz, Manny

Laine, Frankie

Lamare, Jules (a.k.a Charles N.

Daniels and Neil Moret)

Lane, Burt
Landesman, Fran

Latouche, John

Lawrence, Eddie

Lawrence, Jack

Layton, Turner

Lee, Peggy

Leigh, Carolyn

Leonard, Anita

Lerner, Alan Jay
Leslie, Edgar

Levant, Oscar

Lewis, Morgan

Lewis, Sam M.

Link, Harry

Lippman, Sidney

Livingston, Fud

Livingston, Jay

Livingston, Jerry

Loeb, John Jacob

Loesser, Frank

Loewe, Frederick

Lombardo, Carmen

Lowe, Ruth

Lown, Bert
Lyman, Abe

 

A B C D E F G H I-J K L M N-O P-Q R S T-U
V W X-Y-Z
back to top of page

 

M

MacDonald, Ballard

Magidson, Herb
Malneck, Matty

Mancini, Henry

Mandel, Frank

Mandel, Johnny

Mann, David

Marks, Gerald

Martin, Hugh

Maschwitz, Eric

Mayer, Henry
McCarey, Leo

McCarthy, Joseph

McCarthy, Jr., Joseph

McHugh, Jimmy

McCoy, Joe

Mellin, Robert

Mercer, Johnny

Merrill, Bob

Mertz, Paul Madeira

Meyer, Joseph

Miles, Dick

Miller, Glenn

Miller, Nathan Ned

Mills, Irving
Mitchell, Sidney D.

Moll, Billy

Monaco, Jimmy

Moret, Neil (aka Charles N. Daniels)

Morey, Larry

Moross, Jerome

Mundy, Jimmy

Muse, Clarence

Myrow, Josef

Nemo, Henry

Newley, Anthony

Nichols, Alberta

Noble, Ray

Norman, Pierre
Norton, George A.

Oakland, Ben

Overstreet, Benton W.

Palmer, Jack

Palmer, Bee

Parish, Mitchell

Parker, Dorothy

Parker, Sol

Parsons, Geoffrey

Perkins, Frank S.

Phillipe-Gérard M(ichel)

Pinkard, Maceo

Porter, Cole

Prima, Louis

Prince, Graham

Prince, Hughie

 

A B C D E F G H I-J K L M N-O P-Q R S T-U
V W X-Y-Z
back to top of page

Rainger, Ralph

Raksin, David

Ram, Buck

Ramirez, Roger (Ram)

Rand Lionel

Raye, Don

Razaf, Andy

Reardon, Jack

Redmond, John

Rene, Leon T.

Rene, Otis

Revel, Harry

Reynolds, Ellis

Reynolds, Herbert

Rhodes, Stan

Robin, Leo

Robin, Sid

Robison, Willard

Rodgers, Richard

Romberg, Sigmund

Rome, Harold

Ronell, Ann
Rose, Billy

Rose, Fred

Rose, Vincent

Ruby, Harry

Ruby, Herman

Ruskin, Harry

Russell, Bob

Sampson, Edgar

Sanicola, Henry

Santly, Lester

Savitt, Jay

Secunda, Sholom

Segal Jack
Schertzinger, Victor
Schwandt, Wilbur

Schwartz, Arthur

Scott, Bertha

Shapiro, Ted

Shavers, Charlie

Shay, Larry

Shearing, George

Sherman, Jimmy

Sherwin, Manning

Sigman, Carl

Signorelli, Frank

Silvers, Phil

Simons, Seymour

Sinatra, Frank

Sissle, Noble

Skylar, Sunny

Snyder, Ted

Sondheim, Stephen

Sour, Robert
Spence, Lew

Springer, Philip

Stept, Sam H.

Stock, Larry

Stordahl, Axel

Strachey, Jack

Strayhorn, Billy

Strouse, Charles

Styne, Jule

Suessdorf, Karl

Suesse, Dana

Sullivan, Henry

Swan, Einar Aaron

Swift, Kay

Symes, Marty

 

A B C D E F G H I-J K L M N-O P-Q R S T-U
V W X-Y-Z
back to top of page

 

T-U

Tauber, Doris

Teagarten, Jack

Thompson, Kay
Tobias, Charles

Tobias, Harry

Tormé, Mel

Tracey, William G.
Trent, Jo

Troop, Bobby

Turk, Roy

Turner, John

Van Heusen, Jimmy (James)

Vimmerstedt, Sadie

Waller, Fats

Warfield, Charles

Warren, Harry

Washington, Ned
Watson, Johnny

Webb, Chick

Webster, Paul Francis

Weill, Kurt

Weiss, George David

Wells, Robert

Weston, Paul

Whiting, Richard A.

Whiting, George A.

Wilder, Alec

Wiley, Lee

Wilkinson, Dudley


Williams, Clarence

Williams, Spencer

Wodehouse, P. G.

Wolf, Donald E.

Wolf, Jack

Wolf, Tommy

Wood, Guy B

Woods, Harry M.

Wright, Lawrence

Wright, Robert

Wrubel, Allie

Yellen, Jack

Youmans, Vincent

Young, Joe

Young, Trummy

Young, Victor

A B C D E F G H I-J K L M N-O P-Q R S T-U
V W X-Y-Z
back to top of page

back to top of page