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John Latouche

album cover: "Taking a Chance on Love": The Lyrics and Life of John LaTouche
Taking a Chance on Love:
The Lyrics and Life of John Latouche
(2000 Off-Broadway Cast --CD)

Basic Information

Born: John Treville Latouche (La Touche), November 13, 1914, Baltimore, Maryland (US)

Died: August 7, 1956, Calais, Vermont (US)

Primary songwriting role: lyricist; also a book writer andlibrettistfor opera.

Co-writers: chiefly Leonard Bernstein, Burton Lane, Earl Robinson, Duke Ellington, Theodore Fetter, Jerome Moross, Bronislaw Kaper, and Douglas Moore. See also a database of 13 John Latouche co-writers.

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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
John Latouche
(This section is currently in preparation)

Overview

"Latouche's family moved to Richmond, VA when he was four months old. His parents soon divorced, and he grew up there in genteel poverty living with his mother, Effie, a seamstress, and his younger brother, Louis. Latouche graduated from public school and, thanks to a scholarship he won in a literary contest, moved to New York City in 1932. He attended Riverdale Country School for a year, Columbia University for two years, then left school to concentrate on writing for the theatre, contributing music and/or lyrics to a number of musical revues on and off-Broadway, as well as writing nightclub material for a variety of performers." (To read the remainder of this biography of LaTouche, go to babydoe.org.)

from a review of, Taking a Chance on Love,
an off-Broadway revue based on the songs of John Latouche,
Anita Gates,
The New York Times
March 3, 2000.


book cover: Ken Bloom "The American Songbook The Singers, The Songwriters, ad the Songs"

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

"John Latouche's name comes up now and then. Whenever there's a revival of ''Candide,'' for which he wrote some of the original lyrics. Or when a cabaret performer rediscovers one of his gems, like ''Take Love Easy.'' But over all, for a man who wrote the lyrics, book or both for more than 20 musicals from the 1930's to the 50's, Latouche is extremely unknown. The York Theater Company is trying to change that with ''Taking a Chance on Love,'' a performance of 30 or so of his songs, named for his most famous one, which he wrote with Theodore Fetter."


Ed.'s note: Perhaps Latouche's best known song "Taking a Chance on Love" was written for the 1940 Broadway show Cabin in the Sky. As Ken Bloom tells the story, Vernon Duke who wrote the music for "Taking a Chance on Love" stated in his autobiography (Passport to Paris, Boston: Little Brown, 1955) that while looking for "a heart-warming number" for the show Cabin in the Sky," he came across a never used song of his called "Fooling Around with Love," a song he had written some time before with a lyric by Ted Fetter: "I tried it out on Latouche; he fell for the tune, but thought the title not sufficiently 'on the nose' for the dramatic situation. An afternoon's work, with an assist from Fetter, followed, and what emerged was 'Taking a Chance on Love.' one of my better known songs" (Bloom, p. 215).

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Cafe Songbook
Music-Video Cabinet:
John Latouche
(This section is currently in preparation)

Cabin in the Sky, (movie version, 1943) music by Vernon Duke, lyrics by John Latouche and Ted Fetter (and other songs by such songwriters as Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg)


Original Cast Soundtrack

Amazon iTunes

 


DVD or Instant Video

Amazon iTunes icon

 


Ethel Waters sings "Taking a Chance on Love"
with Eddie Rochester Anderson (with guitar and dancing) and Bill Bailey (dancing) from the movie verison of Cabin in the Sky (1943)



The Golden Apple
(1954 Original Broadway Cast,
written by John Latouche)



"Helen and the Boys" from The Golden Apple
by John Latouche and James Moross
"The local guys fantasize about Helen, but are outraged to discover that she married old Menelaus while they were away at war. Ulysees calms them and they pledge to refrain from violence. Moross' music ranges from the breezy, Latin-esque opening to the solemn concluding "oath" section, where he ingeniously combines a classic American sound with an ancient Greek ceremonial idiom (as befits the subject matter). From the only fully-staged, full orchestra production since the '54 premiere."
   
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John Latouche Songs
currently included in the
Cafe Songbook Catalog of
The Great American Songbook
  1. Cabin in the Sky
  2. Lazy Afternoon
  3. Taking a Chance on Love
Click here for a database of songs written or co-written by John Latouche.
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Research Resources:
John Latouche

John Latouche
research resources on the web (listed alphabetically by web source):
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John Latouche research resources in print (listed chronologically):
 
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Credits

(John Latouche page)

 

Credits for Videomakers of videos used on this page:

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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.

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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

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Brown, Lew

Brown, Nacio Herb

Brown, Seymour

Burke, Joe

Burke, Johnny

Burke, Sonny

Burnett, Ernie

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Carey, Bill (William D.)

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Carroll, Harry

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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

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Eyton, Frank

 

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Fisher, Dan

Fisher, Fred

Fisher, Mark

Fisher, Marvin

Forrest, George

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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

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Hollander, Frederick

Holofcener, Larry

Homer, Ben

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Jacobs, Jacob

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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

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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.

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Palmer, Bee

Parish, Mitchell

Parker, Dorothy

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Perkins, Frank S.

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Redmond, John

Rene, Leon T.

Rene, Otis

Revel, Harry

Reynolds, Ellis

Reynolds, Herbert

Rhodes, Stan

Robin, Leo

Robin, Sid

Robison, Willard

Rodgers, Richard

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Rome, Harold

Ronell, Ann
Rose, Billy

Rose, Fred

Rose, Vincent

Ruby, Harry

Ruby, Herman

Ruskin, Harry

Russell, Bob

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Sanicola, Henry

Santly, Lester

Savitt, Jay

Secunda, Sholom

Segal Jack
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Schwandt, Wilbur

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Scott, Bertha

Shapiro, Ted

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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

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Strachey, Jack

Strayhorn, Billy

Strouse, Charles

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Troop, Bobby

Turk, Roy

Turner, John

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Whiting, George A.

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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

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