There's a Small Hotel

"There's a Small Hotel"
Song from On Your Toes
Published 1937
Songwriter(s) Lorenz Hart
Composer(s) Richard Rodgers

"There's a Small Hotel" is a 1936 popular song composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. Originally written for but dropped from the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo (1935), it was then used in On Your Toes (1936), where it was introduced by Ray Bolger and Doris Carson. Betty Garrett sang it in the 1948 film Words and Music, and it was also interpolated in the film version of Pal Joey (1957) with a fine Frank Sinatra-Nelson Riddle collaboration.

According to the biography of Lorenz Hart by Frederick Nolan (Lorenz Hart - A Poet on Broadway, 1994; Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-510289-4),[1] the song was inspired by a visit that Richard Rodgers made to the Stockton Inn,[2] in Stockton, NJ. Hart reputedly found the melody insistently cloying and often ad-libbed raunchy parody verses, much to Rodgers' chagrin.

Another claimant to be the inspiration for the song is the Montecito Inn, in Santa Barbara County, California.[3][4] Renovations to the hotel in the 1950s replaced the wishing well, mentioned in the song,[5] by a floral fountain.[6]

Notable recordings

  • Stan Getz - (Prestige Records 1950)
  • Jack Whiting - (Columbia Graphophone Co., Ltd number CA 16274, 1937)
  • Hank Mobley – Newark 1953 (1953)
  • Ginny Gibson – M-G-M 11814 (mx 54-S-356) 45 rpm (1954); OCLC 83739456
  • Bobby Van & Kay Coulter – On Your Toes – a Decca Original Cast Production (1954 revival)
  • Hank Jones - The Trio (Savoy 1955)
  • Ella Fitzgerald – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook (1956)
  • Frank Sinatra – Rodgers & Hart's Pal Joey – from the soundtrack of the Columbia Picture (Capitol, 1957)
  • Billy Taylor - The New Billy Taylor Trio (1957)
  • Dorothy Ashby – Hip Harp (1958)
  • Josephine Baker – a version of the song with French words as "C'est un Nid Charmant (There's a Small Hotel)" (1937)[7]
  • Petula Clark – Petula Clark in Hollywood (1959)
  • Della Reese – Della, Della, Cha–Cha–Cha (1960)
  • Billy Eckstine, With Hal Mooney Orchestra - 1961
  • The Hi-Lo's – This Time It's Love (1962)
  • Hal Kemp – the biggest chart hit in 1936, the song's year of introduction
  • Billy Paul – Going East (1971)
  • Chet Baker – My Favourite Songs, Vol. 2: Straight from the Heart (1988)
  • Robert Clary – Robert Clary Sings Rodgers, Hart & Mercer (1997)
  • June Christy – Friendly Session, Vol. 3 (2000)
  • Jane Monheit – Home (2010)

References

  1. ↑ Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  2. ↑ "Stockton Inn". Stocktoninn.com. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  3. ↑ Trzebinski, Errol (17 March 1995). The Lives of Beryl Markham. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 343–. ISBN 978-0-393-31252-2. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  4. ↑ California business. California Business News, inc. 1983. p. 81. Retrieved 10 October 2011. For rejuvenation, pick the Montecito Inn, a 60-room hostelry that inspired Rodgers and Hart to write "There's a Small Hotel." Built by Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle...
  5. ↑ Wallace, David; Miller, Ann (23 September 2003). Hollywoodland. Macmillan. pp. 221–. ISBN 978-0-312-31614-3. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  6. ↑ Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles ... - Google Books. Books.google.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  7. ↑ Le Front populaire – Paris 1934–1939, Fremeaux.com. Retrieved 26 February 2012.


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