The Melody Lingers On: They Didn't Believe Me
Here's the first of Tony Thornton's sparkling new series of columns, The Melody Lingers On. He will be taking a nostalgic look at the popular music from the first half of the 20th century. The first ‘pop’ song was arguably They Didn’t Believe Me written by Jerome Kern in 1917. The last could have been any of the songs sung by the crooners of the early 50s.
Popular music was originally written for adults who went to the theatre. But the emerging teenagers had money to spend on records, and their idols such as Bill Haley and Elvis Presley swamped the market with rock ’n’ roll. Songwriters merely had to satisfy the fickle tastes of the young who lived only for the next instant hit.
This column is for those who enjoy being reminded of what it was like. ’S Wonderful wrote George Gershwin. Anything Goes believed Cole Porter, and There’s No Business Like Show Business claimed Irving Berlin.
There will be a new column every other week. The stories will not be in any particular order. Tony welcomes your comments, and suggestions for further research.
“The song is ended,” wrote Irving Berlin, “but the melody lingers on.” And what better melody to start with than They Didn’t Believe Me written by Jerome Kern - the most influential songwriter in the history of popular music.
Jerome Kern was born in New York City on 27 Jan 1885. His first complete Broadway score was The Red Petticoat in November 1912. At this time, the musical theatre shows were either fantasies set in far-off European countries or extravagant Ziegfeld revues.
With Guy Bolton and PG Wodehouse, he created a new type of musical comedy far removed from these imported operettas. They had a strong story line and the songs were part of the plot.
One such show was The Girl From Utah (imported from Britain) in 1914 that included They Didn’t Believe Me.
Within weeks it was the biggest musical hit in the country. It was the first of Kern’s songs to sell two million copies of the sheet music.
Analyst Alec Wilder wrote: ‘The melodic line of They Didn’t Believe Me is as natural as walking. Yet its form is not conventional even by the standards of that time. In song writing parlance it may be broken down into eight-measure phrases as A-B-A1-A2. I can’t conceive how the alteration of a single note could do other than harm the song. It is evocative, tender, strong, shapely, and like all good creations which require time for their expression, has a beginning a middle and end’.
The triplet in the 17th measure over the tricky words “cert’nly am” is the bit that everyone remembers - a courageous construction that marked Kern as a revolutionary. He established a format for the popular song that remains to this day.
John Kenrick wrote: They Didn't Believe Me marked a turning point in the development of popular music. The melody defies time. Forthright sentiment meets refined romance, and the resulting sound pointed to the future of the Broadway musical. Rejecting the flowery poetry found in most period love songs, the lyrics by Herbert Reynolds captured the easy cadence of everyday conversation.
And when I told them, how beautiful you are
They didn't believe me. They didn't believe me.
Your lips, your eyes, your curly hair, are in a class beyond compare.
You're the loveliest girl that one could see.
And when I tell them, and I cert’nly am going to tell them.
That I'm the man, whose wife one day you'll be.
They'll never believe me. They'll never believe me.
That from this great big world you've chosen me.
When Julia Sanderson and Donald Brian sang those words in the Knickerbocker Theatre on the night of 14 August 1914, they became one of the most popular stage duos of their time. It is doubtful they or their audience realized they were part of an historic moment. As far as they knew, it was just great entertainment.
They Didn't Believe Me eclipsed everything in the show's original British score and made Kern the hottest new composer on Broadway. Musical theatre - indeed all popular music - would never be the same.
