[78-L] Easter Parade and Smile and Show Your Dimple

Ken "Silver Showcase" kenreg at tds.net
Thu Apr 15 18:59:16 PDT 2010


RAY KILCOYNE wrote:
> From: "Eric Goldberg"
> I was listening to a download of the song, so I didn't have the credits 
> available to me. Thank you for the info.....
>   
> David Ewen writes in his book "American Popular Songs"..........
> The EASTER PARADE melody was used by Irving Berlin in 1917 for SMILE AND 
> SHOW YOUR DIMPLE.  That song had been a failure, and was soon forgotten. 
> Then in 1933, while working on the score for "As Thousands Cheer", Berlin 
> needed a tune for a Fifth Avenue parade scene.  Berlin recalled, "I dug back 
> into my own catalogue to 1917 and found that I had written SMILE AND SHOW 
> YOUR DIMPLE".  That became EASTER PARADE.  Introduced by Marilyn Miller and 
> Clifton Webb in the first act finale of "As Thousands Cheer".
> RayK
>   

I would argue that the only melody the two songs have in common is that 
first line of the chorus.  Other than that they're very different.

Bts not at all unusual for composers to "borrow" from themselves.  There 
are countless examples of this from all musical genres.

-- Ken




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