A mini-post: Burt Bacharach’s First Song - “Once in a Blue Moon” - or is it?
A mini-post: Burt Bacharach’s First Song - “Once in a Blue Moon” - or is it?
(Being the only time that Bacharach had to borrow a melody from anyone.)
The 1952 song “Once in a Blue Moon” is often listed as the first song by Burt Bacharach - who was 24 at the time - to be published and recorded. Bacharach doesn’t mention it in his 2013 memoir, Anyone Who Had a Heart, but Serene Dominic has some details in his excellent study, Burt Bacharach: Song by Song, subtitled, “The Ultimate Burt Bacharach Reference for Fans, Serious Record Collectors, and Music Critics.”
As Dominic points out, the first time Cole’s track was issued - on the original 1952 10” Capitol LP (H-332) the label credit was “based on Rubenstein’s ‘Melody in F’ - arranged by Nat Cole.” Three years later, when Penthouse Serenade was issued as a 12” LP, the credit had changed to “based on (Anton) Rubenstein’s ‘Melody in F’ (Burt Bacharach).”
So that’s a point of confusion right there - although it’s obvious that the melody is essentially “Melody in F,” by the Russian pianist-composer Anton Rubenstein (1829-1894), but who should get credit for the song, Cole or Bacharach? Here are the two tracks; first is Shura Cherkassky, then comes the Nat-Bacharach treatment, and, lastly, a string quartet version in D major. (Thanks to Dan Weinsten for additional info here.)
Dominic quotes Bacharach, and I’m not sure if he actually interviewed the songwriter personally, or is quoting another source. Anyhow, he says:
“That was a song I wrote with my dad when I was in college. And Nat ‘King’ Cole recorded it. Actually, it’s Rubenstein’s Melody in F, so it was a real cop or a hat’s off. Or maybe it was public domain. I can’t even say. Jerome Kern also had a song with that title, but you can’t copyright titles/ If you look it up, you’ll see there are 15 songs with the title ‘I Love You Baby.’”
In his memoir, Bacharach says he was friendly with music publisher Ivan Mogull, who was known to be a close friend of Cole, so it’s likely that Mogull was the one who brought the song to Cole.
As Bacharach notes, there is in fact a 1923 song with the same title, by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Anne Caldwell, written for the Broadway musical Stepping Stones. I’ve seen listings for at least three other songs titled “Once in a Blue Moon,” most famously one with music by Harry Revel and lyrics by Mack Gordon for Bing Crosby to sing in the 1934 Paramount musical / comedy We’re Not Dressing. (To me, the Kern melody is at least slightly similar to the Bacharach-Cole-Rubenstein, but Dan W assures me that there is no real connection between them, other than the title.)
Question: Is there any other document of the Bacharach song? Sheet music? A lyric, perhaps? Or any other recording? I would love to know! Anyhow this track has always fascinated me - as far as I know, it’s the only time Burt Bacharach had to borrow a melody from anyone.
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Little Mary sunshine by Rick Broyson also has a once in a blue moon
Interesting that Burt wrote his first song with his father (who was named Bert!).