Bill (song)
Bill is a song written by Jerome Kern (music), PG Wodehouse and Oscar Hammerstein (lyrics) and published in 1927.
background
The song “Bill” (in B flat major , form ABA'C) was originally written by PG Wodehouse and Jerome Kern in 1918 for the play Oh, Lady, Lady! written, but taken out before the first performance. The song was intended for Marilyn Miller on the Sally show (1920) in 1920, but then discarded as inappropriate. It was eventually used in the Show Boat musical , where Helen Morgan introduced it and then recorded it for Victor . Since the team Kern, Wodehouse and Hammerstein had written the other songs of the show, the latter was listed as the author of "Bill", which Hammerstein denied.
Wodehouse's lyrics tell the story of the perfect lover; a god-like man. In contrast to this, the chorus tells that Bill is an ordinary boy . Kern's poignant use of sixths at the beginning of each A section and in the closing C section give the poignant melody that special note of pathos .
Later cover versions
The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 78 (as of 2015) cover versions in the field of jazz , u. a. by Adrian Rollini , Artie Shaw , Ella Logan , Tommy Dorsey , Woody Herman , Helen Forrest , Louis Prima / Keely Smith , Georgie Auld , Frances Wayne / Neal Hefti , Oscar Peterson , Ralph Sharon , Margaret Whiting , Shorty Rogers , Ted Heath , Morgana King , Helen Humes , Kenny Dorham , Earl Hines and Cleo Laine . The song was also used in several films, Helen Morgan sang it in 1929 (directed by Harry A. Pollard , Arch Heath) and in the two film versions of Show Boat in 1936 . In the 1951 version ( Mississippi tune , directed by George Sidney ), Annette Warren was singing double for Ava Gardner , Gogi Grant doubled Ann Blyth in the biopic The Helen Morgan Story (1957, directed by Michael Curtiz ). In 1967 Nana Mouskouri sang this song in German.