Johnny Mercer Birthday Celebration - Day Three

Today marks the 99th anniversary of the birth of Johnny Mercer. The Old Tybee Ranger is celebrating this big event in American music history with a week-long celebration. This is the third installment.

Happy Birthday, Johnny!

Mercer went on to great fame after I'm An Old Cowhand. He may have struggled through a few flop movies, but he learned the ins and outs of Hollywood, and continued writing poetry to music. Movies, records, and radio brought his folksy, common sense, "free and easy, that's my style" personality into homes across America and made him everybody's next door neighbor. Mercer could be serious with a lyric, but he was equally capable of making us laugh at our selves and our circumstances. Here are two outstanding examples:

I'd say almost every American can hum the title line of Hooray for Hollywood, but it's the rest of lyric that really sparkles. Here is Doris Day's interpretation, one that Mercer apparently said was the best ever. If you don't want to miss any words, the lyric is below.



Hooray For Hollywood

words by Johnny Mercer
music by Richard A. Whiting

Hooray for Hollywood!
That screwy bally hooey Hollywood,
Where any office boy or young mechanic
Can be a panic,
With just a good looking pan,
And any bar maid
Can be a star maid,
If she dances with or without a fan,

Hooray for Hollywood!
Where you're terrific if you are even good,
Where anyone at all from Shirley Temple
To Aimee Semple
Is equally understood,
Go out and try your luck,
You might be Donald Duck!
Hooray for Hollywood!

Hooray for Hollywood!
That phoney super Coney Hollywood,
They come from Chilicothes and Paducahs
With their bazookas
To get their names up in lights,
All armed with photos from local rotos,
With their hair in ribbons and legs in tights,

Hooray for Hollywood!
You may be homely in your neighborhood,
But if you think that you can be an actor,
See Mister Factor,
He'd make a monkey look good.
Within a half an hour,
You'll look like Tyrone Power!
Hooray for Hollywood!

If you were a soldier in World War II, you probably knew every word of G. I. Jive. You know Mercer had fun writing it; his word play was at its best. Sadly, most people will never hear this song. Here is the master singing his own words and music:



Now that's entertainment!

G.I. Jive

words and music by Johnny Mercer

This is the G.I. Jive,
Man alive.
It starts with the bugler
Blowin' reveille over your head
When you arrive.
Jack, that's the G.I. Jive
Root-tie-tee toot
Jump in your suit
Make a salute (Voot!)
After you wash and dress,
More or less,
You go get your breakfast
In a beautiful cafe they call the mess.
Jack, when you convalesce,
Out of your seat
Into the street,
Make with the feet (Reet!)

If you're a P.V.T. your duty
Is to salute the L.I.E.U.T.;
But if you brush the L.I.E.U.T.,
The M.P. makes you K.P. on the Q.T.
This is the G.I. Jive
Man alive,
They give you a private tank
That features a little device called fluid drive.
Jack, after you revive,
Chuck all your junk,
Back in the trunk
Fall on your bunk (Clunk!)
Soon you're countin' Jeeps,
But before you count to five,
Seems you're right back diggin' that
G.I. Jive!

Leaves me speechless. More tomorrow