Dorothy Fields (1904-1974) is one of the most successul lyricists of all time with a career spanning almost five decades. She is particularly remembered for her work with composers Jimmy McHugh and Jerome Kern. Born in New Jersey, her father was a well know vaudeville comedian and producer. She married young, worked as a teacher and lab technician, but had managed to get a few poems published in World magazine.
In 1928, composer J Fred Coots introduced Fields to Jimmy McHugh. Their first successful collaboration was ‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’ which, after an unsteady start, sold 3 million copies of the sheet music. Her work with McHugh produced some of the most famous songs of the 1930s, including ‘On The Sunny Side Of The Street’, ‘Exactly Like You’, ‘Diga Diga Doo’, ‘Don’t Blame Me’ and ‘I’m In The Mood For Love’.
In 1934, film producer Pandro S Berman asked her to help out with the lyrics for a film version of the Jerome Kern/Otto Harbach musical Roberta, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The resulting songs, ‘Lovely To Look At’ and ‘I Won’t Dance’ have both become standards. Kern enjoyed the partnership, and he and Fields would collaborate again for the Astaire-Rogers film Swing Time, producing ‘A Fine Romance’, ‘Pick Yourself Up’ and the Oscar-winning ‘The Way You Look Tonight’. The two were slated to work on Annie Get Your Gun when Jerome Kern died in 1945. Irving Berlin was hired to replace Kern, and as he wrote his own lyrics, Fields ended up writing the book with her brother Herbert instead. Herbert and Dorothy had previously collaborated successfully on the books for three Cole Porter musicals – Let’s Face It (1941), Something For The Boys (1943) and Mexican Hayride (1944).
Fields continued to contribute lyrics for shows she wrote books for, including writing with Arthur Schwartz on the score for A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (1951) and with Albert Hague on the 1959 musical Redhead, which won five Tony awards. Her last great songwriting partnership was with Cy Coleman. Together they collaborated on Sweet Charity (1966) and Seesaw (1973). The former musical produced the song ‘Hey Spender’, which was a hit for Shirley Bassey in 1967.
Key Songs:
‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’ (1928)
‘Diga Diga Doo’ (1928)
‘I Must Have That Man’ (1928)
‘On The Sunny Side Of The Street’
‘Exactly Like You’
‘Don’t Blame Me’ (1932)
‘I’m In The Mood For Love’ (1935)
‘Lovely To Look At’ (1935)
‘I Won’t Dance’ (1935)
‘A Fine Romance’ (1936)
‘Pick Yourself Up’ (1936)
‘The Way You Look Tonight’ (1936)
‘Big Spender’ (1966)
‘If My Friends Could See Me Now’ (1966)