Make Believe (Jerome Kern song)

Make Believe is a pop song of 1927 by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II ( lyrics ) was published.

Origin and first performance

Core and Hammerstein wrote the song in 1927 for the Broadway musical Show Boat, which in the theater of Florenz Ziegfeld had its premiere. In the play the song in a duet of the characters Gaylord Ravenal, a player on steam ships, and the teenage Magnolia Hawks was sung, the daughter of Show Boat Captain, after they have met in the first act. In the second act it Ravenal sings to his little daughter Kim, just before he leaves and Magnolia because of his passion for gambling.

The song was sung at the first performance of the musical on December 27, 1927 by Norma Terris and Howard Marsh. In the first film version of 1939, he was not included; however, it was sung in the film version of 1936 by Irene Dunne and Allan Jones. In 1946 he was sang in the core biopic Till the Clouds Roll By by Tony Martin and Kathryn Grayson, 1951 by Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson in a new film version of Show Boat.

Cover versions

Among the early recordings of Make Believe counts the version of Bing Crosby with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in 1928 The song was in the years to become a pop and jazz standard.; it was interpreted, inter alia, by Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee and Barbra Streisand. In the area of ​​swing and jazz, he was known by versions of Buddy DeFranco, Kenny Dorham, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins / Teddy Wilson ( 1944), Earl Hines, Glenn Miller and Art Tatum. Franz Koglmann created a new instrumental version on the eponymous album ( Between the Lines, 1998) with Tony Coe, Tom Varner, Brad Shepik and Peter Herbert.

The musical song is not to be confused with Benny Davis / Jack Shilkret song Make Believe ( You Are Glad When You're Sorry), which was, inter alia, in 1949 sung by Sarah Vaughan, nor with the same compositions by Charles Mingus / Jackie Paris (1952) and Dave Holland ( Prime Directive, ECM 1998).