As we continue our attempt to make it through the year with a song ever first of the month about that month, September turns out to be a pretty easy one. There are several perfectly good ones to choose from -- but really only one leaps out as the Must post. And that's "September Song." The song is actually from a musical, "Knickerbocker Holiday," with music written by Kurt Weill and the book and lyrics by playwright Maxwell Anderson. The show is from 1938, and about the early days of New York, loosely based on Washington Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York, which dealt with 17th-century New Netherland. As for the show's famous song, it's surprisingly sung by a well-known historical figure, Peter Stuyvesant. In the show, Stuyvesant was originally written as villainous, though as work on the show developed, his character was softened a bit and made more likable. And the actor who played Stuyvesant and introduced the song was Walter Huston, the father of Oscar-winning director John Huston. (And grandfather of Oscar-winning actress Anjelica.) Walter Huston had his own successful career as an actor, perhaps best known for The Treasure of Sierra Madre (which his son directed) that won him an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor, and Yankee Doodle Dandy as George M. Cohan's father, for which he was nominate for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He also got a Oscar nomination as Best Actor starring in Dodsworth, based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis -- which was released the same year he was in Knickerbocker Holiday. Huston was not considered a good singer at all, with a limited range, but from all reports that made his of "September Song" rendition on stage all the more touching. So, for all the people who recorded the famous song over the years, it's Walter Huston's original rendition -- which includes verses not usually included in the other popular recordings -- that we're going to go with.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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