well, That's Show Biz, 11-02-2025 4-31 Johnny Mercer 2025

Johnny Mercer 2025 

“Well, That’s Show Biz!”

11-02-2025

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• Welcome to “well, That’s Show Biz!”. I am your host, Jeremy Freedman, and this is the show that brings you music from Broadway, Movies, and Entertainers along with some anecdotes, information, and commentary all based on a theme.

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• Today’s show was pre-recorded.

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• <Play “When October Goes”>

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• You just heard Barry Manilow’s “When October Goes”. When lyricist and composer Johnny Mercer passed away, his widow discovered a bunch of lyrics and passed them on to Barry Manilow who composed the beautiful and haunting “When October Goes” based on these lyrics.

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•  And since we have passed October and entered November, it is time to pay tribute to Savannah’s own Johnny Mercer. Johnny Mercer was primarily a lyricist but he was also a composer and popular performer and was one of the three founders of Capitol Records. He was known for catchy lyrics that were blended with modern slang and sentiment that showcased his Savannah roots.

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• Starting off our first set of five songs we have Franky Lymon and the Teenagers singing “Goody Goody”. Then Bette Midler sings “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” which was originally used in the 1951 film, Here Comes the Groom and won the Oscar that year for Best Original Song. Next we have The Mills Brothers singing about “The Glow Worm”. We follow that with Linda Ronstadt singing “Skylark”. The yearning in the lyrics was based on Mercer’s longing for Judy Garland with whom he had an affair. And we will conclude with Frank Sinatra’s version of “Summer Wind”. Here’s “Goody Goody”.

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• You just heard the Johnny Mercer songs “Goody Goody”, “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening”, “The Glow Worm”, “Skylark”, and “Summer Wind”.

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• <PSA>

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• This is our second annual tribute to lyricist, composer, and singer Johnny Mercer. The musical St. Louis Woman was one of the few Broadway musicals in which Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics. The musical was not successful but with composer Harold Arlen it produced several popular songs. A 1998 recording of the show was produced starring Vanessa Williams. Here are two of those songs from that recording, “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home” and “Come Rain or Come Shine”. 

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• You just heard “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home” and “Come Rain or Come Shine” from the musical St. Louis Woman, lyrics by Savannah’s own Johnny Mercer ,as we pay tribute to Johnny Mercer today on “well, That’s Show Biz!”.

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• <Station Promo or Underwriting>

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• You are listening to “well, That’s Show Biz!” on [Station ID].

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• We are celebrating the talent of lyricist, composer, and singer Johnny Mercer today.

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• Mercer wrote for many Hollywood films. First up, we will hear the Academy Award winning Best Original Song, “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” from the movie, The Harvey Girls. Then we will hear Howard Keel sing “Bless Yore Beautiful Hide” from the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. We will follow that with Willie Nelson singing “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road” originally from the movie musical The Sky’s the Limit. And we will conclude this set with Stubby Kaye singing the comical “Jubilation T. Cornpone” from the film version of the musical Lil’ Abner. Here’s “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe”.

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• You just heard the Johnny Mercer songs “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe”, “Bless Yore Beautiful Hide”, “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road”, and “Jubilation T. Cornpone”.

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• <Donation Copy>

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• <Other Show Promo>

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• Today is our second annual tribute to lyricist and composer Jonny Mercer. Mercer was also a popular singer who co-founded Capitol Records. We are going to hear him sing “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” which he co-wrote with Harold Arlen for the movie Here Come the Waves. We will follow that with the song “Personality” which he didn’t write but recorded. It became a number one Billboard hit for Mercer and the Pied Pipers. Here’s “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive”.

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• You just heard Johnny Mercer sing “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” and “Personality”, a song that he didn’t write but his recording became a number one Billboard hit.

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• Of course, we couldn’t end without playing perhaps his most famous song, “Moon River” from the movie Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Here is Andy Williams singing perhaps the most famous version of “Moon River” followed by a little surprise.

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• You just heard Andy Williams singing the Johnny Mercer/Henry Mancini Academy Award winning song “Moon River” followed by Audrey Hepburn singing “Moon River” from the soundtrack of Breakfast At Tiffany’s. And this concludes our second annual tribute to lyricist, composer, singer and Savannah’s own Johnny Mercer, whose birthday is coming up on November 18th.

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• And that concludes this week’s edition of “well, That’s Show Biz!”. If you would like to assist with a future show, send your theme and song suggestions to me at wruushowbiz@gmail.com. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please contact the station at WRUU.org and let them know. And don’t forget to tell your friends to join us every Sunday at 1pm for more of “well, That’s Show Biz!” on WRUU-LP, Savannah, GA, 107.5FM and WRUU.org.  We are Savannah Soundings, Community Radio with Global Soul.

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• Please stay tuned for “Music At The Movies”, coming up next, hosted by Aiden Peck and I will see you next week. So long.

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