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"Ol' Man River" is a show tune from the 1927 [5] musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the song in 1925. The song contrasts the struggles and hardships of African Americans with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River .
Kern was born in New York City, on Sutton Place, in what was then the city's brewery district. [1] His parents were Henry Kern (1842–1908), a Jewish German immigrant, and Fannie Kern née Kakeles (1852–1907), who was an American Jew of Bohemian parentage. [2]
Show Boat is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name.The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock workers on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat, over 40 years from 1887 to 1927.
[5] [7] It became Bledsoe's best known role, and his interpretation of "Ol' Man River" made the song a popular American classic. [7] He recreated the role in the part-talkie 1929 film Show Boat. Bledsoe's only recording of "Ol' Man River" is today occasionally played on the NPR musical theatre program, A Night on the Town.
Price and Warfield met and wed while on the tour. The role of Porgy was the first for Warfield after his appearance as Joe singing "Ol' Man River" in the popular 1951 MGM film of Show Boat. After a tour of Europe financed by the United States Department of State, the production came to Broadway's Ziegfeld Theatre in March 1953. It later toured ...
American R&B and boogie-woogie pianist and singer Little Willie Littlefield recorded a version for his 1994 album Yellow Boogie & Blues. Johnny Cash covered it on the album American III: Solitary Man in 2000. k.d. lang covered it on the album A Wonderful World in 2002.
“River is such a beautiful and strong name,” another commenter wrote. “Rivers are so powerful as they find their way to the oceans and waterways. Your journey is just as powerful.
According to The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II, edited by Amy Asch, Hammerstein contributed the lyrics to 850 songs, [46] including "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" and "Make Believe" from Show Boat; [47] "Indian Love Call" from Rose-Marie; [48] "People Will Say We're in Love" [citation needed] and "Oklahoma" (which has ...