Harold Arlen composed over five hundred songs, creating some of the most enduring standards in the American songbook. Born Hyman Arluck in Buffalo, New York, in 1905, the son of a celebrated cantor, Arlen integrated the melodic sensibility of Jewish liturgical music with blues, jazz harmonies, and syncopated rhythms. His collaborations with lyricist Ted Koehler in the early 1930s produced "Get Happy," "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," and "I've Got the World on a String." Partnering with Yip Harburg, he wrote "It's Only a Paper Moon" and the score for The Wizard of Oz (1939), including "Over the Rainbow." His work with Johnny Mercer yielded "Come Rain or Come Shine," "My Shining Hour," and "That Old Black Magic." Later compositions with Harburg and Ira Gershwin, including "Last Night When We Were Young" and "The Man That Got Away," showcased his gift for dramatic, emotionally charged melodies. Arlen's distinctive harmonic language and bluesy inflections distinguished his work from contemporaries. He died in New York in 1986.
