Worst song by two geniuses?

[TF]

Last night I watched the 1943 comedy "They Got Me Covered", starring Bob Hope. The opening credits said there'd be a song in the movie, "Palsy-Walsy", by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Good, I was looking forward to it. A song by the composer of "Over The Rainbow" and the lyricist of "Moon River" - how could it be anything other than great?

It was a freakin' terrible song! I guess that just because you're a genius, doesn't mean that everything you do is gold.

[PMB]

Maybe I'm just making things up but didn't they also write "Over The Moon"?

[sgcim]

yeah, the songs HA wrote that made the Real Books are just the good ones. The other ones that you find in FAKE BOOKS are sometimes the novelty songs that they had to write for musicals and movies (like "Palsie Walsy") to make a living as a composer.
At least they wrote songs that could be adapted to a jazz situation back then. I've played over 50 shows from the modern period, and haven't come across anything that I'd play with a jazz group.
Some of Sondheim's early things might work, but you've gotta chop off some of the parts.

[Doctor Jeff]

How about Lennon-McCartney? Little Child? When I Get Home?

Jagger-Richards? Luxury? Short and Curlies?

[jameslovestal]

Last night I watched the 1943 comedy "They Got Me Covered", starring Bob Hope. The opening credits said there'd be a song in the movie, "Palsy-Walsy", by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Good, I was looking forward to it. A song by the composer of "Over The Rainbow" and the lyricist of "Moon River" - how could it be anything other than great?

It was a freakin' terrible song! I guess that just because you're a genius, doesn't mean that everything you do is gold.

Both Arlen and Mercer had contacts with various movie studios to create songs on-demand. Often the musical director would provide guidance so that the song would fit into the planned for film scene. In the case of They Got Me Covered, Arlen was one of the musical directors RKO assigned to the film.