Song 119 - You'll never know by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon

Based on a poem written by a young Oklahoma war bride named Dorothy Fern Norris, You'll never know won the 1943 Academy Award for Best Original Song, beating nine other songs in the category for that year.

With the music written by Harry Warren and the lyrics by Mack Gordon, the song was first introduced in the film Hello, Frisco Hello  where it was sung by Alice Faye. The film tells the story of vaudeville performers in San Francisco during the period of 1915 Panama Exposition when Alexander Graham Bell made the first transcontinental phone call from New York to San Francisco. The film is a remake of King of Burlesque (1936). It was the last musical that Faye worked with Fox on as they were promoting Betty Gables as her successor. Released in the height of war, it became Faye's highest grossing film.  Faye would also perform it in the 1944 film Four Jills and a Jeep.

Like many of the Oscar winning songs that the blog has covered already You'll never know should have been classed as Faye's signature song; but there are two reasons why this didn't really happen; one, Faye never released a recording of the song and it has been covered by many other artists including Frank Sinatra and Dick Haymes. 

As the original version is not available, I have found a version by Vera Lynn, who's own version was very popular during World War 2.

You'll never know, performed by Vera Lynn

Best original song: 1943

Written by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon

Film: Hello, Frisco, Hello

Song 112 - Lullaby of Broadway by Harry Warren and Al Dubin

Pipping Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' Cheek to Cheek to the award, Lullaby of Broadway was the second song to win Best Original Song at the 1935 Academy Awards. Taken from the film, Gold Diggers of 1935, this number salutes the nightlife of Broadway and the partying that went on till dawn.  Written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, the song is probably the most famous item to come out of the Gold Diggers series of film written in the late 1920s and 30s.

The magic of this song and probably one of the main reason it has survived longer than the films in popularity is the image the lyrics and music gives of Broadway, and for anyone who has an artist bone in their body, Broadway is somewhere they want to experience. I know when I visited it a couple of years ago, I was starry eyes and it wasn't with famous people, it was the building and the iconic world of Broadway being a real place; rather than the mystical place I had heard of in the movies. 

Lullaby of Broadway is a dream sequence within the film, directed by Busby Berkely. The dream tells the story of a Broadway baby who plays all night and sleeps all days. The number starts with a head shot of Wini Shaw against a black background and as the camera moves back and up, Shaw's head becomes the Big Apple. As everyone else is going to work in the morning, she is returning home and when she awakes again at night, the audiences watches Shaw and her beau (Dick Powell) from club to club, with elaborate tap numbers playing out there seems to be little to stop this star until accidentally she is pushed off a balcony to her death. The song ends with a return to Shaw's head, as she sings the end of the song. It is cited that this was the favourite number of Busby Berkeley. 

Although I can't find a clip of the original, here's Gene Nelson and Doris Day singing Lullaby of Broadway  

Lullaby of Broadway

Oscar for Best Song: 1935

Written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin

Film: Gold Diggers of 1935

Originally sung by Wini Shaw in the film