No. 15. “I’m Just Wild About Harry”

SHUFFLE ALONG (1921). By Eubie Blake (music), Noble Sissle (lyrics), and Flournoy Miller & Aubrey Lyles (book).

Summer 1921. You’re at a theater on W 63rd St that’s stretching the geographical limits of what’s considered “Broadway,” but you have to see the hottest show in town, Shuffle Along. It boasts an all black creative team and cast, and ticket demand necessitates integrated seating in the orchestra section for the first time. It’s a musical comedy with a jazz score by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle and a book by vaudeville comedians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles. The thin plot concerns a pair of dishonest entrepaneurs (Steve Jenkins and Sam Peck, played by Miller and Lyles respectively) who each decide to run for mayor of “Jimtown” with the understanding that the winner would give the loser a plumb position. Though it comes from Black creators, its humor comes largely from the stereotypes and blackface of minstrel shows. But the score is a tuneful delight. And Act 1 features something you’ve never seen on Broadway before—a sincere romantic duet between two Black performers. In the song, “Love Will Find a Way,” a 3rd (and more admirable) mayoral candidate, Harry Walton, and his beloved, Jessie Williams, vow to stay together, even if Jessie’s father won’t let them marry unless Harry wins the election. A the top of Act 2, Steve Jenkins has won (through bribery and corruption), and Jessie responds by reaffirming her love for Walton (assisted by a chorus of beautiful “Jimtown Sunflowers”) in “I’m Just Wild About Harry.”

”I’m Just Wild About Harry” is possibly the most obscure song that has nevertheless been heard by most people in America (on earth?). It comes from Shuffle Along, a smash hit 1921 musical that was the first on Broadway to boast of entirely black cast and writing team. It was a milestone achievement that integrated Broadway audiences, elevated public perception of black performers, launched the careers of stars like Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson, and helped usher in the Harlem Renaissance. Despite its significance—and many attempted revivals—Shuffle Along has rarely been seen following its original production and subsequent tours. But “…Harry” has endured, appearing in over thirty films and TV series including Daffy Duck and Michigan J. Frog Looney Tunes shorts, The Muppet Show, My Girl, and Harry and the Hendersons. It was also Harry Truman’s campaign song in the 1948 “Dewey Defeats Truman” presidential election.(The phrase “Wild About Harry” is also fodder for episode titles, headlines, or social media captions about anyone named Harry—I’ve learned a lot about Harry Styles this past week!) It’s a nifty, compact song, the type where you hear one phrase and can kind of predict what the next one will be (though composer Eubie Blake throws in little curveballs to keep it interesting). CAUTION: If you listen to it once, it might be stuck in your head for days.

Recommended Recording: ”I’m Just Wild About Harry,” Cleo Laine, All About Me(1962)

Dame Cleo Laine is a jazz legend with a wholly original style and presence. She also has some notable theater credentials: she was the first black or mixed-race woman to play Julie in a major production of Show Boat, originated the role of Princess Puffer in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and is a noted interpreter of Sondheim. I’m not sure that this performance of “…Harry” is particularly well-known, but it certainly deserves to be! In this arrangement, she basically sings the song twice (without the verse). The first time through, she evokes the style of 1921, before jazzing it up for the second pass. It is entirely delightful.

Alternate Performances

Shuffle Along hasn’t received any true cast recordings, which makes sense for a musical that opened 25 years before cast recordings became a thing. (The closest thing to a cast recording or a production you can see is this Opera Harlem tribute.) But “I’m Just Wild About Harry” has become a jazz/pop standard and lends itself well to all sorts of fanciful reinterpretations. Some of my favorites include renditions by Peggy Lee, Tammy Grimes (sounding an awful lot like Eartha Kitt), Carmen Miranda (in the 1944 film Greenwich Village). More recently, the singer Morgxn recorded a pop interpretation for the 2020 TV romantic comedy The Thing About Harry that works better than it has any right to do.

• Songs from Shuffle Along (1953) - A few cast members from a short lived 1952 Broadway revival (featuring an updated setting and many new songs by other writers) recorded four songs, including “I’m Just Wild About Harry.” Here it’s mostly a solo with some spoken interjections that don’t appear in any other version of the song.

• Eubie! (1978 Original Broadway Cast) - This retrospective review of Eubie Blake’s career includes a dozen songs from Shuffle Along, elegantly orchestrated and performed. They issued cast recording and even taped it for Showtime during its original run. eBay You can find many copies of this production on eBay, if you have a working RCA Video Disk player. (And who doesn’t?) The OBCR made the move to CD with a limited run of 1000 copies in 2016. (I had no issue getting a copy in 2024, if you’re looking for evidence that cast recordings are a niche industry.)

• Sissle and Blake Sing Shuffle Along (2016) - This incredible treasure trove is the closest thing we have to an original cast recording. It features the original composer and lyricist performing with members of the original production, although much of it was recorded in 1950 as a backers audition. It won a Grammy for Best Album Notes, which is a category that exists! (It’s the only time the award has gone to a musical theater recording.) And as a Cleveland shout-out, the album was released by Cleveland-based Harbinger Records/The Musical Theater Project.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• Rat Pack - Judy Garland, who Wikipedia considers part of the original iteration of “The Rat Pack,” sang “I’m Just Wild About Harry” in the 1939 movie adaptation of Babes in Arms. (That movie cut most of the songs written for the musical Babes in Arms and replaced them with whatever they felt like.)

• Audra McDonald starred as Lottie Gee (the actress who originated the role of Lottie Gee) in Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed. This show—conceived, directed, and written by George C. Wolfe—traces the origin and impact of the groundbreaking musical. It dramatizes a moment where, upon first hearing “…Harry” as a romantic waltz, Lottie encourages a livelier treatment, and in builds to an exciting dance number. The production was well received critically, but had a hard time finding traction with audiences. Audra found out that spring that she was pregnant (and high kicked on that year’s Tony telecast with a sizable baby bump). She had a previously scheduled summer departure from the show to do a show in London, but when announced she had to depart earlier than expected, the monstrous producer (Scott Rudin) opted to not only close the show immediately but blame the closing entirely on Audra’s pregnancy (to try and get some sort of insurance payout). The production that existed to shed a light on a production buried by history has, in turn, been buried by history with neither a cast recording, nor a published script, nor the ability for any other theaters to license or produce the work.

In the Wings

Song No. 1 drops next week. Until then, if you want to know more about Shuffle Along, I have two suggestions.:

• I highly recommend When Broadway Was Black by Caseen Gaines. It takes a deep dive into the the the history, the context, and everyone involved.

• If a whole book sounds like a lot, I also recommend this video about the Forgotten History of Shuffle Along, featuring Phillip Attamore, a cast member of The Long-Titled Audra version. It also features a puppet.