You can find on Youtube many terrific cover versions of Rogers and Hart's "Mountain Greenery," a song that made its debut in the 1926 "Garrick Gaities." I love Lee Wiley's take though she omits the fabulous introductory verse as do Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore in a jazzy duet that aired in a 1962 episode of the Dick Van Dyke show.
I'm partial to Bing Crosby's version (confession: it was my warmup song during morning runs along the waterfront in New York City). You just can't beat his phrasing, which calls attention to those witty Lorenz Hart rhymes. And dig those horns in Buddy Bragmen's arrangement!
Mountain Greenery (Rogers & Hart)
On the first of May
It is moving day
Spring is here, so blow your job
Throw your job away
Now's the time to trust
To your wanderlust
In the city's dust you wait
Must you wait?
Just you wait!
In our mountain greenery
Where God paints the scenery
Just two crazy people together
While you love your lover, let
Blue skies be your coverlet
When it rains, we'll laugh at the weather
And if you're good
I'll search for wood
So you can cook
While I stand look-
Ing
Beans could get no keener re-
Ception in a beanery
Bless our mountain greenery home!
In our mountain greenery
Where God paints the scenery
Just two crazy people together
How we love sequestering
Where no pests are pestering
No dear mama holds us in tether
Mosquitos here
Won't bite you, dear
I'll let them sting
Me on the fing-
Er
We could find no cleaner re-
Treat from life's machinery
Than our mountain greenery home.
-- sdl
One of the great Rodgers & Hart songs!
Posted by: David Lehman | May 01, 2023 at 10:58 AM