To Keep My Love Alive
Encyclopedia
"To Keep My Love Alive" is a 1943 popular
song
composed by Richard Rodgers
, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart
for the musical A Connecticut Yankee (1927), where it was introduced by Vivienne Segal
. It was written especially for Segal's appearance in the 1943 revival of A Connecticut Yankee. (R&H Theatricals background) It was the last song that Hart wrote before his death from pneumonia.
The song outlines the many ways the singer "bumped off" her husbands in order to avoid being unfaithful to any of them. Some of her methods include arsenic poisoning, defenestration, stabbing, and appendectomy.
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
composed by Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Hart
Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...
for the musical A Connecticut Yankee (1927), where it was introduced by Vivienne Segal
Vivienne Segal
Vivienne Sonia Segal was an American actress and singer.Segal was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is best remembered for creating the role of Vera Simpson in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's Pal Joey and introduced the song "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"...
. It was written especially for Segal's appearance in the 1943 revival of A Connecticut Yankee. (R&H Theatricals background) It was the last song that Hart wrote before his death from pneumonia.
The song outlines the many ways the singer "bumped off" her husbands in order to avoid being unfaithful to any of them. Some of her methods include arsenic poisoning, defenestration, stabbing, and appendectomy.
Notable recordings
- Ella FitzgeraldElla FitzgeraldElla Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
- Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart SongbookElla Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart SongbookElla Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook is a 1956 album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with a studio orchestra conducted and arranged by Buddy Bregman, focusing on the songs written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.This album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in...
(1956)