"Bill" is a song heard in Act II of

Kern KERN (1180 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Wasco, California, Wasco-Greenacres, California, and serving the Bakersfield metropolitan area. The station is owned by American General ...

and

Hammerstein Hammerstein is a municipality on the river Rhine in the district of Neuwied in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous co ...

's classic 1927 musical, ''

Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...

''. The song was written by Kern and

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

for their 1917 musical '' Oh, Lady! Lady!!'' for

Vivienne Segal Vivienne Sonia Segal (April 19, 1897 – December 29, 1992) was an American actress and singer. Early years Segal was born on April 19, 1897, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the elder daughter of Jewish parents Bernhard Segal, a physician, ...

to perform, but it was withdrawn because it was considered too melancholy for that show. When Kern and Hammerstein were at work on a serious and somewhat tragic production of ''Show Boat'', however, they decided that the song would be perfect for a nightclub scene in that show. Hammerstein revised Wodehouse's original lyrics somewhat (although he would always give full credit to Wodehouse for the song and take none for himself), and the song was given to real-life

nightclub singer A nightclub act is a production, usually of nightclub music or comedy, designed for performance at a nightclub, a type of drinking establishment, by a nightclub performer such as a nightclub singer or nightclub dancer, whose performance may ...

Helen Morgan Helen Morgan may refer to: *Helen Morgan (singer) Helen Morgan (née Riggins; August 2, 1900 – October 9, 1941) was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in ...

to sing as she portrayed the mulatto Julie in that version of ''Show Boat''. The song is rendered only once in the show and is highly emotional, with the singer supposedly on the verge of tears. It is sung in an audition scene portrayed in Act II. At the Trocadero, a local Chicago night club, Julie LaVerne, the former leading lady of the show boat, is the featured singer. Julie, who is of mixed blood, has been permanently abandoned by her white husband, Steve Baker, years after the two were forced to leave the show boat because of their interracial (and therefore illegal) marriage. Despondent, Julie has taken to drink and is quickly becoming an

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...

. At the urging of Jim Green, the nightclub manager, Julie rehearses the song "Bill", which is a woman's confession of deep love for a less-than-perfect man named Bill, and it is clear that the emotion that the singer puts into the song comes from the fact that she is really thinking about her husband as she sings. "Bill" became one of Helen Morgan's signature songs, and onstage she sang it in her trademark style, sitting atop a piano. Although the song is heard only once in ''Show Boat'' and never reprised, it became one of the musical's most famous. On film, Helen Morgan sang "Bill" both in the prologue to the 1929 part-talkie film version of ''Show Boat'' and in the classic 1936 film version.

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of th ...

was filmed singing "Bill" for the Jerome Kern biopic ''

Till the Clouds Roll By ''Till The Clouds Roll By'' is a 1946 American Technicolor musical film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A fictionalized biopic of composer Jerome Kern, portrayed by Robert Walker, Kern was originally involved with the production, but died before ...

'', but the scene was eventually cut.

Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...

, using the dubbed-in voice of

Annette Warren Annette Warren (born July 11, 1922) is an American vocalizer and popular jazz and song stylist best known for dubbing the singing voices of such stars as Lucille Ball in ''Sorrowful Jones'' (1949) and '' Fancy Pants'' (1950), and Ava Gardner in t ...

, was portrayed as singing the song in the 1951 Technicolor remake of ''Show Boat''. Gardner's own voice can be heard on the soundtrack record, however.

Polly Bergen Polly Bergen (born Nellie Paulina Burgin; July 14, 1930 – September 20, 2014) was an American actress, singer, television host, writer and entrepreneur. She won an Emmy Award in 1958 for her performance as Helen Morgan in ''The Helen Mo ...

included "Bill" in her 1957 album featuring the songs of Helen Morgan, ''Bergen Sings Morgan''. The song became a regular part of

Dorothy Lamour Dorothy Lamour (born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton; December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for having appeared in the '' Road to...'' movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing ...

's repertoire. Lamour frequently sang it on radio and in concert and she recorded it in 1958.

Shirley Bassey Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey (; born 8 January 1937) is a Welsh singer. Best known for her career longevity, powerful voice and recording the theme songs to three James Bond films, Bassey is widely regarded as one of the most popular vocalists ...

recorded the song for the 1959 Studio Cast Album of "

Other notable recordings

Dinah Shore Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, and television personality, and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during ...

- recorded "Bill" in October 1946 for Columbia Records, catalog No. 37855. *

Peggy Lee Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalis ...

- included in her album ''

I Like Men! ''I Like Men!'' is a 1959 studio album recorded by Peggy Lee, arranged and conducted by Jack Marshall. Track listing # "Charley, My Boy" (Ted Fio Rito, Gus Kahn) – 1:35 # "Good-For-Nothin' Joe" (Rube Bloom, Ted Koehler) – 2:32 # " ...

'' (1959) *

Margaret Whiting Margaret Eleanor Whiting (July 22, 1924 – January 10, 2011) was an American popular music and country music singer who gained popularity in the 1940s and 1950s.Mapes, Jillian.Margaret Whiting, Iconic Standards Singer, Dies at 86. ''Billboard' ...

- ''

Margaret Whiting Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook ''Margaret Whiting Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook'' is a 1960 studio album by Margaret Whiting, with an orchestra conducted and arranged by Russell Garcia, focusing on the songs of Jerome Kern. Originally released as a double-LP set by Verve R ...

'' (1960) *

Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s songs". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performe ...

- for her album ''Dinah '63'' (1963). *

Kathy Kirby Kathy Kirby (born Catherine Ethel O'Rourke; 20 October 1938 – 19 May 2011) was an English singer, reportedly the highest-paid female singer of her generation. She is best known for her cover version of Doris Day's " Secret Love" and for re ...

- included the song in her album, ''Kathy Kirby Sings 16 Hits from Stars and Garters'' (1963) * Rebecca Trehearn - performed "Bill" in the

Sheffield Theatres Sheffield Theatres is a theatre complex in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It comprises three theatres: the Crucible, the Lyceum and the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse. These theatres make up the largest regional theatre complex outside the ...

production (2015) and the subsequent West End Transfer Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine

References

External links

Bill, song (from "Show Boat"); Information from answers.com
{{authority control 1927 songs Dorothy Lamour songs Songs with lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse Songs from Show Boat Songs with music by Jerome Kern Songs with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Other notable recordings

See also

References

External links