Beautiful Music

It's the 120th birthday of Con Conrad.  He died in the 1930s, only 47.  Not a particularly well-remembered Broadway or Hollywood composer, he did win the 1934 Oscar for Best Song.

The first Astaire and Rogers musical, Flying Down To Rio, didn't star the duo, but the public loved them so much dancing to "The Carioca" that RKO let them be the leads in The Gay Divorcee, an adaptation of Astaire's stage hit.  They kept one Cole Porter song, "Night And Day," but had to come up with a big new dance number for Fred and Ginger.  So Con and lyricist Herb Magidson created "The Continental," a song that turned into one of the biggest, longest production numbers ever.

It's odd in structure in that it's really two entirely different AABA choruses--I don't think you could call either a verse.  And the full number even includes a little-known trio section.

Here's the entire 17-minute number, with lots of delights.  Most from Fred and Ginger, but not all.  In fact, Erik Rhodes has a pretty nice voice.