Mikael Uhlin's Marxology @ marx-brothers.org

Songs

The Marx Brothers started their career as singers and music always remained an important ingredient in their work. Groucho started out as song-plugger for Gus Edwards and even appeared on the cover of his Farewell Killarney. Peasie Weasie, Do Not Say Good-Bye, Walking Thru Lovers Lane and Sailin' Away on the Henry Clay are some other songs from the vaudevillian days.

The songs featured in I'll Say She Is were written by brothers Will B. Johnstone (lyrics) and Tom Johnstone (music). Apparently most of the songs were originally included in the show Gimme A Thrill, which was a precursor of I'll Say She Is without the Marx Brothers. The songs in Theatrical Agency (Do It and Pretty Girl) might have been added later, whereas The Thrill Of Love was one of the original songs. The cover of the sheet lyrics is almost identical to that of Only You, although Only You seems to have been added to the list of songs (and to the show) at a later stage. According to Varietys review of the show of May 28, 1924, Only You had "no contender in melody in the score" and was sung by baritone Frank J. Corbett, but Carlotta Miles also sang it. At least two recordings of Only You was released in 1924; by The International Novelty Orchestra, with vocal by Lewis James (B-side of It's A Secret Victor 19380), and also by Emil Coleman and his Orchestra.

Beauty's Dress was sung in the scene with the same name, later retitled The Inception of Drapery. The Chinatown-bit contained several songs, namely When Shadows Fall, Break Into Your Heart and San Toy. The sheet covers of The Thrill Of Love and Only You mentions I'm Saving You For A Rainy Day, which most likely is identical with Rainy Day (Act I, Scene 10). The Napoleon-scene included Tom Johnstone/Phil Cook-song Glimpses of the Moon, which seem to have been inspired by contemporary Edith Wharton-novel and Bebe Daniels-movie by the same name. Wall Street Blues appeared in the The Wall Street-bit and was completely slaughtered by Alexander Woollcott: "a touching number called Wall Street Blues which is sung, for some reason, by a small, shrill young woman wearing blue sateen overalls. It is not known why. Nor greatly cared."

Earlier versions of the show ended with the comedy number In The Sheik's Tent (see The Finale), which may have included The Wonderful Nile, another song mentioned in the sheet covers of The Thrill Of Love and Only You. Later versions of the show replaced In The Sheik's Tent with Beauty's Russian Garden. This scene contained the song The Wonderful River, which probably was the same tune. Groucho claimed that I'll Say She Is didn't have one piece of scenery that really belonged to the show and among others he mentioned "a piece of the river scene from Uncle Tom's Cabin, where Liza crosses the ice".
It's possible that this was used to illustrate The Wonderful River of Beauty's Russian Garden".

Some of the songs mentioned at Marxology refers to my personal Film Fantasy of I'll Say She Is, for example A Little Bungalow (originally from the show The Cocoanuts) , The Musketeers (from the show Animal Crackers) and Dr Hackenbush (deleted from the film A Day At The Races). Some songs are mentioned in the presentation of Theatrical Agency, like Mr Gallagher and Mr Shean (the original number the Marx Brothers tried out at the agency), later replaced by Darktown Strutter's Ball (and imitations of Joe Frisco) and finally by Maurice Chevaliers' You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me.
George Gershwin's Love Is Sweeping The Country and Hoagy Carmichaels' Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief are connected to the Marxes by a similar use of the old Richman, Poorman etc-rhyme. Additionally, Hoagy's song was introduced by Betty Hutton, the sister of Marion Hutton who appeared in Love Happy. Both songs may also be used in the Film Fantasy.