Give My Regards to Broadway

"Give My Regards to Broadway" is a song written by George M. Cohan for his musical play "Little Johnny Jones" (initiated 1904 in a Broadway theater).

Cohan, playing the title character, sings this song as his friend is about to sail to America, looking for evidence aboardship that will clear his name for allegedly throwing the English Derby.

Cohan's life's work centered around the Broadway stage, so this song is as much about him personally, as about a character in a play. It is, of course, replete with references to his adoptive city.

The sentimental song has been recorded many times. It was featured prominently in a solo song-and-dance sequence done by James Cagney in his Oscar-winning performance in the 1942 film about Cohan's life, "Yankee Doodle Dandy".

In 1999, National Public Radio included this song in the "NPR 100," in which NPR's music editors sought to compile the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century.

One of its earliest recordings was done by Billy Murray, who sang it this way. His recording's short instrumental interludes contain the two closing lines of the chorus to "The Yankee Doodle Boy", which was the other famous song from "Little Johnny Jones":

"Verse 1":Did you ever see two Yankees part upon a foreign shore:When the good ship is just about to start for Old New York once more?:With tear-dimmed eye they say goodbye, they're friends without a doubt;:When the man on the pier shouts loud and clear, as the ship strikes out...

"Verse 2":Say hello to dear old Coney Isle, if there you chance to be,:When you're at the Waldorf [The Waldorf Hotel of that era stood on land now occupied by the Empire State Building] have a "smile" [Old-fashioned term for a social drink.] and charge it up to me;:Mention my name ev'ry place you go, as 'round the town you roam;:Wish you'd call on my gal, now remember, old pal, when you get back home...

"Chorus":Give my regards to Broadway, remember me to Herald Square,:Tell all the gang at Forty-Second Street, that I will soon be there;:Whisper of how I'm yearning to mingle with the old time throng;:Give my regards to old Broadway and say that I'll be there ere long.

ee also

*Give My Regards to Davy, Cornell University's fight song set to the tune of Give My Regards to Broadway. Give my regards to Broadway was published by Leo Feist

Trivia

Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov used the song as an elaborate pun in his short story "Death of a Foy" [Isaac Asimov, "The Winds of Change", Granada 1983, ISBN 0-586-05743-9] .

References