Harry Revel was an English composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of musical theatre

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

.

Revel was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. Before emigrating to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1929, he wrote musicals for productions in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 and London.

Once in the US, he worked on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

, writing the scores for Ziegfeld Follies of 1931, Meet My Sister

Meet My Sister

Meet My Sister is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Jean Daumery and starring Clifford Mollison, Constance Shotter and Enid Stamp-Taylor...

and Are You With It?

Are You With It?

Are You With It? is a 1948 American film about a young mathematician who quits his job to join a traveling carnival. The film is based on the novel Slightly Perfect by George Malcolm-Smith and uses a screenplay by Oscar Brodney...

. He later moved to Hollywood. He wrote scores for the films Sitting Pretty

Sitting Pretty (1933 film)

This article is about the 1933 motion picture. For other articles about other uses of the phrase "Sitty Pretty", see the disambiguation page Sitting Pretty ....

, Broadway Through a Keyhole, We're Not Dressing

We're Not Dressing

We're Not Dressing is a 1934 screwball comedy film starring Bing Crosby, Carole Lombard, Burns and Allen, Ethel Merman, and Ray Milland. Based on the 1902 J. M. Barrie play, The Admirable Crichton, the movie was directed by Norman Taurog.-Synopsis:...

, She Loves Me Not

She Loves Me Not (1934 film)

She Loves Me Not is a 1934 comedy film adapted from the novel of the same name by Edward Hope. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures and starred Miriam Hopkins and Bing Crosby...

, Shoot the Works, College Rhythm, Love in Bloom, Paris in the Spring

Paris in the Spring

Paris in the Spring is a popular song composed in 1935, with lyrics by Mack Gordon and music by Harry Revel. It was first introduced by Mary Ellis in the film Paris in Spring. A version was also recorded by Ray Noble and His Orchestra...

, Stolen Harmony

Stolen Harmony

Stolen Harmony is a 1935 film about a saxophone-player/dancer who joins a Big Band upon his release from jail. The movie climaxes with an exciting car chase and was directed by Alfred L...

, Two for Tonight

Two for Tonight

Two for Tonight is a 1935 musical comedy film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Frank Tuttle, produced by Douglas MacLean. The film stars Bing Crosby and Joan Bennett. The music is by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel.-Cast:...

, Collegiate, Stowaway

Stowaway (1936 film)

Stowaway is a 1936 American musical film directed by William A. Seiter. The screenplay by William M. Conselman, Nat Perrin, and Arthur Sheekman is based on a story by Samuel Engel. The film is about a young orphan called 'Ching Ching' who stows away on a ship and is adopted by Tommy Randall and...

, Poor Little Rich Girl

Poor Little Rich Girl (1936 film)

The Poor Little Rich Girl is a 1936 American musical film directed by Irving Cummings. The screenplay by Sam Hellman, Gladys Lehman, and Harry Tugend was based on stories by Eleanor Gates and Ralph Spence, and on the 1917 Mary Pickford vehicle of the same name...

, Ali Baba Goes to Town

Ali Baba Goes to Town

Ali Baba Goes to Town is a 1937 movie starring Eddie Cantor, Tony Martin, and Roland Young. Cantor plays a hobo named Aloysius "Al" Babson, who walks into the camp of a movie company that is making the Arabian Nights. He falls asleep and dreams he is in Baghdad as an advisor to the Sultan...

, Wake Up and Live

Wake Up and Live

Wake Up and Live is a 1937 Fox musical film directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The movie stars Walter Winchell, Ben Bernie and Alice Faye and was based upon the self-help bestseller by Dorothea Brande...

, You Can't Have Everything

You Can't Have Everything

You Can't Have Everything is a 1937 Fox musical film directed by Norman Taurog and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The movie stars Alice Faye and Don Ameche, and was the film debut for Gypsy Rose Lee.-Plot:...

, Head Over Heels

Head Over Heels (1937 film)

Head Over Heels is a 1937 British musical film directed by Sonnie Hale and starring Jessie Matthews, Robert Flemyng and Louis Borel. It was based on the play Pierre ou Jac by Francis de Croisset.-Cast:* Jessie Matthews - Jeanne Colbert...

, Love and Kisses

Love and Kisses (film)

Love and Kisses is a 1965 American comedy film starring Ricky Nelson as a young man who tries to grow up and emancipate himself from his middle-class parents by getting married. Based on a stage play by Anita Rowe Block, the film, which is mainly a vehicle for Nelson, also features Nelson's then...

, Four Jacks and a Jill

Four Jacks and a Jill

Four Jacks and a Jill is a South African folk rock ensemble. They originally formed in 1964 without a "Jill" under a different name. Later they added lead singer Glenys Lynne and changed the group's name. In South Africa, they had a hit song, "Timothy". In 1968 they cracked the American charts with...

and Love Finds Andy Hardy

Love Finds Andy Hardy

Love Finds Andy Hardy is a 1938 romantic comedy film which tells the story of a teenage boy who becomes entangled with three different girls all at the same time. It stars Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Fay Holden, Cecilia Parker, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Ann Rutherford, Mary Howard and Gene...

.

Harry Revel collaborated with lyricists Mack Gordon

Mack Gordon

Mack Gordon was an American composer and lyricist of songs for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times, including six consecutive years between 1940 and 1945, and won the award once, for "You'll Never Know"...

, Mort Greene, Paul Francis Webster

Paul Francis Webster

Paul Francis Webster was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Song and was nominated sixteen times for the award.-Biography:...

 and Arnold Horwitt. In 1934 he appeared in Hollywood Rhythm, a short film purporting to show the songwriting team of Mack Gordon and Harry Revel brainstorming the score for College Rhythm.

Revel co-produced and co-wrote the score (with Webster) for the 1944 Benny Fields

Benny Fields

Benny Fields was a popular singer of the early 20th century, best known as one-half of the Blossom Seeley-Benny Fields vaudeville team...

 musical Minstrel Man

Minstrel Man (1944 film)

Minstrel Man is a 1944 American film directed by Joseph H. Lewis and produced by Producers Releasing Corporation. It was nominated for two Academy Awards ....

. The score was nominated for an Academy Award, a first for low-budget studio Producers Releasing Corporation

Producers Releasing Corporation

Producers Releasing Corporation was one of the more lower-end Hollywood film studios on Poverty Row from the late '30s to the mid-'40s. PRC, as it was commonly known, made low-budget B-movies for the lower-half of a double bill. A few of its films have gained a respectable reputation over the...

.

Revel died in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame

Songwriters Hall of Fame

The Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online...

 in 1970.

Musical productions

• Blues in the Night [Musical, Revue] Featuring songs by Harry Revel June 2, 1982 – July 18, 1982
• Are You With It?
  Are You With It? (musical)
  Are You With It? is an American musical with music by Harry Revel and lyrics by Arnold B. Horwitt. The musical book by Sam Perrin and George Balzer is based on the novel Slightly Perfect by George Malcolm-Smith. The production opened on Broadway at the New Century Theatre where it ran from November...
  
  [Musical] Music by Harry Revel November 10, 1945 – June 29, 1946
• Smiling Faces
  Smiling Faces
  Smiling Faces is an American musical with music by Harry Revel, lyrics by Mack Gordon, and a musical book by Harry Clarke. Produced by Lee Shubert and Jacob J. Shubert, the production opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre where it ran from August 30, 1932, through September 24, 1932, for a...
  
  [Original, Musical, Comedy] Music by Harry Revel August 30, 1932 – September 24, 1932
• Marching By [Musical] Music by Harry Revel March 3, 1932 – [unknown]
• Fast and Furious (musical) [Musical, Revue] Music mostly by Harry Revel September 15, 1931 – [unknown]
• Ziegfeld Follies of 1931 [Musical, Revue] Music by Harry Revel July 1, 1931 – November 21, 1931

External links

• Harry Revel at the Songwriters Hall of Fame