Look For the Silver Lining

Jerome Kern (1885–1945); B.G. (“Buddy”) DeSylva (1895–1950) 

This was one of the six Jerome Kern songs in this collection that I hadn’t known he composed, the others being 1928’s “Who (Stole My Heart Away)?” and “The Way You Look Tonight”. B.G. DeSylva worked as a songwriter in Tin Pan Alley. He wrote or co-wrote many popular songs, including songs introduced by Al Jolson: “Sonny Boy” and “Alabama Bound.” He and George Gershwin together created the experimental one-act jazz opera Blue Monday set in Harlem, which is widely regarded as a forerunner to Porgy and Bess. In 1942, DeSylva, Johnny Mercer, and Glenn Wallichs, founded Capitol Records.

“Silver Lining” took on extra meaning during the two world wars and was covered several times by Judy Garland and by many other performers including Bing Crosby and later Chet Baker and even Aretha Franklin. But it became the theme song of Hildegarde Lorretta Sell . 

Hildegarde (as she is better known) was discovered by Gus Edwards (see “School Days,” 1907). She was described in a Time magazine review as “a luscious, hazel-eyed Milwaukee blonde who sings the way Garbo looks.” Eleanor Roosevelt nicknamed her “The First Lady of Supper Clubs.” She died at 99 in a Manhattan hospital, of natural causes. When I was a kid, I frequently heard her sing “Look For the Silver Lining” on her syndicated radio show in the 1940s.