Jack Nuckols was heading off for a couple weeks of vacation and his band mates wanted to give him a proper sendoff. Pamela Bowen videoed it, the last tune of this week’s rehearsal, a saucy little number that rocked many a party back in Grandad’s day.
“Lulu’s Back in Town” — first performed by The Mills Brothers in 1935, the same year it also was recorded by Fats Waller — was written by Harry Warren. You’re right, that’s not a household name (journalist William Zinsser once called Warren the entertainment world’s “invisible man,” despite his million-dollar portfolio).
But in a career spanning six decades, Warren wrote more than 800 songs, primarily for films, including Oscar-winners like “Lullaby of Broadway” in 1935, “You’ll Never Know” in 1943 and “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” in 1946.
Warren’s better known pieces include novelty tunes like “Jeepers Creepers,” “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” and “Chattanooga Choo Choo” (which was the first gold record in history). And ballads like “I Only Have Eyes for You” and “There Will Never Be Another You.”
He also penned signature tunes like “That’s Amore,” which Dean Martin claimed as his own, and — best of all! — “At Last,” which simply belonged to the great Etta James.
To learn more about this little-known American master, see our earlier Flood Watch article by clicking here.
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