There's A Small Hotel

Album: On Your Toes (1936)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Rodgers & Hart, the popular songwriting team behind some of Broadway's most memorable tunes, including "My Funny Valentine," "The Lady is a Tramp," and "Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered," wrote this for the 1935 musical extravaganza Jumbo, but it didn't make the cut. The following year, it landed in the Broadway musical On Your Toes, starring Ray Bolger as an ex-vaudevillian who gets mixed up with the mob. The role was written for Fred Astaire, but the dancer didn't think the character meshed with his suave and sophisticated persona. So Bolger, just three years shy of his iconic role as The Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, took the lead.

    Bolger and his costar Doris Carson introduce "There's A Small Hotel," about a cozy hideaway that houses a bridal suite and a wishing well.
  • According to Frederick Nolan's biography of Lorenz Hart, the songwriters were inspired by the Stockton Inn in Stockton, New Jersey, which was a popular getaway for New York artists and entertainers (and indeed featured a stone wishing well). Hart, who thought the melody was too sappy, allegedly locked himself in the men's room of New Haven's Shubert Theater to write the lyrics.
  • Frank Sinatra sings this in the 1957 movie Pal Joey, while he eyes Rita Hayworth on the dance floor.
  • Ella Fitzgerald covered this on her 1956 album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Song Book.
  • Eddie Albert and Vera Zorina sing this in the 1939 film adaptation of On Your Toes.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"They're Playing My Song

Gramm co-wrote this gorgeous ballad and delivered an inspired vocal, but the song was the beginning of the end of his time with Foreigner.

Michael W. Smith

Michael W. SmithSongwriter Interviews

Smith breaks down some of his worship tracks as well as his mainstream hits, including "I Will Be Here For You" and "A Place In This World."

David Sancious

David SanciousSongwriter Interviews

Keyboard great David Sancious talks about his work with Sting, Seal, Springsteen, Clapton and Aretha, and explains what quantum physics has to do with making music.

Joe Elliott of Def Leppard

Joe Elliott of Def LeppardSongwriter Interviews

The Def Leppard frontman talks about their "lamentable" hit he never thought of as a single, and why he's juiced by his Mott The Hoople cover band.

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

Ian Anderson of Jethro TullSongwriter Interviews

The flautist frontman talks about touring with Led Zeppelin, his contribution to "Hotel California", and how he may have done the first MTV Unplugged.

The Punk Photography of Chris Stein

The Punk Photography of Chris SteinSong Writing

Chris Stein of Blondie shares photos and stories from his book about the New York City punk scene.