Mountain Greenery

For all you show-tune lovers, here’s a toe-tapping, finger-snapping song from 1926 – smack in the middle of the Roaring Twenties – a perfect to celebrate the plunging Covid-19 metrics and a return to some kind of normal.

“Mountain Greenery” is a popular song composed by Richard Rodgers (The Sound of Music, Carousel, South Pacific), with lyrics by Lorenz Hart (Blue Moon, The Lady is a Tramp, My Funny Valentine). In addition to the clever rhyming (I’ve reddened the rhymes in the lyrics below), there is a repeating rhythm of each verse that is recognizable even without the music.

Fun fact: It was first performed on the Broadway stage by none other than the late, great Sterling Holloway, who voiced Winnie the Pooh (and also Kaa the snake in Jungle Book, among many others.) He appeared in over 100 films and 40 television shows! Also, it was Holloway who first gave voice to the classic Rodgers & Hart tune “Manhattan” (We’ll take Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, too.) I never realized that he was so suave and debonair when he was younger!

Notable versions were recorded by Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, The Supremes, Tony Bennett, Mel Tormé. Two great performances: Perry Como (you gotta see this!) and Dick van Dyke (with Mary Tyler Moore!)

Requested by and dedicated to Andy L. Thanks, Andy, what a great song (and attitude enhancer)! You were right – the rhymes are the cat’s meow!

Enjoy,

Dr. Weiss

P.S. Well, you already know about Winnie the Pooh, but what’s the connection between Rodgers and Hart’s ‘Mountain Greenery’, George Gershwin, Santa Claus, and Fred Flintstone? Watch until the encore and find out!
Some info from Wikipedia

Mountain Greenery lyrics

verse 1
On the first of May, it is moving day
Spring is here, so blow your job – throw your job away
Now’s the time to trust, to your wanderlust
In the city’s dust you wait – must you wait? Just you wait;

In a mountain greenery where God paints the scenery
Just two crazy people together
While you love your lover, let blues skies be your coverlet
When it rains we’ll laugh at the weather

And if you’re good – I’ll search for wood
So you can cook – while I stand looking.

Beans could get no keener reception in a beanery.
Bless our Mountain Greenery home!

verse 2
Simple cooking means more than French cuisines
I’ve a banquet planned which is sandwiches and beans
Coffee’s just as grand with a little sand
Eat and you’ll grow fatter boy – s’matter boy?  Atta boy!

In a mountain greenery – where God paints the scenery
Just two crazy people together.
How we love sequestering – where no pests are pestering
No dear mama holds us in tether

Mosquitoes here – won’t bite you, dear
I’ll let them sting – me on my finger
We could find no cleaner retreat from life’s machinery
Than our mountain greenery home

INTERLUDE
He: When the world was young Old Father Adam with sin would grapple
So we’re entitled to just one apple – I mean to make apple sauce
She: Underneath the bough, we’ll take a lesson from Mister Omar
Beneath the eyes of no Pa and no Ma – where Mother Nature is boss
He: Washing dishes, catching fishes by the running stream
We’ll curse the smell of citronella even while we dream
She: Head upon the ground, your downy pillow is just a boulder
He: I’ll have new dimples before I’m older – but life is peaches and cream

And if you’re good – I’ll search for wood
So you can cook – while I stand looking.

Beans could get no keener reception in a beanery.
Bless our mountain greenery home!