Harold Rome

Harold Rome wrote the songs for a series of stage musicals from the 1930s to the 1970s, his biggest successes coming with the shows Pins and Needles, Call Me Mister, and Fanny. Like his contemporary, Marc Blitzstein, Rome tended to write topical material with a left-wing political bent during the Depression years of the '30s. His later work was more typical of Broadway show music, but he never lost his concern for ordinary working-class people. Many of Rome's songs became popular outside the theater, and they were performed and recorded by a who's who of singers and jazz music...