“KISS ME AGAIN” AND THE WISDOM OF WITMARK

Abstract

This is the second of six chapters tracing how waltzes often became performed as duple-meter tunes, inflected with jazz style, via the collective innovation of performance tradition. The operetta composer Victor Herbert, with lyricist Henry Blossom, wrote “Kiss Me Again” as the “sensuous waltz” to climax multiple refrains within “If I Were on the Stage” (from Mlle. Modiste, 1905). Herbert takes his initial motif from “Córdoba” (1898) by Isaac Albéniz—another example of collective innovation. The tune is a harbinger of many later arching melodies; and the lyric, of other, later, importunate romantic pleas. The song became widely popular once the publisher (another collaborative force) made its writers create a verse about lost love. The number is primarily done by operatic singers, but also by crooners, commented on here, including Frank Sinatra. The chapter analyzes the four uses of the song in the 1931 movie musical Kiss Me Again.