There's a Small Hotel

Song from the musical On Your Toes

"There's a Small Hotel"
Song
Published	1937
Composer(s)	Richard Rodgers
Lyricist(s)	Lorenz Hart

"There's a Small Hotel" is a 1936 song composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. Originally written for but dropped from the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo (1935), it was used in On Your Toes (1936), where it was introduced by Ray Bolger and Doris Carson, and repeated by Jack Whiting and Vera Zorina in the London West End production that opened on 5 February 1937, at the Palace Theatre.

Betty Garrett sang it in the 1948 film Words and Music, and it was interpolated in the film version of Pal Joey (1957) with a Frank Sinatra-Nelson Riddle collaboration.

Background

According to the biography of Lorenz Hart by Frederick Nolan,^[1] the song was inspired by a visit that Richard Rodgers made to the Stockton Inn, in Stockton, New Jersey.^[2]^[3] Hart reputedly found the melody insistently cloying and often ad-libbed raunchy parody verses, much to Rodgers' chagrin.^[1]^: 206

Another claimant to be the inspiration is the Montecito Inn, in Santa Barbara County, California.^[4]^[5] Renovations to the hotel in the 1950s replaced the wishing well, mentioned in the song,^[6] by a floral fountain.^[7]

Lyric confusion

The second verse begins with the line "There's no bridal suite".^[8] In many printed editions of the song this appears as "There's a bridal suite", undermining Hart's depiction of the hotel as unassuming. Many performers, including Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, sing "a".^{[citation needed]}

Notable recordings

Hal Kemp And His Orchestra: "There's A Small Hotel"/"It's Got To Be Love" (Brunswick 7634, 1936) – Shellac 10", 78 RPM
Jack Whiting: "There's A Small Hotel"/"On Your Toes" (Columbia CA 16274, 1937) – Shellac 10", 78 RPM
Josephine Baker: "Plus Tard"/"C'est Un Nid Charmant" (Columbia 291179, 1937) – Shellac 10", 78 RPM; a version of the song with French lyrics, as "C'est Un Nid Charmant" was re-released on CD^[9]
Stan Getz: Stan Getz Quartets (Prestige PRLP 7002, 1950)
Hank Mobley: Newark 1953 (Uptown, 1953)
Ginny Gibson: "The Song That Broke My Heart"/"There's a Small Hotel" (M-G-M 11814, 1954) – 45 rpm
Bobby Van & Kay Coulter: On Your Toes (1954) – (1954 revival)
Hank Jones: The Trio (Savoy, 1955)
Chet Baker: Chet Baker in Europe (Pacific Jazz PJ 1218, 1956)
Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook (Verve, 1956)
Sammy Davis Jr. and Carmen McRae: Boy Meets Girl (Decca, 1957)
Frank Sinatra: Soundtrack of the film Pal Joey (Capitol, 1957) – the song was re-released on the compilation album Frank Sinatra Sings the Select Rodgers & Hart (Capitol, 1995)
Johnny Smith: The Johnny Smith Foursome, Volume II (Royal Roost Records, 1957)
Billy Taylor: The New Billy Taylor Trio (ABC-Paramount S-226, 1958)
Dorothy Ashby: Hip Harp (Prestige, 1958)
Petula Clark: Petula Clark in Hollywood (Pye NPL 18039, 1959)
Della Reese: Della Della Cha-Cha-Cha (RCA, 1960)
Billy Eckstine: Broadway, Bongos and Mr. B (Mercury SR 60637, 1961) – with the Hal Mooney Orchestra
The Hi-Lo's: This Time It's Love (Columbia CL 1723/CS 8523, 1962)
Billy Paul: Going East (Philadelphia International, 1971)
Robert Clary: Robert Clary Sings Rodgers, Hart & Mercer (Original Cast 9770, 1997)
June Christy: Friendly Session, Vol. 3 (Jasmine JASCD-369, 2000)
Jane Monheit: Home (EmArcy, 2010)

References

^ ^a ^b Nolan, Frederick (November 2, 1995). Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway - Google Books. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535611-3. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
^ Hingston, Sandy (July 23, 2015). "5 Great Songs (You Might Not Know Were) Written in Philly". Philadelphia. "There's a Small Hotel". Retrieved September 5, 2021. This musical number with lyrics by Lorenz Hart and tune by Richard Rodgers was inspired by the charming (and still existent) Stockton Inn in Stockton, New Jersey. Though cut from Jumbo, the show for which it was originally intended, the song instead found a home in On Your Toes (and another home, later, in Pal Joey).
^ Intersimone, Jenna. "After seven years of vacancy, the 200-year-old Stockton Inn is reopening". mycentraljersey.com. Retrieved September 5, 2021. A patio with a waterfall and wishing well was added in the 1930s, which inspired the lyrics for the classic song, "There's a Small Hotel" by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart.
^ Trzebinski, Errol (March 17, 1995). The Lives of Beryl Markham. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 343–. ISBN 978-0-393-31252-2. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
^ California business. California Business News, inc. 1983. p. 81. Retrieved 10 October 2011. For rejuvenation, pick the Montecito Inn, a 60-room hostelry that inspired Rodgers and Hart to write "There's a Small Hotel." Built by Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle...
^ Wallace, David; Miller, Ann (September 23, 2003). Hollywoodland. Macmillan. pp. 221–. ISBN 978-0-312-31614-3. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
^ White, Robert; White, Phyllis (2002). Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles ... Hunter Publishing. ISBN 978-1-58843-334-3. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
^ "On Your Toes". rodgersandhammerstein.com. 31 December 2021. "There's a Small Hotel" Lyrics. Retrieved August 29, 2024. (...) There's no bridal suite: (...)
^ Le Front Populaire – Paris 1934–1939. www.fremeaux.com (Compilation CD). March 2011. Tracklist: CD1; track 9. Retrieved February 26, 2012. C'EST UN NID CHARMANT (THERE'S A SMALL HOTEL) / JOSEPHINE BAKER / L. HENNEVE / 00:03:07 / 1937.