In 1972, Ian Whitcomb–singer, songwriter, music historian and show-biz gadabout–interviewed the great songwriter Harry Warren. Above is fifteen minutes of that video and it’s a real delight. Warren tells stories in his off-the-cuff, gruff Brooklyn manner and plays and sings a few of his songs. At the end, he and Whitcomb even do a duet. What makes this little video especially cool for me is that I knew Harry through my father and some family friends and this was the period in which I got to spend some precious time with him. The Warren’s lived in a rather elaborate mid-century estate in Beverly Hills. One of the outbuildings was a small, much less glamorous, little structure that was Harry’s studio, complete with a small upright piano and a couple of Oscars. This was where he spent his days when we knew him and this is where this interview was shot. You’ll see that Harry–much like Irving Berlin–wasn’t an especially good pianist, which is charming in a way since his massive talent for creating melody superseded his need for any piano technique. By the late seventies I was playing jazz piano quite proficiently and my father took me to see Harry, urging me to play ‘Jeepers Creepers’ in the style of Art Tatum (naturally I did an only passable imitation of the master pianist). This thrilled Harry–he insisted we come back several times just to hear me play some of his songs. He was a funny fellow–a Brooklynite who never lost his neighborhood manner, even though he wore a Gucci belt and monogrammed shirts. As you’ll see, he was low-key but not without a bit of temper. Once my father made the unfortunate error of asking Harry about a song he wrote (I can’t remember which). Harry looked indignant and said: “I didn’t write that one. That was by a couple of colored fellows up in Harlem!”