Willow Weep for Me (1932)

What do “Willow Weep for Me” and “Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf” have in common? Ann Ronell wrote the lyrics for both songs. She was one of the few woman songwriters working in Tin Pan Alley during the 1930’s, when the chances of success for songwriters in general, and female songwriters in particular, were tenuous at best. Her decision to enter a risky profession fraught with sexual prejudice was strongly influenced by an encounter that occurred during her college years.
While a student at Radcliffe College during the late 1920s, Ronell interviewed George Gershwin for the college newspaper. That encounter led her to decide to pursue a career as a professional songwriter. Gershwin introduced her to contacts in the music business in New York City, where she found work as a coach and rehearsal pianist on Broadway. She persevered with her composing career, despite the resistance to female songwriters, and managed to place a number of her songs in Broadway shows. When she wrote “Willow Weep for Me” in 1932, she dedicated it to Gershwin as a professional thank you for helping her to get her start in the music business.
In 1933 Ronell moved to Hollywood and worked for the Walt Disney Studios, hence her involvement as a co-writer of “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” The next three decades of her songwriting career were devoted to scoring soundtracks for films and adapting and translating opera and operetta libretti. “Willow Weep for Me” was the only jazz ballad that she composed and is her best known work. The song’s evocative lyrics give only vague hints as to the reason for their sadness. There has been speculation that they may have alluded to feelings that Ronell had for Gershwin, but there is no tangible proof of the song being anything more than a gesture of gratitude for his professional assistance.
The first recording released to the public was by the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra and rose to only 17th place in the pop charts. Two weeks later a recording by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra rose to 2nd place, and the ballad has been a popular jazz standard ever since. It appeared in the pop charts again in 1964 when recorded by the folk rock duo Chad and Jeremy. Today there are over 800 covers of the song by artists ranging from hard bop trumpeters to crossover jazz stylists to country and western singers.