"Hello, Dolly!" is the title song of the popular 1964
musical of the same name. Louis Armstrong's version was
inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.
The music and lyrics were written by Jerry Herman, who also
wrote the scores for many other popular musicals including
Mameand
La Cage aux Folles.
"Hello, Dolly!" was first sung by Carol Channing, who
starred as Dolly Gallagher Levi in the original 1964 Broadway
cast. In December 1963, at the behest of his manager, Louis
Armstrong made a demonstration recording of "Hello, Dolly!" for
the song's publisher to use to promote the show.
Hello, Dolly!opened on January 16, 1964 at the St. James
Theatre in New York City, and it quickly became a major
success. The same month, Kapp Records released Armstrong's
publishing demo as a commercial single.
The best-known recording is by Louis Armstrong, in 1964,
which reached number-one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, ending
The Beatles' streak of three number-one hits in a row (they
also held the top three spots) and becoming the biggest hit of
Armstrong's career, followed by a gold-selling album of the
same name. For the song Armstrong received a Grammy Award for
"Best Vocal Performance, Male" in 1964. In 1965, it received a
Grammy Award for "Best Song" (Jerry Herman (songwriter),
performed by Louis Armstrong). The song also spent nine weeks
atop the adult contemporary chart shortly after the opening the
musical. Louis Armstrong also performed the song (together with
Barbra Streisand) in the popular 1969 film
Hello, Dolly!.
"Hello, Dolly!" is a pop standard, and has been covered by
many distunguished artists, including:
Sinatra's rendition of the song, recorded with the Count
Basie Orchestra, features new lyrics, improvised by Sinatra,
which pay tribute to Louis Armstrong.
The song's refrain is:
As successful as the stage show and title song itself turned
out to be, however, the tune "Hello, Dolly!" became caught up
in a lawsuit which could have endangered timely plans for
bringing the musical to the silver screen. Mack David
(1912-1993), an Academy Award-nominated composer also known for
his compositions for television, sued for infringement of
copyright, because the first four bars of Herman's show number,
"Hello, Dolly!", were the same as those in the refrain of
David's song "Sunflower" from 1948. As he recounts in his
memoirs, Herman had never heard "Sunflower" before the lawsuit,
and wanted a chance to defend himself in court, but, for the
sake of those involved in the show and the potential film, he
reluctantly agreed to pay a settlement before the case would
have gone to trial.