I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise

George White's Scandals of 1922 opened on August 28 for a relatively short run of 88 performances, though that year Paul Whiteman's Orchestra was in the pit, conducted by Max Steiner, and the revue featured among its numbers the imperishable "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise." The stairway was part of the set and the lyrics, by old hand B.G. DeSylva and young Arthur Francis (pseudonym of Ira Gershwin), were part of a skit.

The verses were set to an irresistible, syncopation-nudged march ("All you Preachers/Who delight in panning the dancing teachers/Let me tell you there are a lot of features/Of the dance that carry you through/The gates of Heaven/It's madness/To be always sitting around in sadness/When you could be learning the steps of gladness/You'll be happy when you can do just six or seven"), leading to an indelibly strutting refrain (I'll build a stairway to paradise/With a new step ev'ry day!/I'm going to get there at any price/Stand aside I'm on my way!).

Whiteman and his orchestra recorded "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" before the year was out, prompting a rave from the composer—"Paul made my song live with a vigor that almost floored me"—while critic and Jazz Age chronicler Carl Van Vechten called it "the most perfect piece of jazz yet written."

© Adrian Corleonis, Rovi