faux song pas

It takes an iron will not to have one's opinion of an artist's work unaffected by one's opinion of that artist's other work, especially when you first discover what they were responsible for.

Wikipedia may have saved me from an entirely hypothetical, but potentially real, faux pas. I happened to have surfed over to its article on Jerry Herman. Now, if by any chance I ever met Jerry Herman, I know what I would have said. "Mr. Herman, of all the great songs you've written, my absolute favorite is 'Elegance' from Hello, Dolly."

At this point, Mr. Herman's polite smile might have turned a little glassy, because I now learn that, according to the Wikipedia article on the musical, he didn't write "Elegance," though he was credited with it for the show. It was a trunk song saved after having been cut from an earlier musical by Bob Merrill.

So who was Bob Merrill? You know his work, even if his name doesn't ring any bells. (Unlike Mr. Herman, he is no longer with us.) He was responsible, or co-responsible, for the novelty hits "How Much is that Doggie in the Window?" and "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd Have Baked a Cake," and he was the lyricist for one of the most widely mocked popular songs of my lifetime, "People (Who Need People)." Ewww.

Mr. Merrill, of all the great songs you wrote, my absolute favorite ...