The Stage

Radio 2 to celebrate work of Johnny Mercer

Published Friday 23 October 2009 at 14:32 by Matthew Hemley

BBC Radio 2 is to celebrate the birth centenary of lyricist Johnny Mercer, whose credits include Moon River, with an evening of programmes next month.

Friday Night is Mercer Night - Pardon My Southern Accent will be broadcast on November 13, and will feature a special edition of Friday Night is Music Night, presented by American singer-songwriter and saxophonist Curtis Stigers.

The concert will come live from London’s Mermaid Theatre, and feature performances from Nigel Harman, Sally Ann Triplett, Ruthie Henshall and Stigers himself.

It will feature some of Mercer’s most famous songs, including Hooray for Hollywood, Autumn Leaves, Jeepers Creepers, Fools Rush In, Come Rain or Come Shine and Moon River.

The concert, to be broadcast from 7.30pm, will be preceded by a 30-minute programme hosted by Clarke Peters, who will explore the way in which Johnny Mercer’s birthplace, Savannah, Georgia, influenced his songs.

Radio 2’s evening will conclude with a programme hosted by Barry Manilow, in which he presents his own personal view of Mercer and talks about how he composed melodies to lyrics Mercer penned, which were discovered after his death.

Mercer was born on November 18. 1909, and died in June 1976.