I’m Just Wild About Harry is a song written in 1921 with lyrics by Noble Sissle and music by his friend, pianist and composer Eubie Blake (1887–1983, picture at left) for Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals written and directed by African Americans.
Blake began performing in the 1910s, when ragtime was still popular. Shortly after World War I, he formed a vaudeville musical act with Sissle and began work on Shuffle Along, using songs they had written.
Despite its reliance on what was called ‘stereotypical black stage humor’ and ‘the primitivist conventions of cabaret’ the show was a hit, running for 504 performances with three years of national tours.
Next followed many years of vaudeville touring. Blake also resumed working with Sissle to produce the musical revue Shuffle Along of 1933. It failed to make a profit during the hard times of the depression.
In 1946, Blake retired from performing and studied music composition at New York University. He spent the next two decades transcribing songs that he had memorized but had never written down.
Leading up to the 1948 United States presidential election, I’m Just Wild About Harry became the theme song for Democratic Harry S. Truman, who became the 33rd president of the United States, serving from Roosevelt’s death in 1945 until 1953.
Blake lived until 96 and experienced that public interest in his music was revived in the 1970s and 1980s. Eubie!, a revue featuring Blake’s music, opened on Broadway in 1978 and was filmed in 1981.
Performing with a singer? Complete lyrics are available here:
The sound clip is computer generated using sampled sounds (AI). Transcriptions and descriptions are not AI generated.
I’m Just Wild About Harry is a song written in 1921 with lyrics by Noble Sissle and music by his friend, pianist and composer Eubie Blake (1887–1983, picture at left) for Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals written and directed by African Americans.
Performing with a singer? Complete lyrics are available here: 
