The story of a song

“THERE IS A tale that is told in London about a nightingale, how it did this and that and, finally, for no apparent reason, rested and sang in Berkeley Square. A well-known poet, critic and commentator heard it, and it is further alleged that he was sober.”

So begins the short story that inspired the much-recorded song A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. The song was written in 1939 with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz and music by Manning Sherwin. Maschwitz cheerfully admitted that he stole the title from Michael Arlen’s short story When a Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.

Arlen was a typical Mayfair character. To begin with, his name wasn’t Michael Arlen - he was born Dikran Kouyoumdjian in Bulgaria. His father, a merchant, moved the family to Southport in Lancashire before the First World War because he was worried about Bulgaria’s role in the looming conflict.

Arlen (we’ll stick with the adopted name) was educated at Malvern College and spent a few months at Edinburgh University, ostensibly studying medicine, before giving up and moving to London to earn his living as a writer in 1913.

It wasn’t easy. Arlen was still, technically, a Bulgarian of Armenian descent and Bulgaria had allied itself with Germany. He was regarded with suspicion, and it wasn’t until 1922 when he was 27-years old that he was granted British citizenship and the right to officially change his name to Michael Arlen, the name he had chosen to write under.

Still, he was close friends with DH Lawrence and Aldous Huxley, and his stories became popular in Hollywood, inspiring films starring Greta Garbo, Bette Davis, William Powell and Hedy Lamar. Eventually, he became a 1920s society figure in Mayfair; a dandy with immaculate manners who drove round London in a yellow Rolls-Royce.

After a brief spell with DH Lawrence in Florence, Italy, Arlen moved to Cannes in France where he married Countess Atalanta Mercati, with whom he had two children. He died in New York in 1956.

Arlen’s writing “epitomised the brittle gaiety and underlying cynicism and disillusionment of fashionable post-World War I London society”, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The style has dated, but the book from which the nightingale story was taken - These Charming People - is still a good read, especially if you know the Mayfair of the 21st century. And if you do, you might meditate on how little has changed.

The song A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square was written in the small French fishing village of Le Lavandou in Provence. It has been performed by Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Rod Stewart, Nat King Cole, Harry Connick Jr, Perry Como, Bobby Darin, Petula Clark and Twiggy, among many others.

My favourite version is by Rachael Price, you can listen to it here.

Naturalists have long been snooty about the song declaring that Berkeley Square is the wrong place for nightingales, which favour rural habitats. But Arlen knew what he was doing. The last paragraph of the short story - about a wealthy, warring couple who lived in Berkeley Square - is:

“That was the night the nightingale sang in Berkeley Square. A nightingale has never sung in Berkeley Square before, and may never sing there again, but if it does it will probably mean something.”