ABSTRACT
Loesser was the first to secure a top-tier reputation after 1950, and proved to be one of the most gifted and individual of American songwriters. He began, in Hollywood, by supplying lyrics for others, but by 1943 he had already written, alone, a great ballad, Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year. The tune is constructed around intervals just smaller or larger than the octave, which moves it along by avoiding any predictable resting place—an effect reinforced by the absence of time-out rests in the voice line.
