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Honestly, when I got to Hollywood I was trying to sell my songs.

In Hollywood it's really tough to change genres; you have to re-prove yourself.

My musical career was an accident.

I actually don't see that strong of a connection between my background as a rock 'n roller and my early films. In a way I think your musical identity in film work is determined by the jobs that come your way.

I have to go back to my younger days, when I just adored Hollywood musicals.

I wasn't straining at the bit to become a movie star any more than I had plotted to get out of vaudeville and into Broadway musicals.

You see, it took me so long, it was such a struggle, to move myself out of musicals - because I had had a success, nobody wanted to allow me to direct a non-musical picture. It was so hard. And the only way I could get it going was to become a producer myself.

All movies, when they're about the music business, tend to have a bit of a wide latitude in terms of how things really were.

I was never that into the movies. Never. Even as a youngster. I became interested in movie music only because of the studio orchestras in Hollywood.