Unsung Jewish Composers and Lyricists of the Great American Songbook - Ervin Drake and "It Was a Very Good Year"

It's well known that many of the songs that comprise the collection known as The Great American Song Book were written by Jewish composers and lyricists, mostly in the decades between 1930 and 1965, but also going back to the turn of the 20th century.

 

The most prolific of these writers are responsible for the great majority of songs. Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin lead the long list of songwriters and their songs number in the hundreds.

But there are many others that were written by composers and lyricists that you very likely never heard of. These songwriters wrote lots of pop songs to stand alone and as parts of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows and Hollywood movies. Most of the songs are long forgotten, but a few of them have become popular standards, and are sung as much today as in the years they were written.

In this series, which will run in Jewish Humor Central on a weekly basis, we will focus on one songwriter at a time, and feature a video performance of their most popular song.

Today we're featuring Ervin Drake, who was born in New York City as Ervin Maurice Druckman. He attended Townsend Harris High School and the City College of New York. One of his best known songs is I Believe which was made popular by Frankie Laine.

He wrote the words and music for It Was a Very Good Year in 1961, when a publisher friend told him that Bob Shane of the Kingston Trio would be in the publisher's office the next morning, and the publisher asked Drake to write a song for Shane to sing solo. 

 

In 1965, Frank Sinatra heard the song on his car radio as he was driving home in the desert and immediately pulled over in the middle of the night to a gas station and pay phone. Sinatra called Gordon Jenkins and told him he wanted him to make an arrangement with plenty of strings and maybe an interesting instrument like the oboe could be used as well. 

When he arrived back in L.A. he recorded it for his career comeback album September of My Years. The Sinatra recording was a Top 30 single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1966, and made No.1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. 

 

Here's the rare studio recording of Sinatra singing Jenkins' arrangement of It Was a Very Good Year. 

 

Enjoy!

 

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.  

Unsung Jewish Composers and Lyricists of the Great American Songbook - Irving Gordon and "Unforgettable"

It's well known that many of the songs that comprise the collection known as The Great American Song Book were written by Jewish composers and lyricists, mostly in the decades between 1930 and 1965, but also going back to the turn of the 20th century.

The most prolific of these writers are responsible for the great majority of songs. Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin lead the long list of songwriters and their songs number in the hundreds.

But there are many others that were written by composers and lyricists that you very likely never heard of. These songwriters wrote lots of pop songs to stand alone and as parts of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows and Hollywood movies. Most of the songs are long forgotten, but a few of them have become popular standards, and are sung as much today as in the years they were written.

In this series, which will run in Jewish Humor Central on a weekly basis, we will focus on one songwriter at a time, and feature a video performance of their most popular song.

Today we're featuring Irving Gordon (1915-1996), who was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn. He started his music training on the violin, and later worked at Catskill resort hotels writing musical parodies for their shows. In the thirties, he was employed by Mills Music, a publishing and performer management company in New York City, as a contract composer and lyricist. He put words to some of Duke Ellington’s musical pieces.

He is best known for the music and lyrics for “Unforgettable,” recorded by Nat King Cole in 1951.

Cole died in 1965. 26 years later, in 1991, digital technology made it possible for his daughter Natalie to sing the same song in a virtual duet with her father. It was performed at the 1992 Grammy Awards.

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

 

Unsung Jewish Composers and Lyricists of the Great American Songbook - Carolyn Leigh

It's well known that many of the songs that comprise the collection known as The Great American Song Book were written by Jewish composers and lyricists, mostly in the decades between 1930 and 1965, but also going back to the turn of the 20th century.

The most prolific of these writers are responsible for the great majority of songs. Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin lead the long list of songwriters and their songs number in the hundreds.

But there are many others that were written by composers and lyricists that you very likely never heard of. These songwriters wrote lots of pop songs to stand alone and as parts of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows and Hollywood movies. Most of the songs are long forgotten, but a few of them have become popular standards, and are sung as much today as in the years they were written.

In this series, which will run in Jewish Humor Central on a weekly basis, we will focus on one songwriter at a time, and feature a video performance of their most popular song.

Today we're featuring Carolyn Leigh, who was born to a Jewish family in the Bronx. She graduated from Hunter High School, Queens College and NYU.

 

She wrote lyrics for Broadway shows including Peter Pan, Wildcat, Little Me, and How Now, Dow Jones. Her best known song is the second one she wrote after working as a copy writer for radio stations and advertising agencies.

 

In 1953 she was urged to write songs by a music publisher. The first was I’m Waiting Just for You. Her second was Young at Heart. At the time, her father, a man with a great zest for life, had become ill and depressed.

 

“I wrote the song for him,” she recalled, “using some of his own philosophy to cheer him up. When the song became Number 1, he was the most happy fella in the hospital.”

 

With music by Johnny Richard, here is the definitive hit recording by Frank Sinatra.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.