Marvin Hamlisch

From a NY Times Arts article: In a career that spanned film, television, theater and recorded music, Marvin Hamlisch won seemingly every award available in each medium. He died on Monday in Los Angeles. An obituary is here. He was only 68.


(A video gallery of trailers and excerpts from some of the films and musicals featuring Mr. Hamlisch’s music is here.)

This is my music: Marvin Hamlisch

Mr. Hamlisch, bespectacled and somewhat gawky, could often appear as the stereotypical music school nerd — in fact, at 7, he was the youngest student to be accepted at the Juilliard School — but his appearance belied his intelligence and easy banter with the likes of Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin. And his melodies were sure-footed and sometimes swashbuckling. “One,” from “A Chorus Line,” with its punchy, brassy lines, distills the essence of the Broadway showstopper. The show started as a series of taped workshops with Broadway dancers, then evolved into a show that opened at the Public Theater in 1975 and moved to Broadway later that year. It ran for 6,137 performances, the most of any Broadway musical until it was surpassed by “Cats."

In more recent years, Mr. Hamlisch also became an ambassador for music, traveling around the country and performing and giving talks at schools. He often criticized the cuts in arts education.

“I don’t think the American government gets it,” he said during an interview at the Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana, Calif. “I don’t think they understand it’s as important as math and science. It rounds you out as a person. I think it gives you a love of certain things. You don’t have to become the next great composer. It’s just nice to have heard certain things or to have seen certain things. It’s part of being a human being.”

Despite all the awards he received over the years, Ms. Blair said Mr. Hamlisch was always most focused, and most excited about, whatever current project he had going. And, she said, he was always appreciative of his gift: “He used to say, ‘It’s easy to write things that are so self-conscious that they become pretentious, that have a lot of noise. It’s very hard to write a simple melody.’ ”

Songwriter for Elvis, Sinatra and King Cole

This is the second obit of an important musical figure that I've found only in London media: this one in the Independent, the one below, of Ed Thigpen, in the Guardian. Curious, to say the least.

Aaron Schroeder: Songwriter who wrote for Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Nat 'King' Cole

Friday, 26 February 2010

The New York publisher and songwriter Aaron Schroeder was one of the key figures around the Brill Building in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a songwriter who preferred to collaborate with others, especially in improving the commerciality of a promising song. Several of his 300 published compositions were recorded by Elvis Presley, including the multi-million seller "It's Now or Never" (1960). He liked to say, not entirely in jest, "I don't read music – that's why I make so much money."


Aaron Harold Schroeder, who was born in Brooklyn in 1926, was a competent pianist, mostly playing by ear, who was first attracted to the big bands of the 1940s. An early success was with "At a Sidewalk Penny Arcade" (1948), which was recorded by both Rosemary Clooney and Guy Lombardo. In 1955, he was working as a staff writer for the publishing company Hill and Range when he learnt that they were supplying songs to Elvis Presley, who had been signed to RCA-Victor Records.


Schroeder was asked to improve a song by other staff writers, "I Was the One", and the result was the B-side of "Heartbreak Hotel" and made the US Top 20 in its own right. Schroeder was so impressed with Presley that he said to another songwriter, Clyde Otis, "I've got a title, 'Anyway That You Want Me (That's How I Will Be)', so let's write the song." It was released as the B-side to "Love Me Tender", and, again, made the US Top 20 in its own right. Schroeder also wrote one of the first tribute songs to Presley, "My Boy Elvis" by Janis Martin.


Presley stockpiled songs to cover his time in the US army and he had great success with Schroeder's songs "I Got Stung" (later recorded by Paul McCartney) and "A Big Hunk O' Love". When Presley returned to civilian life in 1960, Schroeder wrote his first hit, "Stuck on You".


While serving in the US army, Presley developed a taste for Mario Lanza's recordings and took to singing "O Sole Mio" for his own amusement. Presley's publisher, Freddy Bienstock, wanted a new English lyric, and Schroeder and Wally Gold wrote "It's Now or Never" in 30 minutes. The record, which was released in 1960, sold 20 million copies. Schroeder used his windfall to start his own label, Musicor. Whenever Schroeder was away from home, he would buy his wife, Abby, a new charm for her bracelet. This led to him and Gold composing "Good Luck Charm" (1962), another trans-Atlantic chart-topper for Presley.

Never knew that Elvis liked Mario Lanza.

Schroeder appeared as a songwriter in the rock'n'roll film Disc Jockey Jamboree (1957), in which Carl Perkins sang his song "Glad All Over". Besides writing rock'n'roll songs, Schroeder maintained his contact with more traditional singers. In 1958, Frank Sinatra had a hit with "French Foreign Legion" and Perry Como with "Mandolins in the Moonlight". Nat "King" Cole recorded two of Schroeder's songs, "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1959) and "Time and the River" (1960).

A fledgling songwriter, Gene Pitney, showed Schroeder his work and Schroeder was so impressed that he encouraged him to become a performer as well as a songwriter, effectively establishing the Musicor label through his success. Pitney, who sometimes wrote under his mother's maiden name, Anne Orlowski, co-wrote "Rubber Ball" (a hit for Bobby Vee and Marty Wilde), "Today's Teardrops" (a B-side for Roy Orbison) and "Talkin' in My Sleep" (Billy Fury) with Schroeder, while Schroeder placed his song "Hello Mary Lou" with Ricky Nelson.

Well, hello, Mary Lou ...

Schroeder produced many of Pitney's singles, including the Burt Bacharach and Hal David songs "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", "Only Love Can Break a Heart" and "24 Hours from Tulsa", but Bacharach preferred to have control. Schroeder also wanted the publishing rights to the songs and in 1965 there was an argument over Bacharach and David's film song for Pitney, "The Fool Killer". Schroeder's wheeling and dealing let him down and the song (about an axe murderer!) was not used in the film and had little application elsewhere. Instead, Bacharach and David shifted their attention to Dionne Warwick.

Among his other songs were "Apron Strings" (the B-side of Cliff Richard's No 1, "Living Doll"), "Cincinnati Fireball" (Johnny Burnette), "Make Me Know You're Mine" (Conway Twitty), "Wildcat" (Gene Vincent), "Lucky Devil" (Frank Ifield), "Because They're Young" (Duane Eddy) and "Twixt 12 and 20" (Pat Boone).


In 1966, Mike Jeffrey, the manager of the Animals, arranged a publishing deal for Jimi Hendrix with a company, Yameta, which was incorporated in a tax haven in the Bahamas. Yameta, in turn, formed a partnership with Schroeder, ensuring that Hendrix received relatively little for his songs, perhaps as little as £10 in £100.

He took care of his own songs, but screwed Hendrix.

Schroeder negotiated the music rights for Hanna-Barbera's animated productions and he wrote the theme song for Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969). In 1978, Schroeder wrote a US country No 1, "She Can Put Her Shoes Under My Bed Anytime", for Johnny Duncan, but it was his past successes that consolidated his income. He would tell songwriters, "Your songs are your children – they take care of you when you are old." By promoting celebrity concerts, he and his wife did much to improve the fortunes of the Berkshire Theatre Festival.


Spencer Leigh


Aaron Harold Schroeder, songwriter and music publisher: born Brooklyn 7 September 1926; married Abby (one daughter); died Englewood, New Jersey 2 December 2009.