Biography

Composer, songwriter ("That Old Devil Moon") and author, educated at the High School of Commerce and Dwight Academy, and a private music student of Simon Bucharoff. At fifteen, he was a staff writer for the Remick Music Company. He wrote the Broadway stage scores for "Earl Carroll Vanities of 1931", "Hold On to Your Hats", "Laffing Room Only", "Finian's Rainbow", and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" (Grammy Award, 1965). He wrote songs for "Three's a Crowd" and "Third Little Show", and was president of the AGAC since 1957. Joining ASCAP in 1933, his chief musical collaborators included Harold Adamson, Ralph Freed, Ted Koehler, Al Dubin, E.Y. Harburg, Frank Loesser, Alan Jay Lerner, and Ira Gershwin. His other popular-song compositions include "Tony's Wife", "Heigh Ho, the Gang's All Here", "Look Who's Here", "Everything I Have Is Yours", "Have a Heart", "I Want a New Romance", "Swing High, Swing Low", "Stop, You're Breaking My Heart", "Madame, I Love Your Crepes Suzette", "Howdja Like to Love Me?", "Moments Like This", "The Lady's In Love With You", "Says My Heart", "Smarty", "Would You Be So Kindly?", "There's A Great Day Coming Manana", "Don't Let It Get You Down", "The World Is in My Arms", "I Hear Music", "How About You?", "Feudin' and Fightin'", "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?", "The Begat", "If This Isn't Love", "Look to the Rainbow", "Something Sort of Grandish", "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love", "Too Late Now", "You're All the World to Me", "I Left My Hat in Haiti", "Open Your Eyes", "How Could You Believe Me?", "It Happens Every Time", "Applause Applause", "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever", "Come Back to Me", "Melinda", and many more.
- IMDb mini biography by: Louis Rugani

Was twice nominated for Broadway's Tony Award, both times in collaboration with Alan Jay Lerner: in 1966, as Best Composer and Lyricist for "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever;" and in 1979 for Best Score, his music with Lerner's lyrics, for "Carmelina."

Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 340-342. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.