- Jack Lawrence
:"For the artist see
Jack Lawrence (artist) , for the Irishcricketer , seeJack Lawrence (cricketer) "Jack Lawrence (born Jacob Schwartz
April 7 1912 inBrooklyn, New York ) is an AmericanAcademy Award -nominatedsongwriter who was inducted into theSongwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.Background
Lawrence born to an Orthodox Jewish family of modest means as the third of four sons. He wrote songs while still a child, but because of parental pressure after he graduated Thomas Jefferson High School, he enrolled in the First Institute of Podiatry. He got his doctoral degree in 1932, the same year that his first song was published, and immediately decided that songwriting, rather than podiatry, would be his career. That song, "
Play, Fiddle, Play ," won international fame and he became a member ofASCAP that year at only 20.In the early 1940s Lawrence and several of his fellow hit makers formed a sensational review called "
Songwriters On Parade ", performing all across the Eastern seaboard on the Loew's and Keith circuits.Lawrence joined the
United States Merchant Marine duringWorld War II and wrote their official song, "Heave Ho! My Lads, Heave Ho!" as a lieutenant in 1943, while stationed at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.One of the first major songs he wrote upon getting out of the service was "
Yes, My Darling Daughter ," introduced byDinah Shore onEddie Cantor 'sradio program, which was Shore's first record. Another Jack Lawrence song that introduced a new artist was "If I Didn't Care ," which introduced the world toThe Ink Spots . And, althoughFrank Sinatra was already a well-knownbig band singer, Lawrence's "All or Nothing at All " was Sinatra's first solo hit.Lawrence also wrote the lyrics for "
Tenderly ,"Rosemary Clooney 's trademark song (in collaboration with composerWalter Lloyd Gross ), as well as theEnglish language lyric to "Beyond the Sea " (based onCharles Trenet 'sFrench language song "La mer"), the trademark song forBobby Darin . Another French song for which Lawrence wrote an English lyric was "La goualante de pauvre Jean," becoming "The Poor People of Paris ."Together with Richard Myers he wrote "Hold My Hand," which was nominated for the 1954
Academy Award for Best Song .Work on Broadway
*"Follow Thru" (1929) - musical -
actor for the role of "Country Club Boy"
*"Courtin' Time" (1951) - musical - co-composer and co-lyricist
*"Ziegfeld Follies of 1957" (1957) -revue - featuredlyricist for "Bring on the Girls" and "Music for Madame"
*"Maybe Tuesday" (1958) - play - co-producer
*"I Had a Ball " (1964) - musical - co-composer and co-lyricist
*"Lena Horne : "The Lady and Her Music" (1981) -concert - co-producer
*"Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" (1982) - play - co-producer
*"The Golden Age" (1984) - play - owner of the Jack Lawrence Theatre
*"Quilters" (1984) - musical - owner of the Jack Lawrence Theatre
*"So Long on Lonely Street" (1986) - play - owner of the Jack Lawrence TheatreExternal links
* [http://www.jacklawrencesongwriter.com/mybio.html Jack Lawrence bio]
*
*ibdb name|id=12029|name=Jack Lawrence
*amg|id=11:0jftxqt5ldte|label=Jack Lawrence
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.