George Alex Stevens

George Alex Stevens (1875-1954) was a songwriter and musical show director. In more than 60 years of songwriting he had more than 2000 songs published under the names "G. Alex Stevens" and "George A. Stevens". He was known as a writer of music hall songs.

For many years Stevens was a close friend of Charlie Chaplin's father in Kennington, London, composing songs for him. His first successful song was "The Huntsman", sung by Dan Leno at a Royal Command Performance before King Edward VII in 1901. His hits were sung by Marie Lloyd, Albert Chevalier, R.G. Knowles, Gracie Fields, Florrie Forde, and many others.

One of his best-known songs was "On Mother Kelly's Doorstep" and Kate Carney featured his "Mother I Love You" for more than 40 years. In later years he wrote "Chump Chop and Chips" for Gracie Fields, and Randolph Sutton sang his "When the Harvest Moon is Shining" on early TV, and comedian Reg Dixon revived his "I'm Shy Mary Ellen, I'm Shy".

External links

* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-an6089876 Sheet music to "On Mother Kelly's Doorstep", Australian National Library]
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-an21659796 Sheet music to "Down, Down, Down In Devonshire", written by Stevens for Florrie Forde, Australian National Library]
* [http://www.biblioz.com/lp25763118647_1682 Biblioz.com entry]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=tGd7NGva1iwC&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=%22george+a+stevens%22+%22music+hall%22&source=web&ots=R5GZx77-Gu&sig=f5nzrXFfKbZev5kiQ1rSsOVrFZw&hl=en Paul Matthew St. Pierre, "A Portrait of the Artist as Australian: L'Oeuvre Bizarre de Barry Humphries" (2004), p. 88, Google Books excerpt]