Irene Higginbotham

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Irene Higginbotham

Irene Higginbotham (born June 11, 1918 in Worcester (Massachusetts) , † August 27, 1988 in Brooklyn , New York City ) was an American pianist and songwriter, best known for her participation in the Billie Holiday song Good Morning Heartache from 1946 .

Live and act

Irene Higginbotham came from a musical family; she was a niece of jazz trombonist J. C. Higginbotham , cousin of jazz trombonist Joseph Orange . She first attended New York Business School to work as a stenographer , then studied music with Kemper Harold and Frederic Hall. She had already written her first song at the age of thirteen; when she was fifteen she began performing as a concert pianist. In 1944 she became a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

Higginbotham also wrote some dance numbers that became instrumental hits. In the early 1950s, her tracks such as Jersey Turnpike were published under the pseudonym Glenn Gibson , but not every song attributed to Glenn Gibson was by Irene Higginbotham, as Joe Davis , who was one of her publishers, used the name to make copyright claims on songs levy that were public domain .

Irene Higginbotham is not to be confused with Irene Kitchings (1908-1975), who was briefly married to Teddy Wilson and composed the standard Some Other Spring . For a while, it was erroneously claimed that Kitchings and Higginbotham were one and the same person, which may have resulted from the fact that both women wrote songs that were introduced by Billie Holiday.

Compositions (selection)

Her best-known songs include Good Morning Heartache , which she wrote with Dan Fisher and lyricist Ervin Drake and which Billie Holiday first recorded on January 22, 1946, No Good Man , also recorded by Billie Holiday (1946) and by Nina Simone (1961 ), This Will Make You Laugh , recorded by the Nat King Cole Trio (1941) and by Natalie Cole in 1993 , also by Carmen McRae (1955), Marvin Gaye (1978), John Pizzarelli (1992) and Keith Ingham (1998), Are You Livin 'Old Man , recorded by Anita O'Day with the Stan Kenton Orchestra (1942) and June Christy with the Kenton Orchestra (1945), It's Mad, Mad, Mad , recorded by the Duke Ellington Orchestra (1947), I Got News for You , recorded by Woody Herman (1948), Mean and Evil Blues , recorded by Dinah Washington (1948), No Sale recorded by Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five (1945), That Did It, Marie , recorded by Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman & His Orchestra (1941) and The Bottle's Empty , recorded by on Coleman Hawkins (1945).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ASCAP: "Good Morning Heartache"
  2. ↑ Irene Higginbotham at Allmusic (English)
  3. ^ Information at secondhandsongs.com
  4. ^ ASCAP: Songs Composed by Irene Higginbotham
personal data
SURNAME Higginbotham, Irene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilson, Irene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Worcester, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 1988
Place of death New York City