Jimmy McHugh

Jimmy McHugh (born July 10, 1894 in Boston , Massachusetts , † May 23, 1969 in Beverly Hills , California ; real name James Francis McHugh ) was an American composer .

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McHugh studied music in his hometown of Boston, was a répétiteur at the Boston Opera House and worked for the Irving Berlin Company. His first song, Emaline, was written in 1917 . In 1921 he went to New York City , took a job at Jack Mills' music publishing company and wrote songs for Broadway shows . He had an early hit in 1924 with When My Sugar Walks Down the Street ; the song was co-created with Gene Austin and Jack Mills' brother Irving . For him he wrote Everything is Hotsy Totsy Now in 1925 , after which Mills named his Hotsy Totsy Boys . His first big Broadway success was the revue Blackbirds of 1928 , whose songs Doin 'the New Low Down and Diga Diga Doo, presented by Bill Bojangles Robinson , enjoyed successful recordings by the Duke Ellington Orchestra . That was when McHugh began working with songwriter Dorothy Fields . At the Academy Awards in 1944 , he and Herb Magidson were nominated for an Oscar in the Best Song category with the song Say a Prayer for the Boys Over There from the film Hers to Hold .

By the 1950s, McHugh wrote over 250 songs, some of which became classics of the American song repertoire. In addition to Fields, the lyrics to his songs were written by authors such as Harold Adamson , Johnny Mercer and Frank Loesser . His best-known songs include: I Can't Give You Anything but Love , I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night , I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me , Exactly Like You and On the Sunny Side of the Street .

Ken Bloom: The American Songbook - The Singers, the Songwriters, and the Songs - 100 Years of American Popular Music - The Stories of the Creators and Performers . Black Dog & Leventhal, New York City 2005, ISBN 1-57912-448-8

personal data
SURNAME	McHugh, Jimmy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	McHugh, James Francis (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American composer
DATE OF BIRTH	July 10, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH	Boston , Massachusetts , USA
DATE OF DEATH	May 23, 1969
Place of death	Beverly Hills , California , USA