Kerry Mills

Sheet music from Mills Cakewalk At a Georgia Camp Meeting (1897), which could be performed as a march, as a polka or as a two step .

Kerry Mills (born February 1, 1869 in Philadelphia as Frederick Allen Mills , † December 5, 1948 in Hawthorne (California) ) was an American composer and music publisher of Tin Pan Alley , who wrote light music.

Mills became a classical violinist and was initially active from 1892 as the head of the string department at the University of Michigan School of Music, where he began composing. In 1895 he moved to New York City . He wrote cakewalks as well as rags and marches and was mainly active between 1895 and 1918. He published his and other compositions in his publishing house, FA Mills Music Publisher. He moved to California in the 1920s. His Cakewalk At a Georgia Camp Meeting , which was also used in numerous films, was particularly popular ; his song Meet Me in St. Louis was the theme song for a film by Vincente Minnelli in 1944 .

Selected compositions

• Any old port in a storm
• At a Georgia Camp Meeting
• Impecunious Davis
• In the City of Sighs and Tears
• Just for the Sake of Society
• Kerry Mills' Barn Dance
• Let's All Go Up to Maud's
• Like a Star That Falls From Heaven
• The Longest Way 'Round Is the Sweetest Way Home
• Meet Me in St Louis, Louis (text by Andrew B. Sterling)
• Red Wing (text by Thurland Chattaway).
• We'll Be Together When the Clouds Roll by (text by Alfred Bryan)
• While the Old Mill Wheel Is Turning
• Whistling Rufus

Web links

• biography
• Kerry Mills at Allmusic (English)
• Sheet music and audio files by Kerry Mills in the International Music Score Library Project
• Kerry Mills in the Internet Movie Database (English)