Lew Brown

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Lew Brown , born Louis Brownstein , Russian Луис Браунштейн (born November 28 . Jul / 10. December  1893 greg. In Odessa , Russia , † 5 February 1958 in New York City , United States ) was a Russian-American songwriter and lyricist . In the 1920s he formed the successful songwriting trio Henderson-DeSylva-Brown with Ray Henderson and Buddy DeSylva .

Life

Lew Brown was born Louis Brownstein on December 10, 1893 in Odessa , Russia . In 1898 his family emigrated to the USA , where he lived and grew up from then on. He attended school in New York in the Bronx neighborhood . As a teenager he started writing lyrics. With his first partner Albert von Tilzer he had his first hit in 1912 with the song "I'm The Lonesomest Gal In Town" . In the next few years further hits by the duo such as “If You Were The Only Girl” or “ Oh! By Jingo! "," Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl " .

In 1922 he began to work with the composer Ray Henderson . This collaboration also quickly resulted in hits like "Georgette" . After Buddy DeSylva joined in 1925, Henderson-DeSylva-Brown became one of the most influential and successful songwriting groups on Tin Pan Alley in New York. DeSylva and Brown wrote the lyrics and Henderson composed the music. The trio wrote successful songs for numerous Broadway musicals such as "The Birth of Blues" , " Black Bottom " and " Lucky Day " . From 1928 they produced a number of their own successful Broadway musicals such as " Good News " , "Hold Everything!" , "Follow Thru" and "Flying High" . Numerous hits such as " The Best Things in Life Are Free " , "Lucky in Love" or " You're the Cream in My Coffee " were created here . From 1929 the trio began to make film music for Fox Studios , including for “The Singing Fool” , which also produced numerous hits. After DeSylva left the trio in 1931, Brown and Henderson initially went on alone.

In the following years, Brown worked with numerous composers, including Con Conrad , Moe Jaffe , Sidney Clare , Harry Warren , Cliff Friend , Harry Akst , Jay Gorney , Louis Alter and Harold Arlen . In 1937 he wrote the song “ That Old Feeling ” with Sammy Fain , a classic of American pop music. He also wrote the American text for the Beer Barrel Polka .

In 1956, the Hollywood film Fanfares of Joy (The Best Things in Life Are Free) was a cinematic biography of the Henderson-DeSylva-Brown trio .

Brown's song Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else But Me) , which he wrote with Sam H. Stept and Charlie Tobias, was inducted into the 2015 Grammy Hall of Fame.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Lew Brown. In: Songwriters Hall of Fame . Retrieved December 29, 2019 .
  2. ^ The Best Things in Life Are Free. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved December 19, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Grammy Hall of Fame Inducts 26 New Titles Jazz recordings include titles from Miles, Coltrane, Louis & Ella ( Memento from December 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: JazzTimes
personal data
SURNAME Brown, Lew
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brownstein, Louis; Браунштейн, Луис (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-American songwriter and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Odessa , Russia
DATE OF DEATH 5th February 1958
Place of death New York City , United States