Cahn, Sammy

orig. Samuel Cohen

born June 18, 1913, New York, N.Y., U.S.

died Jan. 15, 1993, Los Angeles, Calif.

U.S. song lyricist.

He became a professional songwriter while still a teenager and later formed a songwriting team with Saul Chaplin; their first hit was "Rhythm Is Our Business" (1935). With Jule Styne he collaborated on songs for many films and musicals, including "Three Coins in the Fountain" (1954, Academy Award). In 1955 Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen formed a partnership and went on to write dozens of songs for Frank Sinatra, whose recordings won them Academy Awards for "All the Way," "High Hopes," and "Call Me Irresponsible."

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▪ 1994

      (SAMUEL COHEN), U.S. lyricist (b. June 18, 1913, New York, N.Y.—d. Jan. 15, 1993, Los Angeles, Calif.), was an enormously prolific songwriter whose catchy lyrics and precise rhyming were the hallmark of such Academy Award-winning songs as "Three Coins in the Fountain" (1954), "All the Way" (1957), "High Hopes" (1959), and "Call Me Irresponsible" (1963) and helped many of his other songs become enduring standards. As a teenager Cahn played the violin in burlesque houses, adapting ribald lyrics to some of the numbers. While playing in an orchestra, he met pianist Saul Chaplin, and the two formed a songwriting partnership. Their first hit, "Rhythm Is Our Business," became the theme song of the Jimmy Lunceford orchestra; it was followed by an English-language version of the Yiddish folk song "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," which sold a million records for the Andrews Sisters. After moving to Hollywood, Cahn teamed up with Jule Styne. The two wrote songs for 19 films from 1942 to 1951, most unforgettably "I'll Walk Alone," "It's Magic," "Five Minutes More," "Time After Time," "Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week," "The Things We Did Last Summer," and "Let It Snow!" They also collaborated on songs for the 1947 hit Broadway musical High Button Shoes, but Cahn felt more at home in Hollywood. He partnered Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston, with whom he turned out two of singer Frank Sinatra's biggest hits, "Day by Day" and "I Should Care," and joined Nicholas Brodzsky for "Be My Love," Mario Lanza's first hit. In 1956 Sinatra (who would record 89 Cahn songs) introduced Cahn to Jimmy Van Heusen; the new team turned out so much material for Sinatra that they were considered his personal songwriters. The duo wrote the title song for the film The Tender Trap and such all-time favourites as "High Hopes," "The Second Time Around," "My Kind of Town," "Come Fly with Me," and title songs for four Sinatra albums. They also wrote the scores for two unsuccessful Broadway musicals, Skyscraper (1965) and Walking Happy (1966), and for the film Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). In 1974 Cahn published his autobiography, I Should Care, and starred in a one-man Broadway retrospective of his career, Words and Music. He became a member (1972) and president (1973) of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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▪ American songwriter

byname of  Samuel Cohen 

born June 18, 1913, New York, N. Y., U.S.

died Jan. 15, 1993, Los Angeles

      American lyricist who, in collaboration with such composers as Saul Chaplin, Jule Styne (Styne, Jule), and Jimmy Van Heusen, wrote songs that won four Academy Awards and became number one hits for many performers, notably Frank Sinatra (Sinatra, Frank).

      After dropping out of high school, Cahn published his first song, “Shake Your Head From Side to Side” (1933), the only song for which he wrote both the words and music. The songwriting team of Cahn and Chaplin had their first hit with “Rhythm Is Our Business” (1935), written for bandleader Jimmie Lunceford. Cahn wrote English lyrics for the Yiddish song “Bei Mir Bist du Schoen” (1933), which became a number one hit for the Andrews Sisters in 1938. For the next decade and a half, Cahn collaborated with Styne to write songs for many motion pictures, Broadway musicals, and hit recordings, including the Academy Award-winning “Three Coins in the Fountain,” from the 1954 film of the same name. In 1955 Cahn and Van Heusen formed a partnership and wrote material for Sinatra, whose recordings won them Oscars for “All the Way” (1957), “High Hopes” (1959), and “Call Me Irresponsible” (1963). In 1974 Cahn published I Should Care: The Sammy Cahn Story and performed “Words and Music,” his own one-man Broadway show.

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