Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981) was an American pianist, singer, actor, and composer who wrote both popular songs and songs for the stage and screen in the 1930's and 1940's. His first popular song "Star Dust" was the most requested song of the mid 20th century, and his last popular song won the Academy Award for best original song in 1951. He was one of the initial inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971, received an honorary Doctorate of Music from his hometown university, Indiana University, and was honored at the 1979 Newport Jazz festival with an 80th birthday concert entitled: The Stardust Road: A Hoagy Carmichael Jubilee. As an actor he appeared in several Hollywood films playing and singing his own compositions as the saloon piano player Butch Engle in the classic film Best Years of our Lives.
Born Hoagland Howard Carmichael in Bloomington, Indiana, Hoagy Carmichael grew up influenced by his pianist mother who played everything from the classics to ragtime, and sustained the family when times were hard. Learning piano as a young boy, Carmichael was playing by ear as a teenager and formed his own jazz band after entering Indiana University at the late age of 20. While playing for the jazz group “The Wolverines” with the famed cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, he wrote his first recorded song, "Riverboat Shuffle" and the beginnings of “Star Dust”. After college he went to law school and became a practicing lawyer. When he heard his own song "Riverboat Shuffle" on the radio played by the jazz greats, he left law and returned to music finally completing the melody of "Star Dust". He then moved to New York where the lyricist Mitchell Parish finalized the "Star Dust" lyrics in 1929, and the song became a legendary hit.
The popularity of “Star Dust” enabled Hoagy Carmichael to play and sing with the top jazz orchestras in the business, and for the next five years he wrote songs with lyricists such as Johnny Mercer producing the song standards "Georgia On My Mind" and "Lazy River”. After obtaining a contract with Paramount pictures, he moved to Hollywood in 1936 where he continued writing great song standards such as "The Nearness of You", "Heart and Soul", and “Two Sleepy People” with lyricist giants such as Frank Loesser and Ned Washington. In the 1940s he chanced into a minor film role, singing his own music, and then started appearing in movies more frequently, culminating in his appearance with Bogart and Bacall in To Have and Have Not in 1944 and Best Years if our Lives in 1946. He again collaborated with Johnny Mercer and composed his last popular song "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" which appeared in the 1951 film Here Comes the Groom and won the Academy Award for best original song. At this point he found there was little interest in his style of music (rock and roll was making the scene) and ended his composing career. He spent his remaining years hosting radio shows and playing piano as a guest artist at various Hollywood establishments.
Hoagy Carmichael wrote two autobiographies, The Stardust Road (1946) and Sometimes I Wonder (1965). He estimated that he had written several hundred songs in his songwriting career. His best known songs, "Star Dust", "The Nearness of You", "Lazy River", "Georgia on my Mind", and "Heart and Soul", are American classics and will be sung and played for years to come.
Hoagy Carmichael's compositions appear in the following productions for the stage and screen
Born Hoagland Howard Carmichael in Bloomington, Indiana, Hoagy Carmichael grew up influenced by his pianist mother who played everything from the classics to ragtime, and sustained the family when times were hard. Learning piano as a young boy, Carmichael was playing by ear as a teenager and formed his own jazz band after entering Indiana University at the late age of 20. While playing for the jazz group “The Wolverines” with the famed cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, he wrote his first recorded song, "Riverboat Shuffle" and the beginnings of “Star Dust”. After college he went to law school and became a practicing lawyer. When he heard his own song "Riverboat Shuffle" on the radio played by the jazz greats, he left law and returned to music finally completing the melody of "Star Dust". He then moved to New York where the lyricist Mitchell Parish finalized the "Star Dust" lyrics in 1929, and the song became a legendary hit.
The popularity of “Star Dust” enabled Hoagy Carmichael to play and sing with the top jazz orchestras in the business, and for the next five years he wrote songs with lyricists such as Johnny Mercer producing the song standards "Georgia On My Mind" and "Lazy River”. After obtaining a contract with Paramount pictures, he moved to Hollywood in 1936 where he continued writing great song standards such as "The Nearness of You", "Heart and Soul", and “Two Sleepy People” with lyricist giants such as Frank Loesser and Ned Washington. In the 1940s he chanced into a minor film role, singing his own music, and then started appearing in movies more frequently, culminating in his appearance with Bogart and Bacall in To Have and Have Not in 1944 and Best Years if our Lives in 1946. He again collaborated with Johnny Mercer and composed his last popular song "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" which appeared in the 1951 film Here Comes the Groom and won the Academy Award for best original song. At this point he found there was little interest in his style of music (rock and roll was making the scene) and ended his composing career. He spent his remaining years hosting radio shows and playing piano as a guest artist at various Hollywood establishments.
Hoagy Carmichael wrote two autobiographies, The Stardust Road (1946) and Sometimes I Wonder (1965). He estimated that he had written several hundred songs in his songwriting career. His best known songs, "Star Dust", "The Nearness of You", "Lazy River", "Georgia on my Mind", and "Heart and Soul", are American classics and will be sung and played for years to come.
Hoagy Carmichael's compositions appear in the following productions for the stage and screen
- Topper (1937)
- Walk With Music (1940)
- To Have and Have Not (1944)
- Johnny Angel (1945)
- Best Years of our Lives (1946)
- Canyon River (1946)
- Night Song (1947)
- Here Comes The Groom (1951)
- The Las Vegas Story (1952)
- Timberjack (1954)