Jule Styne
Jule Styne
Jule Styne (1905-1994) was an American pianist and composer whose songs appeared as both popular songs as well as in 48 musical productions for the Stage and Screen. Styne had three main periods in his musically prosperous life: 1913-1937 as a pianist in orchestras, bands, and jazz groups, 1937-1944 in Hollywood as a film composer, and 1944-1994 in Manhattan composing and producing for both films and Broadway musicals. Styne had numerous Academy, Tony, and Grammy Award nominations winning the Oscar for best song for “Three Coins in the Fountain” (1954 Sammy Cahn lyricist), the Tony for best Original Score for Hallelujah Baby (1967 Comden and Green lyricists), and Grammy's for best cast album for the Broadway musicals Gypsy (1959 Stephen Sondheim lyricist) and Funny Girl (1963 Bob Merrill lyricist). He was elected to the Songwriter and Theater Halls of Fame and was given The Kennedy Center honors and Dramatist Guild Lifetime Achievement award.
Born Julius Stein in London’s East End, his family emigrated to Chicago where, at the age of 8, Jule Styne began studying piano and music theory at the Chicago School of Music. As a pianist he performed at Chicago and Detroit symphonies, winning the Chicago Symphony piano competition for children, playing alongside Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller in Ben Pollack’s Band, and forming his own Chicago Dance band. He changed his last name to Styne to avoid confusion with the head of the Music Corporation of America, Julius Stein.
After a brief stint in New York as a vocal coach and conductor, Jule Styne moved to Hollywood in the mid 1930s to work in the film industry. There he wrote songs for Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. ("I did just about anything they asked me to do," he said. "Play piano for Trigger? Sure.") In 1941 Republic Pictures studio teamed him up with the lyricist Frank Loesser to work on the film Sweater Girl which produced his first song hit “I Don’t Want To Walk Without You Baby”. Shortly thereafter, he began a long collaboration with the lyricist Sammy Cahn and wrote some of the most endearing American Song Standards of all time, among them “I’ve Heard That Song Before”, “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry”, “I Fall In Love Too Easily”, “I’ll Walk Alone”, “Saturday Night Is The Loneliest Night Of the Week”, “It’s Been A Long, Long Time”, “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”, “Five Minutes More”, “Time After Time”, and “It’s Magic”. Many of their hits were popular songs of the day made famous by Frank Sinatra.
In the 1940s Jule Styne began a dual composing role for both Broadway and Hollywood collaborating with Sammy Cahn as well as several Manhattan based lyricists. This produced his first Broadway Musical High Button Shoes (1947 with Sammy Cahn), and resulted in the music scores for the Broadway Musical classics Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949 with Leo Robin), Peter Pan (1954 with Comden and Green), Bells are Ringing (1956 with Comden and Green), Gypsy (1959 with Stephen Sondheim), Do Re Mi (1960 with Comden and Green), Funny Girl (1963 with Bob Merrill), and Hallelujah Baby (1967 with Comden and Green). These produced the song standards “Just In Time”, "Never Never Land", “Long Before I Knew You”, “The Party’s Over”, “Small World”, “Make Someone Happy”, “People”, and the well-known show tunes “Diamonds are A Girl’s Best Friend” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”.
In the midst of this, Jule Styne was reunited with Sammy Cahn to write the title song for the 1954 film Three Coins in the Fountain which won the Oscar for best song. During this endeavor, Sammy passed along a request from Frank Sinatra: “Frank said he wants a Christmas Song”. So, in relatively short order, Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn composed one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time: “The Christmas Waltz”, which became a 1954 Frank Sinatra classic, and begins with the inspired lyric: "It's that time of year when the world falls in love...".
Frank Sinatra once quoted, “Jule Styne is simply the best there is at what he does – his song list reads like the history of American popular music.” Indeed, in his half-century of songwriting, Styne estimated that he had written 2,000 songs, had published 1,500 and had 200 hits.
Jule Styne composed songs for the following 48 musical productions
Born Julius Stein in London’s East End, his family emigrated to Chicago where, at the age of 8, Jule Styne began studying piano and music theory at the Chicago School of Music. As a pianist he performed at Chicago and Detroit symphonies, winning the Chicago Symphony piano competition for children, playing alongside Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller in Ben Pollack’s Band, and forming his own Chicago Dance band. He changed his last name to Styne to avoid confusion with the head of the Music Corporation of America, Julius Stein.
After a brief stint in New York as a vocal coach and conductor, Jule Styne moved to Hollywood in the mid 1930s to work in the film industry. There he wrote songs for Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. ("I did just about anything they asked me to do," he said. "Play piano for Trigger? Sure.") In 1941 Republic Pictures studio teamed him up with the lyricist Frank Loesser to work on the film Sweater Girl which produced his first song hit “I Don’t Want To Walk Without You Baby”. Shortly thereafter, he began a long collaboration with the lyricist Sammy Cahn and wrote some of the most endearing American Song Standards of all time, among them “I’ve Heard That Song Before”, “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry”, “I Fall In Love Too Easily”, “I’ll Walk Alone”, “Saturday Night Is The Loneliest Night Of the Week”, “It’s Been A Long, Long Time”, “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”, “Five Minutes More”, “Time After Time”, and “It’s Magic”. Many of their hits were popular songs of the day made famous by Frank Sinatra.
In the 1940s Jule Styne began a dual composing role for both Broadway and Hollywood collaborating with Sammy Cahn as well as several Manhattan based lyricists. This produced his first Broadway Musical High Button Shoes (1947 with Sammy Cahn), and resulted in the music scores for the Broadway Musical classics Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949 with Leo Robin), Peter Pan (1954 with Comden and Green), Bells are Ringing (1956 with Comden and Green), Gypsy (1959 with Stephen Sondheim), Do Re Mi (1960 with Comden and Green), Funny Girl (1963 with Bob Merrill), and Hallelujah Baby (1967 with Comden and Green). These produced the song standards “Just In Time”, "Never Never Land", “Long Before I Knew You”, “The Party’s Over”, “Small World”, “Make Someone Happy”, “People”, and the well-known show tunes “Diamonds are A Girl’s Best Friend” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”.
In the midst of this, Jule Styne was reunited with Sammy Cahn to write the title song for the 1954 film Three Coins in the Fountain which won the Oscar for best song. During this endeavor, Sammy passed along a request from Frank Sinatra: “Frank said he wants a Christmas Song”. So, in relatively short order, Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn composed one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time: “The Christmas Waltz”, which became a 1954 Frank Sinatra classic, and begins with the inspired lyric: "It's that time of year when the world falls in love...".
Frank Sinatra once quoted, “Jule Styne is simply the best there is at what he does – his song list reads like the history of American popular music.” Indeed, in his half-century of songwriting, Styne estimated that he had written 2,000 songs, had published 1,500 and had 200 hits.
Jule Styne composed songs for the following 48 musical productions
- Sweater Girl (1942)
- Youth on Parade (1942)
- Ice Capades of 1943 (1943)
- Glad to See You (1944)
- Follow the Boys (1944)
- Anchor’s Aweigh (1945)
- Tonight and Every Night (1945)
- The Kid from Brooklyn (1946)
- It Happened in Brooklyn (1947)
- High Button Shoes (1947)
- Romance on the High Seas (1948)
- Two Guys from Texas (1948)
- Gentlemen Prefer Blonds (1949)
- It’s a Great feeling (1949)
- The West Point Story (1950)
- Two on the Aisle (1951)
- Meet Me After the Show (1951)
- Hazel Flagg (1953)
- Peter Pan (1954)
- Living It Up (1954)
- Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
- My Sister Eileen (1955)
- How to be Very, Very Popular (1955)
- Bells are Ringing (1956)
- Say, Darling (1958)
- Gypsy (1959)
- Do Re Mi (1960)
- Subways are for Sleeping (1961)
- Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962)
- Funny Girl (1963)
- All the Way Home (1963)
- What a Way to Go (1964)
- Wonderworld (1964)
- Fade Out - Fade In (1964)
- The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood (1965)
- Hallelujah Baby (1967)
- Darling of the Day (1968)
- Look to the Lilies (1970)
- The Night the Animals Talked (1970)
- Prettybelle (1971)
- Sugar (1972)
- Lorelei (1974)
- Hellzapoppin’ (1976)
- Side by Side by Sondheim (1976)
- Bar Mitzvah Boy (1978)
- One Night Stand (1980)
- Pieces of Eight (1985)
- The Red Shoes (1993)