This year, in an effort to honor those songwriters who are deceased, the Songwriters Hall of Fame will induct Tom Adair & Matt Dennis, Bob Marley, Laura Nyro, Sunny Skylar and Jesse Stone.
Lyricist Tom Adair (1913 – 1988) and composer Matt Dennis (1914 - 2004) teamed up to write “Let’s Get Away From It All,” “Everything Happens to Me” and “The Night We Called It a Day,” three of the most memorable songs recorded by Frank Sinatra during his stint as vocalist with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in the early 1940s. Adair,a native of Kansas, was a frustrated songwriter in Los Angeles when he met Matt Dennis, a vocalist and composer, in 1940. On the recommendation of Jo Stafford, the young songwriting team hired by Tommy Dorsey’s publishing company. Adair later wrote songs and screenplays for many Walt Disney projects, including The Mickey Mouse Club and for such TV programs as My Three Sons, F Troop and The Munsters.
Matt Dennis, who was born into a musical family in Seattle, joined the Horace Heidt Orchestra in the 1930s, later working with Dick Haymes, Martha Tilton and the Stafford Sisters. Following his success with Tom Adair, Dennis went on to military service in World War II. After his return, Dennis worked in radio and night clubs and achieved success as a jazz vocalist and pianist, recording a number of albums. His 1953 composition, “Angel Eyes” (with lyrics by Earl Brent) is a much performed standard.
Sunny Skylar (1913 –2009), born Selig Shaftel in Brooklyn, New York, was a composer, singer, lyricist, and music publisher. Sunny Skylar wrote more than 300 songs, but will be best remembered for penning the English lyrics to “Besame Mucho.” The tune became one of the most recorded in history, covered by hundreds of artists, including the Beatles, and used in dozens of film soundtracks. Skylar enjoyed instant success when it was turned into a No 1 hit by Jimmy Dorsey in 1944, and it was said that he used the royalties to buy his first house and to put his children through college. He also wrote English lyrics for Gabriel Ruiz’s “Amor Amor Amor,” which gave Dorsey another big hit. Mining a lucrative international theme, the aria “Mattinata” by Leoncavallo was translated into the popular song “You’re Breaking My Heart,” and became a 1949 hit for Vic Damone. Skylar wrote music as well as lyrics, and among his other compositions, Frank Sinatra recorded his “Don’t Wait Too Long” and Ella Fitzgerald sang his “Gotta Be This or That” on her Ella Swings Lightly album.
After the end of the big band era, further hits came with “And So To Sleep,” recorded by Patti Page, and yet another translation of Carlos and Mario Rigual’s “Cuando Calienta El Sol,” which, as “Love Me With All Your Heart” took the Ray Charles Singers to No 2 in the American charts in 1964. Skylar also wrote prolifically for films and television.
Among Skylar’s other hits are “It Must Be Jelly (‘Cause Jam Don’t Shake Like That),” “Be Mine Tonight,” “Hair of Gold, Eyes of Blue,” and “And So To Sleep Again.”
Bob (Robert Nesta) Marley (1945 – 1981) was the most famous and influential Jamaican songwriter and performer of Reggae music. Singer, songwriter and prophet, he has received many honors, including the Jamaican Order of Merit, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, induction into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award to name a few. Bob Marley’s band, the Wailers, (founded in 1964 with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone) recorded such albums as Catch a Fire, Natty Dread, Exodus and Uprising. Marley’s best-known songs include “I Shot the Sheriff,” “Could You Be Loved,” “Stir It Up,” “Redemption Song” and “One Love.” Eric Clapton and Johnny Nash scored international smash hits with Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Stir It Up,” respectively. Inspired in part by American soul, gospel and R&B his songs played a significant role in the ska and rocksteady music which was mirroring Jamaica’s new, post-colonial identity. By the time of his death at 36 from cancer, Marley was a revered cultural and political figure worldwide.
Laura Nyro (1947-1997) was an enigmatic performer, garnering critical acclaim for her recordings but having her greatest success through covers of her original compositions. Her first album, More Than a New Discovery, yielded a wealth of material for artists including the Fifth Dimension (“Wedding Bell Blues,” “Blowin’ Away”), Barbra Streisand (“Stoney End”) and Blood, Sweat & Tears (“And When I Die”), while her second effort, 1968’s Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, contained “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “Sweet Blindness,” both hits for the Fifth Dimension, and “Eli’s Comin’,” which was a major hit for Three Dog Night. 1969’s New York Tendaberry contained two of her most popular songs, “Time and Love” and “Save the Country.”
Jesse Stone, also known as Charles Calhoun (1901 – 1999), was a songwriter, musician and recording artist. Born in Atchison, Kansas into a family of performers, he made his first recording in 1926. His musical career took him from the jazz scene in Kansas City to New York, where he worked as an arranger and songwriter for bands led by Chick Webb and Jimmie Lunceford. Beginning in 1949, his association with Atlantic Records led to some of the most celebrated early rock & roll and R&B recordings. Among the classic songs written by Stone are “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” “Money Honey,” “Don’t Let Go,” “Flip, Flop and Fly” and “Your Cash Ain’t Nothin’ But Trash.”