MOVIE MUSIC UK

Lyricist and songwriter Sammy Cahn died in Los Angeles ten years ago today, on January 15, 1993, at the age of 79.

One of the most successful writers of popular songs in Hollywood history, Cahn supplied lyrics for hundreds of recordings, Broadway shows and motion pictures, and enjoyed especially fruitful partnerships with composers Jule Styne and Jimmy Van Heusen. He received an extraordinary 26 Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song, winning four times, and wrote many of the songs most closely associated with Frank Sinatra.

Cahn was born Samuel Cohen on New York’s Lower East Side on June 18, 1913, the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. He studied violin as a child and initially dreamed of playing professionally, but discovered a greater talent for writing lyrics. After leaving school he teamed with Saul Chaplin, beginning a partnership that flourished during the 1930s in Tin Pan Alley.

Cahn and Chaplin’s early successes included “Rhythm Is Our Business,” “Until the Real Thing Comes Along” and the English lyrics for the Yiddish song “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen,” which became an enormous hit for the Andrews Sisters. By the early 1940s Cahn had moved increasingly into Hollywood and formed a new partnership with composer Jule Styne.

Cahn and Styne became one of the most successful songwriting teams of the period. Their film songs included “I’ve Heard That Song Before,” “I’ll Walk Alone,” “It’s Magic” from Romance on the High Seas, “Time After Time” from It Happened in Brooklyn and “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”, while their Broadway work included the hit musical High Button Shoes. In 1954 they won the Academy Award for “Three Coins in the Fountain,” sung by Frank Sinatra over the opening titles of the enormously popular romantic drama of the same name.

Sinatra became central to Cahn’s career. The singer’s combination of confidence, vulnerability and conversational phrasing proved ideally suited to Cahn’s lyrics, and together with composer Jimmy Van Heusen they produced an extraordinary succession of songs. These included “Love and Marriage,” “The Tender Trap,” “Come Fly with Me,” “Come Dance with Me,” “My Kind of Town,” “The Second Time Around” and “September of My Years.”

Cahn and Van Heusen were equally successful in the cinema. “All the Way,” introduced by Sinatra in The Joker Is Wild (1957), brought Cahn his second Academy Award. Two years later they won again for the optimistic “High Hopes” from Frank Capra’s A Hole in the Head, and Cahn’s fourth Oscar followed with “Call Me Irresponsible,” written with Van Heusen for Papa’s Delicate Condition (1963). Other Oscar-nominated songs included “The Tender Trap,” “To Love and Be Loved,” “The Second Time Around,” “Pocketful of Miracles” and “My Kind of Town” from Robin and the 7 Hoods.

Although best known for his association with Sinatra, Cahn wrote for many of the leading singers and screen performers of the twentieth century, including Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Dean Martin and Judy Garland. His lyrics were distinguished by apparent simplicity, conversational wit and an instinctive understanding of how words should fit a singer’s personality.

Cahn also remained active in the theatre. With Van Heusen he wrote the Broadway musicals Skyscraper and Walking Happy, while in later years he performed his own autobiographical stage show, Words and Music, recounting stories from his long songwriting career. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972 and later served as its president.

Cahn was married first to singer Gloria Delson, with whom he had two children, Laurie and Steve; Steve later became the distinguished jazz guitarist Steve Khan. Following their divorce, Cahn married Virginia Curtis in 1970, and they remained together until his death.

Sammy Cahn was not a film composer in the conventional sense, but few songwriters contributed more to the musical identity of Hollywood. From “Three Coins in the Fountain” and “All the Way” to “High Hopes” and “My Kind of Town,” his words helped turn individual scenes and performances into enduring pieces of popular culture.