Ray Evans
Background information
Born	Raymond Bernard Evans (1915-02-04)February 4, 1915 Salamanca, New York, United States
Died	February 15, 2007(2007-02-15) (aged 92) Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	film music
Occupation	Lyricist
Years active	1937-2001
Formerly of	songwriting duo withJay Livingston

Raymond Bernard Evans (February 4, 1915 – February 15, 2007) was an Americansongwriter best known for being a half of a composing-songwriting duo withJay Livingston, specializing himself in writing lyrics forfilm songs. Onmusic Livingston composed, Evans wrote thelyrics.^[1]

Ray Evans was born on February 4, 1915 to aJewish family^[2][3] inSalamanca, New York.^[4]

Evans was valedictorian of his high school class, where he played clarinet in the band. The Salamanca High School yearbook from 1931 states: "His original themes and brilliant oral talks are the despair of his classmates. Ray's quite a humorist, too. At times, his satire is positively killing."^[5] He received a bachelor's degree inEconomics from theUniversity of Pennsylvania'sWharton School in 1936, writing a senior thesis on "The relation between the central bank, member banks and the money market".^[1]

In 1934, Evans metJay Livingston while a student at Penn.^[6] Together they played in the university's college dance orchestra, "The Continentals". During school vacations the orchestra was engaged to play on several international cruises. After graduation the duo continued their partnership, seeking a career as a song-writing team in New York and later Hollywood.^[7] Their first big break came after auditioning for comediansOle Olsen and Chic Johnson in 1939. Their song "G'Bye Now" made it into Olsen and Johnson's Broadway revueHellzapoppin'. In 1946 Livingston and Evans signed a contract withParamount Studios in Hollywood.^[8]

Livingston and Evans did not hit the top until 1946, when they set the music publishing business on fire with "To Each His Own," which reached number one on the Billboard charts for three different artists,^[9] and occupied the top five positions on the "Most Played On the Air" chart for four different weeks (August 24, 1946, and again on September 7, September 14 and October 5, five versions appeared simultaneously in the Top Ten).^{[10][11][12][13]} "Buttons and Bows" (1947) was their next multi-million seller, written for the movieThe Paleface, with four artists reaching the top ten in 1948. For that song, the duo earned their first major award, the Academy Award for Best Song.^[14] They finished off the decade with 1949's "Mona Lisa", written for the movieCaptain Carey, U.S.A.. It was a chart hit for seven popular and two country artists in 1950, sold a million for Nat King Cole, and won the pair another Best Song Oscar.^[15][16]

Livingston and Evans, both members ofASCAP, won their thirdAcademy Award for the song "Que Sera Sera", featured in theAlfred Hitchcock movieThe Man Who Knew Too Much and sung byDoris Day.^[17] Another popular song that he and Livingston wrote for a film was the song "Tammy", written for the 1957 movieTammy and the Bachelor. The song was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Song. Livingston and Evans also wrote popular TV themes for shows includingBonanza andMr. Ed.

Despite initial doubt on their part that the song would be commercially successful, their Christmas song "Silver Bells", intended for the 1951 Bob Hope filmThe Lemon Drop Kid, has become a Christmas standard.^[18][19]

Evans appeared as himself with Livingston in the filmSunset Boulevard in the New Year's Eve party scene.^{[citation needed]}

In 1958, the song-writing team was nominated for aTony Award for the musicalOh, Captain!. Evans also collaborated separately withMichael Feinstein,Henry Mancini,Max Steiner, andVictor Young. The song "Dear Heart" from the 1964 film of the same name was written by Livingston and Evans with Henry Mancini; it was nominated for anOscar and for the Song of the YearGrammy Award, and was recorded multiple times, charting forAndy Williams,Jack Jones, andHenry Mancini.

He died at age 92 inLos Angeles, California, on the 42nd anniversary of the death ofNat King Cole, who had made "Mona Lisa" so famous.^[20] He was married for nearly 56 years to actress, writer, and playwright Wyn Ritchie Evans.^[21] His legacy is maintained and developed by the Ray and Wyn Ritchie Evans Foundation in Culver City, California. TheRay Evans Seneca Theater in his hometown of Salamanca, NY is named after him.

Evans is an inductee in theSongwriters Hall of Fame.^[22] He and Livingston have a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame.^[23]

Ray Evans wrote more than 700 songs for screen, stage, and television. Most were composed with writing partner Jay Livingston.^[24]

Wikiquote has quotations related toRay Evans.

• Ray Evans atIMDb
• The Ray and Wyn Ritchie Evans Foundation Official Website
• Ray Evans papers, 1921-2012, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.
• Ray Evans Interview NAMM Oral History Library (1995)
• Livingston and Evans Official Site

• 1915 births
• 2007 deaths
• American musical theatre lyricists
• Broadway composers and lyricists
• Best Original Song Academy Award–winning songwriters
• Jewish American songwriters
• Wharton School alumni
• People from Salamanca, New York
• Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
• Songwriters from New York (state)
• 20th-century American Jews
• 21st-century American Jews
• 20th-century American songwriters

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• Articles with unsourced statements from October 2015