Sammy Cahn | |
|---|---|
 Cahn circa 1958 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Samuel Cohen (1913-06-18)June 18, 1913 Manhattan,New York City, U.S. |
| Died | January 15, 1993(1993-01-15) (aged 79) Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Lyricist, musician |
| Instrument(s) | Piano, Violin |
Samuel Cohen (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993), known professionally asSammy Cahn, was an American lyricist,songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films andBroadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in theGreater Los Angeles Area. He and his collaborators had a series of hit recordings withFrank Sinatra during the singer's tenure atCapitol Records, but also enjoyed hits withDean Martin,Doris Day and many others. He played thepiano andviolin, and won anOscar four times for his songs, including the popular hit "Three Coins in the Fountain".
Among his most enduring songs is "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", cowritten withJule Styne in 1945.[1]
Cahn was bornSamuel Cohen on theLower East Side ofManhattan inNew York City, the only son (he had four sisters) of Abraham and Elka Reiss Cohen, who wereJewish immigrants fromGalicia, then ruled byAustria-Hungary.[2][3] His sisters, Sadye, Pearl, Florence, and Evelyn, all studied the piano. His mother did not approve of Sammy studying it though, feeling that the piano was a woman's instrument, so he took violin lessons.[4] After three lessons and following hisbar mitzvah, he joined a smalldixieland band called Pals of Harmony, which toured theCatskill Mountains in the summer and also played at private parties.[4] This new dream of Cahn's destroyed any hopes his parents had for him to be a professional man.[5]
Some of the side jobs he had were playing violin in a theater-pit orchestra, working at a meat-packing plant, serving as a movie-house usher, tinsmith, freight-elevator operator, restaurant cashier, and porter at a bindery. At age 16, he was watching vaudeville, of which he had been a fan since the age of 10, and he witnessedJack Osterman singing a ballad Osterman had written. Cahn was inspired and, on his way home from the theater, wrote his first lyric, which was titled "Like Niagara Falls, I'm Falling for You – Baby."[4] Years later he would say "I think a sense of vaudeville is very strong in anything I do, anything I write. They even call it 'a vaudeville finish,' and it comes through in many of my songs. Just sing the end of 'All the Way' or 'Three Coins in the Fountain'—'Make it mine, make it mine, MAKE IT MINE!' If you let people know they should applaud, they will applaud."[5]
Much of Cahn's early work was written in partnership withSaul Chaplin.[4] They first met when Cahn invited Chaplin to audition for him at theHenry Street Settlement. Cahn said, "I'd learned a few chords on the piano, maybe two, so I'd already tried to write a song. Something I called 'Shake Your Head from Side to Side'." Billed simply as "Cahn and Chaplin" (in the manner of "Rodgers and Hart"), they composed witty special material forWarner Brothers' musical short subjects, filmed at Warners'Vitaphone studio inBrooklyn, New York.
"There was a legendary outfit on West 46th Street, Beckman and Pransky ... they were theMCA, the William Morris of theBorscht Belt. I got a room in their offices, and we started writing special material. For anybody who'd have us—at whatever price." They did not make much money, but they did work with up-and-comersMilton Berle,Danny Kaye,Phil Silvers, andBob Hope.[5]
One of his childhood friends wasLou Levy, who had gone from neighborhood bum to blackface dancer with theJimmie Lunceford Orchestra.
Lyric writing has always been a thrilling adventure for me, and something I've done with the kind of ease that only comes with joy! From the beginning the fates have conspired to help my career.Lou Levy, the eminentmusic publisher, lived around the corner and we met the day I was leaving my first music publisher's office. This led to a partnership that has lasted many years. Lou and I wrote "Rhythm is Our Business," material forJimmie Lunceford's orchestra, which became myfirstASCAP copyright. I'd been churning out "special lyrics" for special occasions for years and this helped facilitate my tremendous speed with lyric writing. Many might have written these lyrics better—but none faster!Glen Gray andTommy Dorsey became regular customers and through Tommy came the enduring and perhaps most satisfying relationship of my lyric writing career –Frank Sinatra.[6]
The song became the Orchestra's signature song. The duo then worked forGlen Gray'sCasa Loma Orchestra and their premiere at Paramount Theatre. They also worked forAndy Kirk and his Clouds of Joy and they wrote "Until the Real Thing Comes Along".[5]
Cahn wrote the lyrics to "Love and Marriage," later used as the ironic theme song for the FOX TV showMarried... with Children. The song originally debuted in a 1955television production ofOur Town, and won anEmmy Award in 1956. This was only one of many songs that Cahn andJimmy Van Heusen wrote for Frank Sinatra. They were "almost considered to be his personal songwriters."[7]
Cahn contributed lyrics for two otherwise unrelated films about theLand of Oz,Journey Back to Oz (1971) andThe Wizard of Oz (1982). The former were composed with Van Heusen, the latter withAllen Byrns,Joe Hisaishi, andYuichiro Oda.
Cahn became a member of theSongwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. He later took over the presidency of that organization from his friendJohnny Mercer when Mercer became ill.[8]While not possessing a great voice, Cahn sang concerts of his own music with pianist and composerHarper MacKay serving as his musical director and accompanist.[9][10]
He changed his last name from Cohen to Kahn to avoid confusion with comic andMGM actor Sammy Cohen[11] and again from Kahn to Cahn to avoid confusion with lyricistGus Kahn.
He was married twice: first in 1945 to vocalist and formerGoldwyn girl Gloria Delson,[12] with whom he had two children. They divorced after 18 years of marriage. Gloria went on to marry world-class tennis playerMike Franks in 1965. In 1970, Cahn married Virginia (Tita) Curtis, a former fashion coordinator for the clothes designer Donald Brooks. The couple divorced around 1982, then remarried and the marriage lasted until his death.[13]
He was the father of Laurie Cahn and jazz/fusion guitaristSteve Khan[7] who, early in his career, changed the spelling of his last name to Khan in order to "create a separate identity from [his] famous father" and because he was "so hurt and angry with him for so many childhood things."[14]
Sammy Cahn died on January 15, 1993, at the age of 79 inLos Angeles, California fromheart failure. His remains were interred in theWestwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.
Over the course of his career, he was nominated for 31 Academy Awards, fiveGolden Globe Awards, and anEmmy Award. He also received aGrammy Award nomination, with Van Heusen, for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show for the filmRobin and the 7 Hoods. He has won theChristopher Award, theOuter Critics Circle Award, and theTheatre World Award (for Best Newcomer to Broadway).[15]
In 1988, the Sammy Film Music Awards (the "Sammy"), an annual award for movie songs and scores, was started in his honor.[16] When notified byRoger Lee Hall, Cahn said he was "flattered and honored" that these awards were named after him.[17]He was chosen because he had received more Academy Award nominations than any other songwriter, and also because he received four Oscars for his song lyrics.
In 1993, taking up the sentiments expressed in the song, "High Hopes," the Cahn estate established the "High Hopes Fund" at theJoslin Diabetes Center in Boston. The former Joslin patient and songwriter's goal was to provide hope and encouragement to kids with diabetes while supporting research into the causes of the disease.
The lyrics he wrote for Sinatra are the subject of a chapter in Gilbert Gigliotti'sA Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit, "Come [Fly, Dance, and Waltz with] Us on Equal Terms: The Whitmanesque Sinatra of Sammy Cahn," published by Greenwood Press in 2002.
Cahn wrote lyrics for many songs, including:
Lyrics for film musicals includeJourney Back to Oz (1971) (music by Van Heusen) andThe Wizard of Oz (1982) (music byJoe Hisaishi).
Cahn wrote the lyrics for the followingBroadwaymusicals:
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