About Irving Kahal

Irving Kahal was born in Houtzdale, Pennsylvania on March 5, 1903. By the mid-1920’s, he was performing in New York vaudeville sketches written by Gus Edwards when he met composer Sammy Fain. That meeting began one of the most prolific collaborations from Tin Pan Alley and lasted until Kahal's death in 1942. Kahal and Fain wrote in a popularized jazz idiom, and their first song, on which Francis Wheeler also collaborated on the words, was "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella" in 1927, which was popularized via recordings by Roger Wolfe Kahn and Sam Lanin. Other early songs by Fain and Kahal included "I Left My Sugar Standing in the Rain" and "Wedding Bells are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine”. That song became a perennial favorite, becoming a hit in the 1920’s with recording artist Gene Austin, the 1940’s with a recording by Steve Gibson and in the 1950s with a recording by the Four Aces.

In 1930, Paramount Pictures signed Kahal and Fain to write a song for the Maurice Chevalier movie The Big Pond. They traveled to Los Angeles, composed "You Brought a New Kind of Love To Me" (written with Pierre Norman), and adopted that city as their base of operations. Chevalier, Paul Whiteman, and the High Hatters all made popular recordings of that song in 1930, and Helen Ward and Frank Sinatra successfully revised it on respective recordings in the 1950s.

For the remainder of their partnership, Kahal and Fain worked for several movie studios, mainly focused on providing one or two songs to be included in a variety of films. Some of their better-remembered movie tunes include: "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" (from the 1931 Marx Brothers movie Monkey Business (the Boswell Sisters had a hit with it) and "By a Waterfall" from Footlight Parade, 1933 (sung by Dick Powell in the movie and recorded by Guy Lombardo, Leo Reisman, and Rudy Vallee).

The duo also wrote for Broadway, with their greatest successes being Everybody’s Welcome (1931). HelIzapoppin (1938), and George White's Scandals of 1939. A 1938 Broadway flop titled Right This Way included two of Fain and Kahal's best songs: "I Can Dream, Can't l?" and “I’ll Be Seeing You." The former was a hit for Tommy Dorsey in 1938 and an even bigger hit for the Andrews Sisters in 1950. The latter did not become popular until 1944, two years after Kahals death when Bing Crosby and Tommy Dorsey recorded the song, the lyrics perfectly expressing the feelings and emotions of lovers parted by World War II. To the music of Dana Suesse, Kahal and Billy Rose wrote "The Night is Young and You're So Beautiful" (1936). Jan Garber, George Hall and Wayne King all recorded it in 1937, and Ray Anthony made it a hit again in 1951.

Kahal died in New York City on February 7, 1942.

Irving Kahal's Music includes:

1 . AH THE MOON IS HERE

2 . ANOTHER MILE

3 . BALLAD IN BLUE

4 . BALTIMORE

5 . BEAUTY MUST BE LOVED

6 . BEGGAR

7 . BEGGAR OF LOVE

8 . BINGO CROSBYANNA

9 . BROADWAY HOSTESS CUES

10 . BUDDY CUES

11 . BY A WATERFALL

12 . CASE AGAINST MRS AMES CUES

13 . CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE

14 . COLLEGE COACH CUES

15 . COLLEGIATE WEDDING

16 . CORN SILK

17 . DEAR SIR

18 . DESIRABLE CUES

19 . DONT GO ON A DIET BABY

20 . DONT HANG YOUR DREAMS ON A

21 . DONT LOOK NOW

22 . DONT YOU KNOW OR DONT YOU C

23 . DOUGHNUTS AND COFFEE

24 . DOWN HOME

25 . EASY TO LOVE

26 . EVRY DAY

27 . FEMALE CUES

28 . G MEN CUES

29 . GAUCHO EL

30 . GENTLEMEN ARE BORN CUES

31 . GIRL AT THE IRONING BOARD

32 . GOOD GREEN ACRES OF HOME

33 . HAROLD TEEN CUES

34 . HAVE IT YOUR WAY FOOLISH HE

35 . HAVING A GOOD TIME WISH YOU

36 . HE S A BAD MAN FR GOIN TO T

37 . HEY SAILOR

38 . HIGH SILK HAT A WALKING C

39 . HIKIN DOWN THE HIGHWAY

40 . HOMEMADE SUNSHINE

41 . HORSE AND BUGGY AND FREEDOM

42 . HOW CAN YOU SAY NO WHEN ETC

43 . HOW DO I KNOW IT'S SUNDAY

44 . HOW WOULD I KNOW

45 . HUMBLE SIDE OF THE TOWN

46 . I CAN DREAM CANT I

47 . I FOUND MY ROMANCE FOR TEN

48 . I HAVEN T TOLD HER SHE H

49 . I LEFT MY SUGAR STANDING IN

50 . I LL BE SEEING YOU

51 . I LL BE SEEING YOU

52 . I LOVE MY OLD FASHIONED MAN

53 . I LOVED A WOMAN CUES

54 . I MAY NEVER PASS YOUR WAY A

55 . I WENT MERRILY MERRILY ON M

56 . IF I GIVE UP THE SAXOPHONE

57 . IF I HAD MY WAY

58 . IF YOU CANT TELL THE WORLD

59 . IF YOU COULD JUST FORGIVE E

60 . IF YOU DON T WANT TO BE ETC

61 . ILL PIN ANOTHER PETAL ON DA

62 . IM IN LOVE WITH VOICE ON RA

63 . IN EVERY NOOK AND CORNER ET

64 . IS RHYTHM NECESSARY

65 . IT HAPPENED IN CHICAGO

66 . IT S ALL OVER BUT THE ETC

67 . IT WAS ONLY A SUN SHOWER

68 . IVE GOT IT

69 . JACK IN THE BOX

70 . JUST A MELODY FOR A MEMORY

71 . JUST LIKE FRANKIE AND JOHNN

72 . JUST LIKE FRANKIE AND JOHNN

73 . KISS IN THE MOONLIGHT

74 . LAZY WEATHER

75 . LET A SMILE BE YOUR UMBRELL

76 . LITTLE BLABBERMOUSE

77 . LITTLE DID I KNOW

78 . LITTLE LESS OF MOONLIGHT A

79 . LONE STAR FR BILLY ROSE S C

80 . LONELY LANE

81 . LOVE GOES ON JUST THE SAME

82 . LOVE IS LOVE IN ANY WOMAN S

83 . LOVE SONG OF RENALDO FROM T

84 . MARY STEVENS M D CUES

85 . MIA CARA FR THE BIG POND

86 . MONEY IN MY CLOTHES

87 . MONEY IN MY CLOTHES

88 . MOONLIGHT FOR TWO

89 . MOONLIGHT MILLIONAIRES

90 . MOUNTAINS AINT NO PLACE FOR

91 . MY EVENING SONG

92 . MY HEART JUMPED OVER THE MO

93 . MY JOURNEY S END

94 . MY WISHING SONG

95 . NIGHT IS YOUNG YOU RE SO BEAUTIFUL

96 . NOD NOD NOD LITTLE GOLDEN R

97 . NOW IM A LADY

98 . OLD SAD EYES

99 . ONCE A GYPSY TOLD ME YOU WE

100 . ONE STEP AHEAD OF MY SHADOW

101 . PAPPYS LITTLE JUG

102 . PIN A BLUEBONNET ON YOUR NE

103 . RAGS

104 . REGISTERED NURSE CUES

105 . ROAD IS OPEN AGAIN

106 . ROAM ON MY LITTLE GYPSY SWE

107 . ROLLER SKATING ON A RAINBOW

108 . SATANS HOLIDAY

109 . SHAKE YOUR POWDER PUFF

110 . SHAKE YOUR POWDER PUFF CUES

111 . SIMPLE AND SWEET

112 . SISSY

113 . SITTIN ON A BACKYARD FENCE

114 . SPIN A LITTLE WEB OF DREAMS

115 . SQUIRE AND THE DEACON

116 . SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MA

117 . SUNBONNET BLUE A YELLOW E

118 . SWEET MUSIC CUES

119 . TEMPORARILY BLUE

120 . TEXATINA

121 . THATS GOOD THATS BAD

122 . THATS HOW VIRGINIA BEGAN

123 . THERE OUGHT TO BE A MOONLIGHT SAVING TIME

124 . THERES DIFFRENT YOU IN YOUR

125 . THERES SOMETHING ABOUT A RO

126 . THEY WENT THAT A WAY CUES

127 . THREES A CROWD

128 . TIS SPRING CUES

129 . TROUBLE ALONG THE WAY CUES

130 . TWILIGHT AT NOON

131 . TWO LITTLE FLIES ON LUMP OF

132 . UNDER THE LAMP OF LOVE

133 . UPPERWORLD CUES

134 . WEDDING BELLS ARE BREAKING

135 . WEVE GOT TO PUT THAT SUN ET

136 . WHAT A WONDERFUL WEDDING ET

137 . WHEN I TAKE MY SUGAR TO TEA

138 . WHEN I TAKE MY SUGAR TO TEA

139 . WHEN TIMES GET BETTER

140 . WHEN TOMORROW COMES

141 . WHEN YOU WERE A SMILE ETC

142 . WHEN YOURE GETTIN ALONG WIT

143 . YOU BROUGHT A NEW KIND OF LOVE

144 . YOU CAN T PUT KETCHUP ETC

145 . YOU CAN T TAKE AWAY THE THI

146 . YOU VE GOT A LEASE ON ETC

147 . YOURE HERE YOURE THERE YOUR

148 . YOURE LIKE A TOY BALLOON

Irving Kahal's Timeline