Biography

Songwriter ("Witchcraft", "Big Spender", "Hey, Look Me Over"), composer and pianist, educated at the High School of Music and Art and the New York College of Music. He also studied with Rudolph Gruen (on scholarship) and Adele Marcus. He gave his first piano recitals at age six in Steinway Hall and Town Hall in New York. Later, he led his own trio and soloed in night clubs and hotels, and on television, and he made many records. He wrote the Broadway stage scores for "Wildcat", "Little Me", and "Sweet Charity", and wrote songs for "Murray Anderson's Almanac". He has also written music for industrial films and productions. He joined ASCAP in 1953, and his chief musical collaborators included Carolyn Leigh, Joseph Allen McCarthy, Bob Hilliard, Peggy Lee, and Dorothy Fields. His other popular-song compositions include "Paris Is My Old Kentucky Home", "Why Try to Change Me Now", "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life", "The Riviera", "Isn't He Adorable?", "Early Morning Blues", "Playboy Theme", "I Walk a Little Faster", "Firefly", "You Fascinate Me So", "On Second Thought", "Tall Hopes", "El Sombrero", "One Day We Dance", "The Best is Yet to Come", "The Other Side of the Tracks", "I've Got Your Number", "Real Live Girl", "Here's to Us", "It Amazes Me", "That's My Style", "A Doodlin' Song", "When in Rome", "Pass Me By", "Pussycat", "Then Was Then, Now Is Now", "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This", and "Where Am I Going?". He