Editing Harry Warren (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===
Warren was born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna, one of eleven children of Italian immigrants Antonio (a bootmaker) and Rachel De Luca Guaragna, and grew up in [[Brooklyn]], New York. His father changed the family name to Warren when Harry was a child. Although his parents could not afford music lessons, Warren had an early interest in music and taught himself to play his father's [[accordion]]. He also sang in the church choir and learned to play the drums. He began to play the drums professionally by age 14 and dropped out of high school at 16 to play with his godfather's band in a traveling carnival. Soon he taught himself to play the piano and by 1915, he was working at the [[Vitagraph Studios|Vitagraph Motion Picture Studios]], where he did a variety of administrative jobs, such as props man, and also played mood music on the piano for the actors, acted in bit parts and eventually was an assistant director. He also played the piano in cafés and silent-movie houses. In 1918 he joined the [[U.S. Navy]], where he began writing songs.<ref name="PBS">[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/songbook/multimedia/bio_warren.html PBS biography entry for Harry Warren.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130103234349/https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/songbook/multimedia/bio_warren.html |date=2013-01-03 }} Accessed February 2009</ref><ref name=HWM>Jenkins, David. [http://www.harrywarrenmusic.com/frameset.html Biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120424031542/http://www.harrywarrenmusic.com/frameset.html |date=2012-04-24 }} at HarryWarrenMusic.com, accessed April 3, 2009</ref>

===Career===
Warren wrote over 800 songs between 1918 and 1981, publishing over 500 of them.<ref>[http://www.harrywarren.org/songlist.htm List of Warren songs at HarryWarren.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305090947/http://www.harrywarren.org/songlist.htm |date=2009-03-05 }}</ref><ref name=Jenkins>Jenkins, David. [http://www.harrywarren.org/bio.htm "Harry Warren – Hollywood's Unknown Composer"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060426011516/http://www.harrywarren.org/bio.htm |date=2006-04-26 }}, HarryWarren.org</ref> They were written mainly for 56 feature films or were used in other films that used Warren's newly written or existing songs.<ref name="PBS"/>  His songs eventually appeared in over 300 films and 112 of [[Warner Bros. Cartoons|Warner Bros.]] ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' and ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' cartoons.<ref name=Walls/> 42 of his songs were on the top ten list of the radio program "[[Your Hit Parade]]", a measure of a song's popularity. 21 of these reached number 1 on Your Hit Parade.<ref name=Jenkins/>  "[[You'll Never Know]]" appeared 24 times.<ref>Forte, p. 265</ref>  His song "[[I Only Have Eyes for You]]" is listed in the list of the 25 most-performed songs of the 20th Century, as compiled by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers ([[ASCAP]]).<ref>Zinsser, pp. 137 and 251</ref>  Warren was the director of ASCAP from 1929 to 1932.<ref name=HWM/>

He collaborated on some of his most famous songs with lyricists [[Al Dubin]], [[Billy Rose]], [[Mack Gordon]], [[Leo Robin]], [[Ira Gershwin]] and [[Johnny Mercer]]. In 1942 the Gordon-Warren song "[[Chattanooga Choo-Choo]]", as performed by the [[Glenn Miller Orchestra]], became the first [[Music recording sales certification|gold record]] in history. It was No.1 for nine weeks on the ''Billboard'' pop singles chart in 1941–1942, selling 1.2 million copies.<ref>[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r143869|pure_url=yes}} "Chattanooga Choo Choo: The #1 Hits"], allmusic.com, accessed March 31, 2009</ref>  Among his biggest hits were "[[There Will Never Be Another You]]", "[[I Only Have Eyes for You]]", "[[Forty-Second Street]]", "[[The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)]]", "[[Lullaby of Broadway (song)|Lullaby of Broadway]]", "[[Serenade In Blue]]", "[[At Last]]", "[[Jeepers Creepers (song)|Jeepers Creepers]]", "[[You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me]]", "[[That's Amore]]", and "Young and Healthy".<ref name="PBS"/>

====Early hits and film years====

Warren's first hit song was "Rose of the Rio Grande" (1922), with lyrics by [[Edgar Leslie]].<ref>[http://nfo.net/cal/tw2.html Harry Warren] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224094247/http://nfo.net/cal/tw2.html |date=2012-02-24 }} at Composers and Lyricists Database (1988)</ref>  He wrote a succession of hit songs in the 1920s, including "I Love My Baby (My Baby Loves Me)" and "Seminola" in 1925, "Where Do You Work-a John?" and "In My Gondola" in 1926 and "Nagasaki" in 1928. In 1930, he composed the music for the song "Cheerful Little Earful" for the [[Billy Rose]] [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] [[revue]], ''Sweet and Low'', and composed the music, with lyrics by Mort Dixon and Joe Young, for the [[Ed Wynn]] Broadway revue ''The Laugh Parade'' in 1931.<ref name="PBS"/>

He started working for [[Warner Brothers]] in 1932, paired with Dubin to write the score for the first blockbuster film musical, ''[[42nd Street (film)|42nd Street]]'', and continued to work there for six years, writing the scores for 32 more musicals.<ref name=Walls>Walls, Robert. [http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/biographies/warren_harry.htm "Who is Harry Warren????"] GuideToMusicals, accessed April 3, 2009</ref>  He worked for [[20th Century Fox]] starting in 1940, writing with Mack Gordon.<ref name="Zinsser, p. 137">Zinsser, p. 137</ref> He moved to [[MGM]] starting in 1944, writing for [[musical film]]s such as ''[[The Harvey Girls]]'' and ''[[The Barkleys of Broadway]]'', many starring [[Fred Astaire]]. He later worked for [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]], starting in the early 1950s, writing for the [[Bing Crosby]] and [[Jane Wyman]] movie ''[[Just for You (1952 film)|Just for You]]'' and the [[Martin and Lewis]] movie ''[[The Caddy]]'', the latter containing the hit song "[[That's Amore (song)|That's Amore]]". He continued to write songs for several more [[Jerry Lewis]] comedies.<ref name="PBS"/>

Warren is particularly remembered for writing scores for the [[film]]s of [[Busby Berkeley]]; they worked together on 18 films. His "uptempo songs are as memorable as Berkeley's choreography, as [sic] for the same reason: they capture, in a few snazzy notes, the vigorous frivolity of the Jazz Age."<ref name=time>Corliss, Richard.[https://web.archive.org/web/20020702122930/http://www.time.com/time/sampler/article/0,8599,178367,00.html "That Old Feeling: We Need Harry Warren"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', October 5, 2001</ref>

Warren won the [[Academy Award for Best Song]] three times, collaborating with three different lyricists: "[[Lullaby of Broadway (song)|Lullaby of Broadway]]" with Al Dubin in 1935, "[[You'll Never Know]]" with Mack Gordon in 1943, and "[[On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe]]" with Johnny Mercer in 1946. He was nominated for eleven Oscars.<ref name="PBS"/>

====Last years====
In 1955, Warren wrote "The Legend of Wyatt Earp", which was used in the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]/[[Desilu Studios]] [[television series]], ''[[The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp]]''.  He also wrote the opening theme, "Hey, Marty" (lyrics by [[Paddy Chayefsky]]), for the film ''[[Marty (film)|Marty]]'', which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1955.<ref>Holloway, Ronald. [https://variety.com/1955/film/reviews/marty-3-1200417955 "''Marty''"], ''Variety'', March 22, 1955</ref> The last musical score that Warren composed specifically for Broadway was ''[[Shangri-La (musical)|Shangri-La]]'', a disastrous 1956 adaptation of [[James Hilton (novelist)|James Hilton]]'s ''[[Lost Horizon (novel)|Lost Horizon]]'', which ran for only 21 performances. In 1957, he received his last Academy Award nomination for the song "[[An Affair to Remember (Our Love Affair)|An Affair to Remember]]". He continued to write songs for movies throughout the 1960s and 1970s but never again achieved the fame that he had enjoyed earlier. His last movie score was for ''Manhattan Melody'', in 1980, but the film was never produced.<ref name=HWM/>

Warren composed a Mass, with Latin text, in 1962. This was performed a decade later at [[Loyola Marymount University]], but it has yet to be recorded commercially.<ref>Feinstein, p. 243</ref> He also wrote nearly three dozen short piano vignettes. The sheet music was first published by Warren's Four Jays Music Co.<ref>{{cite book| last=Thomas |first=Tony|year=1975| author-link=Tony Thomas (producer)| title=The Hollywood Musical: The Saga of Songwriter Harry Warren |publisher=Citadel Press|page=341|isbn=0-8065-1066-8}}</ref> A dozen of these were released on a 1975 album titled ''Harry Warren's Piano Vignettes'', played by Hugh Delain.<ref>[http://www.discogs.com/Harry-Warren-Harry-Warrens-Piano-Vignettes/release/5272156 "Harry Warren's Piano Vignettes"], Discogs.com, 1975, accessed December 6, 2014</ref> Several pianists have recorded the vignettes, including Warren himself.<ref>[{{AllMusic| class=album| id=mw0000917236|pure_url=yes}} "Harry Warren: Piano Vignettes"], ''[[AllMusic]]'', accessed December 6, 2014</ref>

===Personal life===
Warren married Josephine Wensler in 1917. They had a son, Harry Jr. (1919–1938), and a daughter, Joan (b. 1925). His wife died in 1993.

Warren died on September 22, 1981, in [[Los Angeles]].<ref name="NYT">{{cite news |last1=Holden |first1=Stephen |authorlink1=Stephen Holden |title=Harry Warren, Songwriter, Is Dead |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/23/obituaries/harry-warren-songwriter-is-dead.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=September 23, 1981|page=A1}}</ref> He is interred in the [[Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery]] in Los Angeles. The plaque bearing Warren's epitaph displays the first few notes of "You'll Never Know".<ref>[http://www.seeing-stars.com/Buried2/PierceBros3.shtml#HarryWarren Warren, Westwood Village] Seeing-stars, accessed March 30, 2009</ref>