Editing Johnny Mercer (section)

==Career==
===Starting out===
Mercer moved to New York in 1928, when he was 19. The music he loved, [[jazz]] and [[blues]], was booming in [[Harlem]] and [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]] was bursting with musicals and revues from [[George Gershwin]], [[Cole Porter]], and [[Irving Berlin]]. [[Vaudeville]], though beginning to fade, was still a strong musical presence. Mercer's first few jobs were as a bit actor (billed as John Mercer). Holed up in a Greenwich Village apartment with plenty of time on his hands and a beat-up piano to play, Mercer soon returned to singing and lyric writing.{{sfn|Furia|2003|p=39}} He secured a day job at a brokerage house and sang at night. Pooling his meager income with that of his roommates, Mercer managed to keep going, sometimes on little more than oatmeal. One night he dropped in on [[Eddie Cantor]] backstage to offer a comic song, but although Cantor didn't use the song, he began encouraging Mercer's career.{{sfn|Lees|2004|p=58}} Mercer's first lyric, for the song "Out of Breath (and Scared to Death of You)" (1930), composed by friend Everett Miller, appeared in a musical revue ''The Garrick Gaieties'' in 1930. Mercer met his future wife at the show, chorus girl Ginger Meehan. She had earlier been one of the many chorus girls pursued by the young crooner [[Bing Crosby]]. Through Miller's father, an executive at the prominent music publisher T. B. Harms, Mercer's first song was published.{{sfn|Lees|2004|p=61}} It was recorded by [[Joe Venuti]] and his New Yorkers.

The 20-year-old Mercer began to frequent the company of other songwriters and to learn the trade. He traveled to California to undertake a lyric writing assignment for the musical ''Paris in the Spring'' and met his idols [[Bing Crosby]] and [[Louis Armstrong]]. Mercer found the experience sobering and realized that he much preferred free-standing lyric writing to writing on demand for musicals. Upon his return, he got a job as staff lyricist for Miller Music for a $25-a-week draw, which give him a base income and enough prospects to win over and marry Ginger in 1931.{{sfn|Furia|2003|p=61}} The new Mrs. Mercer quit the chorus line and became a seamstress, and to save money the newlyweds moved in with Ginger's mother in [[Brooklyn]]. Johnny did not inform his own parents of his marriage until after the fact, perhaps in part because he knew that Ginger being Jewish would not sit comfortably with some members of his family, and he worried they would try to talk him out of marrying her.
In 1932, Mercer won a contest to sing with the [[Paul Whiteman]] orchestra, but singing with the band did not help his situation significantly. He made his recording debut, singing with Frank Trumbauer's Orchestra, on April 5 of that year. Mercer then apprenticed with [[Yip Harburg]] on the score for ''Americana,'' a Depression-flavored revue famous for "[[Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?]]" (not a Mercer composition), which gave Mercer invaluable training. While with Whiteman, he recorded two duets with fellow band member [[Jack Teagarden]], "Fare Thee Well to Harlem" and "Christmas Night in Harlem". Both are talk songs in a heavy Black accent. The latter was a best-selling record.<ref>"Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra", Joel Whitburn, ''Pop Memories 1890–1954'', Record Research, Menomonie Falls, WI, p. 453. Mercer is on the recording but not mentioned in the listing.</ref> After several songs which didn't catch fire during his time with Whiteman, he wrote and sang "Pardon My Southern Accent" (1934). Mercer's fortunes improved dramatically with a chance pairing with Indiana-born [[Hoagy Carmichael]], already famous for the standard "[[Stardust (1927 song)|Stardust]]", who was intrigued by the "young, bouncy butterball of a man from Georgia."{{sfn|Furia|2003|p=70}} Mercer, later well known for rapidly writing lyrics, spent a year laboring over the ones for "[[Lazybones (song)|Lazybones]]", which became a hit one week after its first radio broadcast, and each received a large royalty check of $1250.{{sfn|Furia|2003|p=73}} A regional song in pseudo-black dialect, it captured the mood of the times, especially in rural America. Mercer became a member of [[ASCAP]] and a recognized "brother" in the [[Tin Pan Alley]] fraternity, receiving congratulations from Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Cole Porter among others. Whiteman lured Mercer back to his orchestra (to sing, write comic skits and compose songs), temporarily breaking up the working team with Carmichael.

During the golden age of sophisticated popular song of the late 1920s and early '30s, songs were put into revues with minimal regard for plot integration. The 1930s saw a shift from revues to stage and movie musicals using song to further the plot. Demand diminished accordingly for the pure stand-alone songs that Mercer preferred. Thus, although he had established himself in the New York music world, when he was offered a job in Hollywood to compose songs and perform in low-budget musicals for [[RKO Pictures|RKO]], he accepted and followed idol [[Bing Crosby]] west.<ref>{{cite book | first=Martin | last=Gottfried | year=1984 | title=Broadway Musicals | publisher=Abradale Press | location=New York | isbn= 0-8109-8060-6}}</ref>

===Hollywood years===
Mercer moved to Hollywood in 1935, and began writing music for films. His first Hollywood assignment was a B-movie college musical, ''[[Old Man Rhythm]]'', to which he contributed two songs and appeared in a small role. His next project, ''[[To Beat the Band]]'', was a commercial flop, but it led to a meeting and a collaboration with [[Fred Astaire]] on the moderately successful song "I'm Building Up to an Awful Let-Down".

Mercer landed into a hard-drinking circle, and began to drink more at parties and was prone to vicious outbursts when under the influence of alcohol, contrasting sharply with his ordinarily genial and gentlemanly behavior.{{sfn|Furia|2003|p=83}} Often he would assuage the guilt he felt for this behavior by sending roses the following day to the friend or acquaintance he had treated unkindly while drunk.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.macleans.ca/general/johnny-mercer-moon-river-and-me/ |title=Johnny Mercer, Moon River and me |work=Maclean's |first=Mark |last=Steyn |date=November 19, 2009 |access-date=October 10, 2014}}</ref> Ironically, he would later say that he found the Hollywood nightlife lacking: "Hollywood was never much of a night town. Everybody had to get up too early&nbsp;... the movie people were in bed with the chickens (or each other)."{{sfn|Lees|2004|p=115}}

Mercer's first big Hollywood song, the satirical "[[I'm an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande]]", was inspired by a road trip through [[Texas]] (he wrote both the music and the lyrics). It was performed by Crosby in the film ''[[Rhythm on the Range]]'' in 1936, and from then on the demand for Mercer as a lyricist took off. His second hit that year was "[[Goody Goody]]", music by [[Matty Malneck]]. In 1937, Mercer began working for [[Warner Bros.]], working with the composer [[Richard A. Whiting|Richard Whiting]], soon producing his standard, "[[Too Marvelous for Words]]", followed by "[[Hooray for Hollywood]]", the opening number in the film ''[[Hollywood Hotel (film)|Hollywood Hotel]]'' (1937). After Whiting's sudden death from a heart attack, Mercer collaborated with [[Harry Warren]] and wrote "[[Jeepers Creepers (song)|Jeepers Creepers]]",<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc847493/m1/#track/5 |title = Music USA #7881-A, Interview with Johnny Mercer|date = July 28, 1976 }} UNT Digital Library.</ref> which earned Mercer his first [[Academy Award for Best Original Song#1930|Oscar nomination for Best Song]] (1938). Another hit with Warren in 1938 was "[[You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby]]". The pair also created "Hooray for Spinach", a comic song produced for the film ''[[Naughty but Nice (1939 film)|Naughty but Nice]]'' in 1939.

During a lull at Warners, Mercer revived his singing career. He joined Crosby's informal minstrel shows put on by the "Westwood Marching and Chowder Club", which included many Hollywood luminaries.{{sfn|Furia|2003|p=106}} Mercer worked on numerous duets for himself and Crosby to perform: several were recorded, and two, "Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean" (1938) a reworking of an old vaudville song, and "Mister Meadowlark" (1940), became hits.<ref>"Johnny Mercer", Whitburn, p. 306.</ref>

In 1939, Mercer wrote the lyrics to a melody by [[Ziggy Elman]], a trumpet player with [[Benny Goodman]]. The song was "[[And the Angels Sing]]" and, although recorded by Crosby and [[Count Basie]], it was the Goodman version with vocal by [[Martha Tilton]] and [[klezmer]] style trumpet solo by Elman that became a major hit. Years later, the title was inscribed on Mercer's tombstone.

Mercer was invited to the ''[[Camel Caravan]]'' radio show in New York to sing his hits and create satirical songs, like "You Ought to be in Pittsburgh", a parody of "You Ought to be in Pictures", with the [[Benny Goodman]] orchestra, then becoming the emcee of the nationally broadcast show for several months. Two more hits followed shortly, "[[Day In, Day Out (1939 song)|Day In, Day Out]]" and "[[Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread)|Fools Rush In]]" (both with music by Rube Bloom), and Mercer in short order had five of the top ten songs on the popular radio show ''[[Your Hit Parade]].''{{sfn|Furia|2003|p=111}} Mercer also started a short-lived publishing company during his stay in New York. Mercer undertook a musical, ''Walk with Music'' (originally called ''Three After Three''), with [[Hoagy Carmichael]], but it was critically panned and commercially unsuccessful.

Shortly thereafter, Mercer began working with [[Harold Arlen]], who wrote [[jazz]] and [[blues]]-influenced compositions while Mercer wrote lyrics. Their first hit was "[[Blues in the Night]]" (1941), which [[Arthur Schwartz]] called "probably the greatest blues song ever written."<ref>{{cite book|first1=Bob|last1=Bach|first2=Ginger|last2=Mercer|title=Our Huckleberry Friend: The Life, Times, and Lyrics of Johnny Mercer|publisher=Lyle Stuart|location=Secaucus, New Jersey|date=1982|isbn=0-8184-0331-4|page=98}}</ref>

They went on to compose "[[One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)]]" (1941), "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" (1944),<ref>{{cite news|first=Bob|last=MacKenzie|date=October 29, 1972|title='40s Sounds Return to Radio|newspaper=[[Oakland Tribune]]}}</ref> "[[That Old Black Magic]]" (1942),<ref name=pc1a/> and "[[Come Rain or Come Shine]]" (1946), among others.<ref name="furia">{{cite book
| first= Philip
| last= Furia
| year= 1992
| title=Poets of Tin Pan Alley
| publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]
| location= New York City 
| pages=151, 273–274
| isbn= 0-19-507473-4}}</ref>

"Come Rain" was Mercer's only Broadway hit, composed for the show ''St. Louis Woman'' with [[Pearl Bailey]]. "[[On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe]]" with music by Harry Warren, was a big smash for [[Judy Garland]] in the 1946 film ''[[The Harvey Girls]]'', and earned Mercer the first of his four [[Academy Award for Best Song#1940s|Academy Awards for Best Song]], after eight unsuccessful nominations.

Mercer re-united with Hoagy Carmichael with "[[Skylark (song)|Skylark]]" (1941),<ref name=pc1a>{{harvnb|Gilliland|1994|loc=cassette 1, side A.}}</ref> and, ten years later, the [[Academy Award for Best Song|Oscar-winning]] "[[In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening]]" (1951). With [[Jerome Kern]], Mercer created ''[[You Were Never Lovelier]]'' for [[Fred Astaire]] and [[Rita Hayworth]] in the movie of the same name,<ref name=pc1a/> as well as "[[I'm Old Fashioned]]".

Mercer founded [[Capitol Records]] in Hollywood in 1942, with the help of producer [[Buddy DeSylva]] and record store owner Glen Wallichs.<ref name="Georgia"/> He also co-founded [[Cowboy Records]]. As the founder active in the management of Capitol during the 40s, he signed many of its important recording artists, including [[Nat "King" Cole]]. It also gave him an outlet for his own recordings. His hit "Strip Polka" was its third release. But Mercer recorded not only his own songs but ones by others as well. His four million-sellers were his own "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" and "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe", and two by other composers, "Candy" and "Personality". One recording of a song that has lived on is his recording of "[[Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah]]", written by [[Allie Wrubel]] and [[Ray Gailbert]] for Disney's 1946 movie, ''[[Song of the South]]''. Mercer's recording was a top hit for eight weeks in December 1947 and January 1948, reaching number 8. Today it continues to be the version most played on Sirius's 40s satellite channel.

Mercer by the mid-1940s enjoyed a reputation as one of the premier Hollywood lyricists. He was adaptable, listening carefully and absorbing a tune and then transforming it into his own style. Like [[Irving Berlin]], he was a close follower of cultural fashion and changing language, which in part accounted for the long tenure of his success. He loved many words (''Too Marvelous for Words''), including puns (''Strip Polka''), and current terms ("G. I. Jive"). He employed sound effects, as well, such as the train whistle sounds in "Blues in the Night" and "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe".

Mercer preferred to have the music first, taking it home and working on it. He claimed composers had no problem with this method provided that he returned with the lyrics.

Mercer was often asked to write new lyrics to already popular songs. The lyrics to "[[Laura (1945 song)|Laura]]", "[[Midnight Sun (Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke song)|Midnight Sun]]", and "[[Satin Doll]]" were all written after the melodies had become hits. He was also asked to compose English lyrics to foreign songs, the most famous example being "[[Autumn Leaves (1945 song)|Autumn Leaves]]", based on the French song "Les Feuilles Mortes".

===Radio programs===
In 1943, ''[[Johnny Mercer's Music Shop]]'' was a summer replacement for ''[[The Pepsodent Show]]'' on NBC.<ref name=dunningota/> Mercer was the star, and singers [[Ella Mae Morse]] and [[Jo Stafford]] were regulars on the program, with musical support from [[The Pied Pipers]] and [[Paul Weston]] and his orchestra.<ref>{{cite news |title='Johnny Mercer's Music Shop' subs for Hope |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29945230/johnny_mercers_music_shop/ |access-date=March 26, 2019 |work=The Times |date=June 20, 1943 |location=Louisiana, Shreveport |page=14|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> ''The Chesterfield Music Shop'', a similar program in a 15-minute version, was broadcast in 1944.<ref name="dunningota">{{cite book|last1=Dunning|first1=John|title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-19-507678-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/onairencyclop00dunn/page/374 374]|edition=Revised|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/onairencyclop00dunn/page/374}}</ref>

===1950s–1970s===
In the 1950s, the advent of rock and roll cut deeply into Mercer's natural audience, and dramatically reduced venues for his songs. Mercer wrote for several [[MGM]] films, including ''[[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (film)|Seven Brides for Seven Brothers]]'' (1954) and ''[[Merry Andrew (film)|Merry Andrew]]'' (1958). He collaborated on three Broadway musicals in the 1950s—''[[Top Banana (musical)|Top Banana]]'' (1951), ''[[Li'l Abner (musical)|Li'l Abner]]'' (1956), and ''[[Saratoga (musical)|Saratoga]]'' (1959).

His more successful songs of the 1950s include "[[The Glow-Worm]]" (sung by the [[Mills Brothers]]) and "[[Something's Gotta Give (Johnny Mercer song)|Something's Gotta Give]]". In 1961, he wrote the lyrics to "[[Moon River]]" for [[Audrey Hepburn]] in ''[[Breakfast at Tiffany's (film)|Breakfast at Tiffany's]]'' and for ''[[Days of Wine and Roses (song)|Days of Wine and Roses]],'' both with music by [[Henry Mancini]], and Mercer received his third and fourth Oscars for Best Song. The back-to-back Oscars were the first time a songwriting team had achieved that feat.<ref>Roger Hall, ''A Guide to Film Music: Songs and Scores'', PineTree Press, 2007, p. 13.</ref> Mercer, also with Mancini, wrote "[[Charade (1963 song)|Charade]]" for the 1963 romantic thriller [[Charade (1963 film)|of the same name]]. The [[Tony Bennett]] classic "[[I Wanna Be Around]]" was written by Mercer in 1962, as was the [[Frank Sinatra]] hit "[[Summer Wind]]" in 1965.

An indication of the high esteem in which Mercer was held can be observed in that he was the only lyricist to have his work recorded as a volume of [[Ella Fitzgerald]]'s series of Song book albums. ''[[Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Song Book]]'' was released by [[Verve Records]] in 1964.

Mercer was humble about his work, attributing much of his success to luck and timing. He was fond of telling the story of how he was offered the job of doing the lyrics for [[Johnny Mandel]]'s music on ''The Sandpiper,'' only to have the producer turn his lyrics down. The producer offered the commission to [[Paul Francis Webster]] and the result was "[[The Shadow of Your Smile]]", which became a huge hit, winning the [[38th Academy Awards|1965 Oscar]] for [[Academy Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song]]. However, Mercer and Mandel did collaborate on the 1964 song "[[Emily (1964 song)|Emily]]" from the film ''[[The Americanization of Emily]]'' starring [[Julie Andrews]].<ref name="wilk"/>

In 1969, Mercer helped publishers [[Abe Olman]] and [[Howie Richmond]] found the [[Songwriters Hall of Fame|National Academy of Popular Music's Songwriters Hall of Fame]]. In 1971, Mercer presented a retrospective of his career for the "Lyrics and Lyricists Series" in New York, including an omnibus of his "greatest hits" and a performance by [[Margaret Whiting]]. It was recorded live as ''An Evening with Johnny Mercer''.<ref>DRG 5176</ref> In 1974, he collaborated on the West End production ''[[The Good Companions (musical)|The Good Companions]]''. He also recorded two albums of his songs in London in 1974, with the Pete Moore Orchestra and with the Harry Roche Constellation, later compiled into a single album and released as ''[[My Huckleberry Friend|...My Huckleberry Friend: Johnny Mercer Sings the Songs of Johnny Mercer]]''.

Late in his life, Mercer became friends with pianist [[Emma Kelly]]. He gave her the nickname "The Lady of Six-Thousand Songs" after challenging her, over several years, to play numerous songs he named. He kept track of the requests, and estimated she knew 6,000 songs from memory.<ref name=sh>{{cite news|first=Julie|last=Lavender|url=https://www.statesboroherald.com/local/our-mrs-emma/|title=Our 'Mrs. Emma'|newspaper=[[Statesboro Herald]]|date=October 18, 2015}}</ref>

===Posthumous success===
[[File:Johnny Mercer.jpg|thumb|upright|Self-portrait and signature of Johnny Mercer from bench at his grave in [[Bonaventure Cemetery]] in Savannah, Georgia]]
In the last year of his life, Mercer became fond of pop singer [[Barry Manilow]], in part because Manilow's first hit record was "[[Mandy (English and Kerr song)|Mandy]]", which was also the nickname of Mercer's daughter Amanda. After Mercer's death, his widow, Ginger Mehan Mercer, arranged to give some unfinished lyrics he had written to Manilow to possibly develop into complete songs. Among these was a piece titled "[[When October Goes]]", a melancholy remembrance of lost love. Manilow applied his own melody to the lyric and issued it as a single in 1984, when it became a top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the United States. The song has since become a jazz standard, with notable recordings by [[Rosemary Clooney]], [[Nancy Wilson (singer)|Nancy Wilson]], and [[Megon McDonough]], among other performers.