[78-L] Jack Lawrence (1912-2009)

[soundthink at aol.com]

For the past few years, Jack Lawrence managed his own website and was quite accessible to queries from fans. I asked him a few questions myself, concerning his writing the lyrics to "Johnson Rag" for the Jack Teter Trio.

Cary Ginell

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/arts/music/18lawrence.html

March 18, 2009

Jack Lawrence, Writer of Hit Songs, Dies at 96

By RICHARD SEVERO
Jack Lawrence, a reluctant podiatrist who chose to do what he had always wanted to do as a kid in early-20th-century Brooklyn, write lyrics for songs (many of which became hits), died Sunday in Danbury, Conn. He was 96 and lived in West Redding, Conn.

The cause was renal failure and complications of a fall at his home, his son, Richard, said.

Mr. Lawrence’s biggest hits, with lyrics that tend toward the dreamy, romantic and simple, include:

If I Didn’t Care,” for which he wrote both the lyrics and music and which, in 1939, became the Ink Spots’s first hit.

“All or Nothing at All,” with music by Arthur Altman, a No. 1 song in 1943 for Frank Sinatra, with the Harry James Orchestra.

“Linda,” for which Mr. Lawrence wrote the lyrics and the music, a No. 1 hit in 1947 for Buddy Clark that was successfully reprised by Jan and Dean in 1963.

And “Tenderly,” with music by Walter Gross, which hit the charts in 1947 when sung by Sarah Vaughan and again in 1952 when it helped re-ignite Rosemary Clooney’s career.

Mr. Lawrence made it big with his first20published song, “Play, Fiddle, Play,” in 1932, the same year he graduated from podiatry school. It convinced him that his career could rise higher than the human foot. Though he had almost no musical training, he had written songs as a boy and went to podiatry school only because of “parental pressure,” he wrote in an autobiographical sketch.

Though he was mostly a lyricist, he wrote both the words and the music for “Yes, My Darling Daughter,” made famous in 1940 by Dinah Shore.

“If I Didn’t Care,” sung by the Ink Spots, became so recognizable in the early 1940s that it was spoofed by Glenn Miller’s band in his wartime hit record “Juke Box Saturday Night.”

Mr. Lawrence wrote new words to a popular French song called “La Mer,” by Albert Lasry and Charles Trenet; it became a hit in 1948 as “Beyond the Sea.” The instrumental version by Percy Faith was popular, but Bobby Darin made a bigger hit of it in 1959 with an up-tempo version using Mr. Lawrence’s lyrics.

Born Jack Lawrence Schwartz in Brooklyn on April 7, 1912, Mr. Lawrence was the third of four sons of Barney and Fanny Goldman Cherniafsky, who had immigrated from Ukraine in 1902. Immigration officials on Ellis Island changed their last name. When he started publishing songs, Mr. Lawrence dropped his last name.

Mr. Lawrence graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, then earned a podiatry degree from the First Institute of Podiatry20(now the New York College of Podiatric Medicine) in 1932. That same year, “Play, Fiddle, Play” was published; in 1933 it was featured in the film comedy “Dinner at Eight” and became quite popular.

During World War II, Mr. Lawrence served in the Coast Guard and later, at his request, was transferred to the United States merchant marine. After the war, he went to Hollywood, where he wrote songs for a number of movies. “Hold My Hand,” written with Richard Myers for “Susan Slept Here,” was nominated for an Oscar as best song in 1954.

In 1979, Mr. Lawrence adopted his partner, Richard Debnam; he is Mr. Lawrence’s only survivor.

Lyrics sometimes came to Mr. Lawrence from his day-to-day encounters. One lovely afternoon in the late ’30s, while sitting on a park bench in New York, he overheard a nearby couple snared in a lovers’ quarrel.

“You don’t love me,” the girl said. “If I didn’t care,” the boy replied, then offered a litany of reasons to trust his intentions. So began the Ink Spots’ hit.

Dennis Hevesi contributed reporting.