Sammy Cahn

One of the more diverse American lyricists of the 20th century, Sammy Cahn wrote his first hit by the age of 21 and followed it with over five decades of successful and award-winning compositions. Working most frequently with Jule Styne during the 1940s and Jimmy Van Heusen during the 1950s (though he also composed with Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston), Cahn had a way with lovesick ballads ("I'll Walk Alone," "Only the Lonely") as well as bouncy uptempo songs ("Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!," "Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week"). Born on New York's Lower East Side in June 1913, Samuel Cohen was the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland. His mother encouraged him to take up the violin, which Cahn used to join a small orchestra which played at bar mitzvahs and other Jewish gatherings. At the age of 16, he began writing songs and later convinced orchestra-mate Saul Chaplin to join him in a partnership. The duo wrote for bands as well as vaudeville, gaining their first hit in 1935 when Jimmie Lunceford's Orchestra recorded "Rhythm Is Our Business." During the next two years, the Cahn and Chaplin team wrote three more big hits, including "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" (sung by Andy Kirk); the Yiddish novelty "Beir Mir Bist Du Schöen" (which became the Andrews Sisters' first million-selling hit); and "Please Be Kind" (popularized by Benny Goodman and Bob Crosby). When Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin's writing contract with Warner Bros. expired in the early '40s, they decided to split up. Cahn soon found another partner, Jule Styne, the man with whom he wrote his most celebrated hits. Writing film and album songs for Frank Sinatra -- who had gotten to know Cahn during his tenure in the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra -- during the mid-'40s, Cahn and Styne were...