Ray Henderson

Songwriter ("The Best Things in Life Are Free", "Birth of the Blues", "Button Up Your Overcoat"), composer, pianist, publisher and producer, educated at the Chicago Conservatory. He was a pianist in dance bands and an arranger for New York publishing companies in vaudeville. In 1925, he joined B. G. DeSylva and Lew Brown as a songwriting team and as music publishers. His Broadway stage scores include "George White's Scandals" (1925, 1926, 1928, 1931, 1934, and 1936), "Manhattan Mary", "Good News", "Hold Everything", "Three Cheers", "Follow Through", "Flying High", "Hot-Cha", "Say When", "Strike Me Pink" (co-librettist), and "Ziegfeld Follies of 1943". In 1929, he sold his interest in the publishing business and came to Hollywood under contract to Fox. Joining ASCAP in 1923 (he became an Ascap director in 1942, lasting into 1951), his chief musical collaborators besides Brown and DeSylva included Sam Lewis, Joe Young, Billy Rose, Mort Dixon, Jack Yellen, and Irving Caesar. His many other popular-song compositions included "That Old Gang of Mine", "Alabamy Bound", "Don't Bring Lulu", "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue", "I'm Sitting on Top of the World", "Too Many Parties and Too Many Pals", "Lucky Day", "Black Bottom", "Bye Bye Blackbird", "It All Depends on You", "Manhattan Mary", "Good News", "The Varsity Drag", "Just Imagine", "Lucky in Love", "Broken Hearted", "Just a Memory", "So Blue", "I'm on the Crest of a Wave", "You're the Cream in My Coffee", "You Wouldn't Fool Me, Would You?", "Sonny Boy", "Together", "My Sin", "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?", "Sunny Side Up", "If I Had a Talking Picture of You", "Little Pal", "Without Love", "Thank Your Father", "Red Hot Chicago", "You Try Somebody Else", "My Song", "The Thrill is Gone", "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries", "This Is the Missus", "Strike Me Pink", "Say When", "When Love Comes Swinging Along", "My Lucky Star", "Oh You Nasty Man", "My Dog Loves Your Dog", "Why Did I Kiss that Girl?", "If I Had a Girl Like You", "Bam Bam Bamy Shore", "Animal Crackers in My Soup", "When I Grow Up", "Life Begins at Sweet Sixteen", and "Love Songs Are Made in the Night".