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Sam Coslow



The Songs of Sam Coslow:
Cocktails for Two

Basic Information

Born: December 27, 1902, New York City

Died: April 2,1982 (age 79) Bronxville, New York

Primary songwriting role: lyricist; also composer, singer, film producer, publisher, and market analyst

Co-writers: chiefly Arthur Johnston. Click here to view a database of 36 Sam Coslow co-writers.

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Basic Songwiter Information
Overview and Commentary
Music-Video Cabinet
Songs by This Songwriter
in the Cafe Songbook Catalog
of The Great American Songbook
Web Research Resources
Print Research Resources
Visitor Comments
Master List of Songwriters
Credits

Overview and Commentary:
Sam Coslow
(This section is currently in preparation)

 

Amazon reviewer A. Pollock supplies the following overview of Coslow in his review of the album The Songs of Sam Coslow: Cocktails for Two.

"Compared to the Golden Age of Song reputations of Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter and the Gershwin's and their identifiable popular catalogues, Sam Coslow's song-writing status has somewhat faded into the mists of time and he is now recalled as somewhat second league. However, Coslow was a prodigious contributor to Hollywood's early musicals and provided TRUE BLUE LOU, IF YOU CAN'T SING IT, YOU'LL HAVE TO SWING IT (MR PAGANINI) and I'M IN LOVE WITH THE HONORABLE MR SO-AND-SO as enduring songs. Surprisingly, he failed to crack the Broadway stage musical/revue to any extent and generally provided numerous popular hits until the 50's when he moved to London to undertake a similar movie function before he died in 1982.

"Therefore this excellent collection serves as a pleasant reminder of Coslow's extensive body of work which with his collaborators included songs which became early hits for the upcoming Bing Crosby who naturally provides JUST ONE MORE CHANCE, LEARN TO CROON, THANKS and THE DAY YOU CAME ALONG for this collection. Covering the years 1928-1947, it's a joy to hear crisp and clear recordings by largely forgotten names like Annette Hanshaw (MOON SONG), Valaida Snow (SING YOU SINNERS) and Carl Brisson (COCKTAILS FOR TWO) with that latter number perhaps not surviving it's 1944 parody slaughter by Spike Jones and his City Slickers. Familiar vocalists - amongst them Dick Haymes (JE VOUS AIME), Margaret Whiting (BEWARE MY HEART), Maurice Chevalier (SWEEPIN' THE CLOUDS AWAY), Connee Boswell (IN THE MIDDLE OF A KISS) and last but not least Noel Coward (FARE THEE WELL) also contribute unfamiliar numbers with sometime singer Coslow himself providing the vocals for LAY YOUR HEAD ON MY SHOULDER, DEAR.

"Revealing many surprises, it can be argued this overview is well worth its weight in nostalgic musical gold considering the somewhat neglected standing of Sam Coslow and with excellent remastering, informative notes and discography adding quality, this compilation is highly recommended."
(This text adapted from notes accompanying the YouTube video below by edmundusrex) Sam Coslow was an American songwriter, singer, film producer, publisher, and market analyst who began writing songs as a teenager. During a varied career, he contributed songs to Broadway revues, formed the music publishing company Spier and Coslow in 1928, and made a number of recordings singing both his own songs and those by other songwriters.

With the explosion of film musicals in the late 1920s, Hollywood attracted a number of ambitious young songwriters and Coslow joined the exodus in 1929. Coslow and his partner Larry Spier sold their publishing business to Paramount Pictures and Coslow became a Paramount songwriter. One of his first assignments for the studio was the score for the 1930 film The Virtuous Sin. He formed a successful partnership with composer Arthur Johnston and together they provided the scores for a number of films including several Bing Crosby vehicles, such as

Coslow became a film producer in the 1940s and won the Academy Award for Best Short Film for his production "Heavenly Music" in 1943. He was married to actress Esther Muir from 1934 to 1948, and they had a daughter Jacqueline Coslow, who also worked as an actress.
   
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Cafe Songbook
Music-Video Cabinet:
Sam Coslow

Coslow sings the songs of other songwriters, and various artists perform Coslow's songs.



Sam Coslow singing Irving Berlin's 1932 song "Say It Isn't So"


Sam Coslow sings "Please" (1932)
(words by Leo Robin, Music by Ralph Rainger)

"Moon Song" (1932) with words and music
by Sam Coslow and Arthur Johnston,
performed by Peter Mintun
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Sam Coslow Songs
currently included in the
Cafe Songbook Catalog of
The Great American Songbook
  1. Cocktails for Two

  2. Just One More Chance

  3. My Old Flame

Click here for a database of songs written or co-written by Sam Coslow.
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Research Resources:
Sam Coslow

Sam Coslow research resources on the web (listed alphabetically by web source):
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Sam Coslow research resources in print (listed chronologically):
 
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Credits

(Sam Coslow page)

 

Credits for Videomakers of videos used on this page:

Borrowed material (text): The sources of all quoted and paraphrased text are cited. Such content is used under the rules of fair use to further the educational objectives of CafeSongbook.com. CafeSongbook.com makes no claims to rights of any kind in this content or the sources from which it comes.

 

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Cafe Songbook
Master List
of Great American Songbook Songwriters

Names of songwriters who have written at least one song included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook are listed below.

 

Names of songwriters with two or more song credits in the catalog (with rare exceptions) are linked to their own Cafe Songbook pages, e.g. Fields, Dorothy.

 

Names of songwriters with only one song credit in the catalog are linked to the Cafe Songbook page for that song, on which may be found information about the songwriter or a link to an information source for him or her.

 

Please note: Cafe Songbook pages for songwriters are currently in various stages of development.

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Adams, Lee

Adams, Stanley

Adamson, Harold

Ager, Milton

Ahbez, Eden

Ahlert, Fred

Akst, Harry

Alexander, Van

Allen, Lewis

Allen, Steve

Alter, Louis

Altman, Arthur

Anderson, Maxwell

Andre, Fabian

Arlen, Harold
Arnheim, Gus

Arodin, Sid

Atwood, Hub

Astaire, Fred

Austin, Gene

Ayer, Nat D.

Barbour, Dave

Barnes, Billy

Barris, Harry

Bassman, George

Belle, Barbara

Bennett, Dave

Bergman, Alan and Marilyn

Berlin, Irving

Bernie, Ben

Bernstein, Leonard

Best, William "Pat"

Blackburn, John

Blackwell, Otis (a.k.a. John Davenport)

Blake, Eubie

Blane, Ralph

Blitzstein, Marc

Bloom, Rube

Bock, Jerry

Block, Martin

Boland, Clay

Borne, Hal

Borodin, Alexander

Bowman, Brooks

Boyd, Elisse

Brent, Earl K.

Bricusse, Leslie

Brooks, Harry

Brooks, Shelton

Brown, Les

Brown, Lew

Brown, Nacio Herb

Brown, Seymour

Burke, Joe

Burke, Johnny

Burke, Sonny

Burnett, Ernie

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Burwell, Cliff

Bushkin, Joe

 

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Carey, Bill (William D.)

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Carroll, Harry

Carter, Benny

Casey, Kenneth

Casucci, Leonello

Chaplin, Charlie

Chaplin, Saul

Charlap, Moose

Clare, Sidney

Chase, Newell

Churchill, Frank

Clarke, Grant

Clifford, Gordon

Clinton, Larry

Coates, Carroll

Coleman, Cy

Comden, Betty and Adolph Green

Conley, Larry

Connelly, Reginald

Conrad, Con

Cooley, Eddie

Coots, J. Fred

Cory, George

Coslow, Sam

Creamer, Henry

Crosby, Bing

Cross, Douglas

Daniels, Charles N.
Davenport, John (See Otis Blackwell.)

David, Mack

Davis, Benny

Davis, Jimmy

Dee, Sylvia

De Lange, Eddie

Denniker, Paul

Dennis, Matt

De Paul, Gene

De Rose, Peter

De Sylva, B.G. (Buddy)

DeVries, John

Dietz, Howard

Distel, Sacha

Dixon, Mort

Donaldson, Walter

Dorsey, Jimmy

Dougherty, Doc

Drake, Ervin
Drake, Milton

Dreyer, Dave

Dubin, Al

Duke, Vernon

Edens, Roger

Edwards, Michael

Egan, Raymond B.

Eliscu, Edward

Ellington, Duke

Elman, Ziggy

Engvick, William

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Eyton, Frank

 

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Fisher, Dan

Fisher, Fred

Fisher, Mark

Fisher, Marvin

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Freed, Ralph

L. E. Freeman

Gaines, Lee

Gallop, Sammy

Gannon, Kim

Garner, Errol

Gaskill, Clarence

Gensler, Lewis E.

George, Don

Gershwin, George

Gershwin, Ira

Gillespie, Haven

Golden, John

Goodman, Benny

Goodwin, Joe

Gordon, Irving

Gordon, Mack

Gorney, Jay

Gorrell, Stuart

Goulding, Edmund

Grainger, Porter

Grand, Murray

Grant, Ian

Gray, Chauncey

Gray, Timothy

Grever, Maria

Grey, Clifford
Green, Adolph and Betty Comden

Green, Bud

Green, Freddie

Green, Johnny

Gross, Walter

Haggart, Bob

Hamilton, Arthur

Hamilton, Nancy

Hamm, Fred

Hammerstein, Arthur

Hammerstein II, Oscar

Hampton, Lionel

Handy, W. C.
Hanighen, Bernie

Hanley, James F.

Harbach, Otto

Harburg, E. Y. (Yip)

Harling, W. Franke

Harline, Leigh

Hart, Lorenz

Henderson, Jimmy

Henderson, Ray

Herbert, Victor

Herman, Woody

Herron, Joel S.

Herzog Jr., Arthur

Heyman, Edward

Heyward, Dubose

Higginbotham, Irene

Higgins, Billy

Hilliard, Bob

Hirsch, Walter

Hodges, Johnny

Holiday, Billie

Holiner, Mann

Hollander, Frederick

Holofcener, Larry

Homer, Ben

Hopper, Hal

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Hupfeld, Herman

 

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Jacobs, Jacob

Jaffe, Moe

James, Freddy (Pseud. for Teddy Powell)

James, Harry

James, Paul

Jenkins, Gordon

Johnson, James P.

Johnston, Arthur

Johnston, Patricia

Jolson, Al

Jones, Isham

Kahal, Irving

Kahn, Gus

Kahn, Roger Wolfe

Kalmar, Bert

Keith, Marilyn
Kent, Walter

Kern, Jerome

Kisco, Charles

Kitchings, Irene

Koehler, Ted

Kosma, Joseph

Kramer, Alex

Kramer, Joan Whitney

Kurtz, Manny

Laine, Frankie

Lamare, Jules (a.k.a Charles N.

Daniels and Neil Moret)

Lane, Burt
Landesman, Fran

Latouche, John

Lawrence, Eddie

Lawrence, Jack

Layton, Turner

Lee, Peggy

Leigh, Carolyn

Leonard, Anita

Lerner, Alan Jay
Leslie, Edgar

Levant, Oscar

Lewis, Morgan

Lewis, Sam M.

Link, Harry

Lippman, Sidney

Livingston, Fud

Livingston, Jay

Livingston, Jerry

Loeb, John Jacob

Loesser, Frank

Loewe, Frederick

Lombardo, Carmen

Lowe, Ruth

Lown, Bert
Lyman, Abe

 

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Mandel, Frank

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Mann, David

Marks, Gerald

Martin, Hugh

Maschwitz, Eric

Mayer, Henry
McCarey, Leo

McCarthy, Joseph

McCarthy, Jr., Joseph

McHugh, Jimmy

McCoy, Joe

Mellin, Robert

Mercer, Johnny

Merrill, Bob

Mertz, Paul Madeira

Meyer, Joseph

Miles, Dick

Miller, Glenn

Miller, Nathan Ned

Mills, Irving
Mitchell, Sidney D.

Moll, Billy

Monaco, Jimmy

Moret, Neil (aka Charles N. Daniels)

Morey, Larry

Moross, Jerome

Mundy, Jimmy

Muse, Clarence

Myrow, Josef

Nemo, Henry

Newley, Anthony

Nichols, Alberta

Noble, Ray

Norman, Pierre
Norton, George A.

Oakland, Ben

Overstreet, Benton W.

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Parish, Mitchell

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Parsons, Geoffrey

Perkins, Frank S.

Phillipe-Gérard M(ichel)

Pinkard, Maceo

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Redmond, John

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Rene, Otis

Revel, Harry

Reynolds, Ellis

Reynolds, Herbert

Rhodes, Stan

Robin, Leo

Robin, Sid

Robison, Willard

Rodgers, Richard

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Ronell, Ann
Rose, Billy

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Ruby, Harry

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Ruskin, Harry

Russell, Bob

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Shay, Larry

Shearing, George

Sherman, Jimmy

Sherwin, Manning

Sigman, Carl

Signorelli, Frank

Silvers, Phil

Simons, Seymour

Sinatra, Frank

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Skylar, Sunny

Snyder, Ted

Sondheim, Stephen

Sour, Robert
Spence, Lew

Springer, Philip

Stept, Sam H.

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Strayhorn, Billy

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Williams, Spencer

Wodehouse, P. G.

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Wolf, Jack

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Wood, Guy B

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Wright, Lawrence

Wright, Robert

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