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Jimmy Van Heusen

Basic Information

Born: Edward Chester Babcock, January 26, 1913, Syracuse, New York

Died: February 7, 1990 (age 77), Rancho Mirage, California

AKA: James Van Heusen

Primary songwriting role: composer; also airplane test pilot

Co-writers: primarily Johnny Burke and Sammy Cahn. For songs written with these co-writers and 21 others, view the DBOPM database.

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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:
Jimmy Van Heusen
(This section remains in progress)


David Lehman. A Fine Romance Jewish Songwriters, American Songs. New York: Next Book/Schocken, 2009.

"Van Heusen's birth name was Chester Babcock. He chose Van Heusen, the name of a famous line of men's shirts, because he felt it was a name associated with "old money, elegance and class. What he didn't realize was that the Van Heusen line was the creation of a German-Jewish peddler named Israel Phillips."

(Lehman, p. 237)


book cover: Gary Marmorstein "Hollywood Rhapsody Movie Music and Its Makers 1900-1975"

Gary Marmorstein
Hollywood Rhapsody: Movie Music and Its Makers, 1900-1975,
New York: Schirmer Books, 1997

Gary Marmorstein quotes Alec Wilder on Van Heusen and then adds his own colorful piece of Van Heusen's early history. Recalling an image of Van Heusen, Wilder said, "'I well remember a thin young man sitting outside an arranger's office, endlessly playing the piano during the the late thirties.'" Marmorstein continues:

In those years Van Heusen worked at Remick Music publishers under the supervision of Mousie Warren, Harry' brother. Van Heusen supplemented his Remick income by playing in the city's prominent whorehouses. (Years later, Van Heusen was one of the few movie-industry figures to appear publicly at the funeral of Polly Adler, New York's most notorious madam.) The whorehouse playing earned him a reputation as a swordsman, but those tunes were the thing that made musicians and producers take notice. (Marmorstein, p. 165).


Unsung Musicals II
(Studio Cast)

(includes two songs
from Van Heusen's
Carnival in Flanders

As great a melodist as Van Heusen was, he was not a successful writer for Broadway shows. Van Heusen wrote the scores for five Broadway musicals: Swingin' the Dream (1939) ran for twelve performances, even though it included the standard song "Darn That Dream"; Nellie Bly (1946) ran for sixteen performances; Carnival in Flanders (1953) ran for six performances, even though it included a song titled "Rainy Day" which became a standard after Sinatra recorded it in 1959, as "Here's That Rainy Day."; Skyscraper (1956), ran for 23 previews and 248 performances; Walking Happy (1966-67) ran for three previews and 161 performances (Show data from IBDB.org).

from a Jonathan Schwartz radio tribute to Van Heusen broadcast on The Saturday Show, Jan. 28, 2012 in honor of what would have been the songwriter's 99th birthday two days previous.

 

 

 


Frank Sinatra No One Cares (1959)

Amazon iTunes icon

Schwartz also tells the story of how Sinatra came to record "Here's that Rainy Day":

As mentioned above Van Heusen had written a song titled "Rainy Day" with his long time lyricist partner Johnny Burke in 1953, for the failed Broadway show Carnival in Flanders. After the show closed, Van Heusen stored the song away -- "put it in the trunk" as songwriters like to say. It remained there through the making of several Sinatra albums for which Van Heusen wrote songs without Van Heusen mentioning it to Sinatra. Then one day in 1959, when the singer and the songwriter were working together at Sinatra's house on the title song for the album No One Cares, Sinatra asked Van Husen if he had any new material. Van Heusen, who had finally had sheet music for what had become "Here's that Rainy Day" published, took it out and played it. Sinatra responded, according to Schwartz (who had been told the story by Van Heusen), "Whatcha been doin' with this song?" and Van Heusen replied in his raspy, world-worn voice, and exactly these words: "I pick My Spots." Sinatra recorded it in the studio on May 25, 1959, with the Gordon Jenkins Orchestra, and the song was on its way, after a six year hibernation, to becoming a great American standard.

In passing, Schwartz also mentioned that although Van Heusen (a songwriter he knew well, admired and liked very much) was "a pedestrian piano player, he had a lovely singing voice."

From "The Composer Who Tested Fighter Planes And Partied With Sinatra" by Jeff Lunden, NPR, January 26, 2013 Before Sinatra died he requested that only two non-family members be buried in his cemetary plot: restauranteur Jilly Rizzo and Jimmy Van Heusen. Van Heusen's epitaph is "Swinging on a Star."
Lesser known but teriffic Van Heusen songs
  • "I Could Have Told You" written with Carl Sigman and first recorded by Sinatra on Dec. 9, 1953, with a Nelson Riddle arrangement. We are not sure if it was written in '53. This song is not yet in the Cafe Songbook catalog.
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Cafe Songbook
Music-Video Cabinet:
Jimmy Van Heusen
(This section is currently in preparation)

   
   
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Jimmy Van Heusen Songs
currently included in the
Cafe Songbook Catalog of
The Great American Songbook
  1. All My Tomorrows

  2. All the Way

  3. Aren't You Glad You're You?

  4. But Beautiful

  5. Call Me Irresponsible

  6. Come Fly with Me

  7. Darn That Dream

  8. The Day After Forever

  9. Deep in a Dream

  10. Here's That Rainy Day

  11. I thought about You

  12. Imagination

  13. It Could Happen to You
  14. Like Someone in Love
  15. Moonlight Becomes You
  16. My Kind of Town (Chicago is)
  17. Nancy (with the laughing face)
  18. Oh! You Crazy Moon
  19. Polka Dots and Moonbeams
  20. The Second Time Around
  21. The September of My Years
  22. Swinging On A Star
Click here for a database of songs written or co-written by
Jimmy Van Heusen.
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Jimmy Van Heusen research resources on the web (listed alphabetically by web source):

Jimmy Van Heusen research resources in print (listed chronologically):

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Credits

(Jimmy Van Heusen page)

 

Credits for Videomakers of videos used on this page:

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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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Adair, Tom

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

Burns, Ralph

Burwell, Cliff

Bushkin, Joe

 

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Caesar, Irving

Cahn, Sammy

Caldwell, Anne

Campbell, Jimmy

Carey, Bill (William D.)

Carmichael, Hoagy

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

Evans, Ray

Evans, Redd

Eyton, Frank

 

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Fain, Sammy

Fetter, Ted

Fields, Dorothy

Fischer, Carl

Fisher, Dan

Fisher, Fred

Fisher, Mark

Fisher, Marvin

Forrest, George

Freed, Arthur

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

Howard, Bart

Hubbell, Raymond

Hupfeld, Herman

 

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Jacobs, Jacob

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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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MacDonald, Ballard

Magidson, Herb
Malneck, Matty

Mancini, Henry

Mandel, Frank

Mandel, Johnny

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.

Palmer, Jack

Palmer, Bee

Parish, Mitchell

Parker, Dorothy

Parker, Sol

Parsons, Geoffrey

Perkins, Frank S.

Phillipe-Gérard M(ichel)

Pinkard, Maceo

Porter, Cole

Prima, Louis

Prince, Graham

Prince, Hughie

 

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Raksin, David

Ram, Buck

Ramirez, Roger (Ram)

Rand Lionel

Raye, Don

Razaf, Andy

Reardon, Jack

Redmond, John

Rene, Leon T.

Rene, Otis

Revel, Harry

Reynolds, Ellis

Reynolds, Herbert

Rhodes, Stan

Robin, Leo

Robin, Sid

Robison, Willard

Rodgers, Richard

Romberg, Sigmund

Rome, Harold

Ronell, Ann
Rose, Billy

Rose, Fred

Rose, Vincent

Ruby, Harry

Ruby, Herman

Ruskin, Harry

Russell, Bob

Sampson, Edgar

Sanicola, Henry

Santly, Lester

Savitt, Jay

Secunda, Sholom

Segal Jack
Schertzinger, Victor
Schwandt, Wilbur

Schwartz, Arthur

Scott, Bertha

Shapiro, Ted

Shavers, Charlie

Shay, Larry

Shearing, George

Sherman, Jimmy

Sherwin, Manning

Sigman, Carl

Signorelli, Frank

Silvers, Phil

Simons, Seymour

Sinatra, Frank

Sissle, Noble

Skylar, Sunny

Snyder, Ted

Sondheim, Stephen

Sour, Robert
Spence, Lew

Springer, Philip

Stept, Sam H.

Stock, Larry

Stordahl, Axel

Strachey, Jack

Strayhorn, Billy

Strouse, Charles

Styne, Jule

Suessdorf, Karl

Suesse, Dana

Sullivan, Henry

Swan, Einar Aaron

Swift, Kay

Symes, Marty

 

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Tauber, Doris

Teagarten, Jack

Thompson, Kay
Tobias, Charles

Tobias, Harry

Tormé, Mel

Tracey, William G.
Trent, Jo

Troop, Bobby

Turk, Roy

Turner, John

Van Heusen, Jimmy (James)

Vimmerstedt, Sadie

Waller, Fats

Warfield, Charles

Warren, Harry

Washington, Ned
Watson, Johnny

Webb, Chick

Webster, Paul Francis

Weill, Kurt

Weiss, George David

Wells, Robert

Weston, Paul

Whiting, Richard A.

Whiting, George A.

Wilder, Alec

Wiley, Lee

Wilkinson, Dudley


Williams, Clarence

Williams, Spencer

Wodehouse, P. G.

Wolf, Donald E.

Wolf, Jack

Wolf, Tommy

Wood, Guy B

Woods, Harry M.

Wright, Lawrence

Wright, Robert

Wrubel, Allie

Yellen, Jack

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Young, Joe

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Young, Victor

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