Mort Dixon, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany

Before becoming a working lyricist, Dixon was educated at DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City, tried his hand as a vaudeville actor, and served in the US Army during World War I, where he directed the Army show "Whiz Bang."

Dixon's big push into professional songwriting came from his contribution to the lyrics (in 1923) of "That Old Gang of Mine." By 1927, the first year for the talkies, he was already writing songs for the movies and in the early 1930's, he wrote the lyrics for Broadway productions like Laugh Parade and Chamberlain Brown's Scrapbook. Certainly his biggest hits were "Bye Bye Blackbird" (1926) and "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover" (1927). During his career, his major collaborators included Billy Rose, Ray Henderson, Harry Warren, Harry Woods, and Allie Wrubel.

Dixon lyrics for songs not in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbookinclude "That Old Gang of Mine," "The Lady in Red," "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover," "If I Had a Girl Like You," "Just Like a Butterfly that's Caught in the Rain," "Marching Along Together," "My Old Man," "Nagasaki," "Ooh, That Kiss," "Pop Goes Your Heart," "Happiness Ahead," "Mr. and Mrs. Is the Name," "Flirtation Walk," "Fare Thee Well, Annabelle," and "I See Two Lovers."

For Gary Marmorstein in his book Hollywood Rhapsody, Mort Dixon was one of the songwriters on the Warners lot in the early thirties who "contributed tremendously to the resurgence of the musical."

Dixon, a former streetcar conductor, bank clerk and vaudeville performer who had made a fortune form his lyrics for "Bye Bye Blackbird" and "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover," was paired at Warners with composer Allie Wrubel. Marmorstein states, "If [Al] Dubin and [Harry] Warren helped make Dick Powell a star [in films such as 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933], Dixon and Wrubel kept him a star in Happiness Ahead . . . and Flirtation Walk," both from 1934. (p. 57).

• Bye Bye Blackbird
  
• I Found A Million Dollar Baby (In A Five And Ten Cent Store)
• River Stay 'Way from My Door
  
• Would You Like to Take a Walk?
  
• You're My Everything

Research Resources: Mort Dixon

• Amazon (books by and about, recordings, videos, etc.)
• DarinLand.com (Profile of Mort Dixon by Michael Macomber)
• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list; awards; hit songs; co-writers)
• Discogs.com (writing and arrangements credits)
• The Geezer's Club (Mort Dixon and Harry Warren song "Nagasaki" {the song not the city} commentary)
• Indiana University Sheet Music Collection (In Harmony): Mort Dixon
• Internet Broadway Database (Broadway productions and song credits)
• Internet Movie Database (brief biography, filmography, movie song credits)
• New York Public Library (catalog entries for books, recordings, sheet music, etc.)
• The New York Times (articles about the songwriter)
• Songwriters Hall of Fame (biography and song list)
• Wikipedia (Mort Dixon article)
• ASCAP Biographical Dictionary of Composers, Authors and Publishers, New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (dates, career, shows/movies, songs; 3rd edition, 1966, entry p. 178)
• Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball (Eds.), Reading Lyrics, New York: Pantheon Books, 2000 (pp. 138-142, overview plus lyrics to seven songs).
• Ken Bloom. The American Songbook, The Singers, The Songwriters and the Songs. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2005 (entry--Mort Dixon and Allie Wrubel, p. 210).

Notes

• "That Old Gang of Mine" words by Mort Dixon and Billy Rose , music by Ray Henderson (sheet music, 1923)
• Gary Marmorstein Hollywood Rhapsody: Movie Music and Its Makers, 1900-1975 , New York: Schirmer Books, 1997

Cite this page: Mort Dixon, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/d_sws/dixon_mort.html