Irving Gordon, songwriter: Reference Sources

Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball attest to Irving Gordon's versatility by pointing out that he wrote songs made into hits by both Billie Holiday ("Me, Myself and I") and Patti Page "(Throw) Mama from the Train (a kiss)." Patti Page also recorded another one of his novelty songs from a series based on the names of a states, "Mister and Mississippi." Among his other songs are "What Will I Tell My Heart?" "Moments in the Moonlight," "All Dressed Up To Smile," and perhaps his most important contribution, the lyric for Ellington's "Prelude to a Kiss."

Gordon grew up in Brooklyn, started his music training on the violin, later worked at Catskill resort hotels writing musical parodies for their shows, and in the thirties, was employed by Mills Music, a publishing and performer management company in New York City, as a contract composer and lyricist. It was there in 1937 that he was introduced to Duke Ellington who asked him to put words to some of his compositions including "Prelude to a Kiss." According to the Wikipedia article on Gordon (based on Gordon's obituary by Benny Green in The Guardian, London), "Working with Ellington was probably the most difficult commission there was, because most of the Ellington songs were really instrumental pieces whose singable potential only emerged after they had been played and recorded by one or another of the soloists in the Ellington orchestra."

Also according to Wikipedia, "Gordon did not care for Rock music, which he said was composed not of 'melodies but maladies.' Gordon told the Los Angeles Times that by 1960 the vogue for rhymed words and hummable melodies had passed, 'So I became a tennis pro. I have many lives'."

His last and biggest hit had two lives itself, first by a father and then, after his death, by his daughter as a duet with her father: Nat King Cole's version of "Unforgettable" (for which Gordon wrote both words and music), reached the charts in 1952, and Natalie Cole's recording, on which her voice was superimposed over her father's to create the effect of a duet, won a Grammy in 1992. So neither Cole, Sr. nor Gordon were around for the award.

Cafe Songbook Music-Video Cabinet: Irving Gordon

• Prelude to a Kiss
• Unforgettable

Research Resources: Irving Gordon

• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list; awards; hit songs; co-writers)
• Discogs.com (songwriting and arranging credits)
• Indiana University Sheet Music Collection (In Harmony): Irving Gordon
• Internet Movie Database (brief biography, filmography, movie song credits)
• New York Public Library (catalog entries for books, personal papers, recordings, scores, etc.)
• The New York Times (obituary)
• Wikipedia (name article)
• ASCAP Biographical Dictionary, New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Cattell/Bowker, Fourth edition, 1980 (dates, collaborators, shows/movies, songs, etc., entry p. 193)
• Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball (Eds.), Reading Lyrics, New York: Pantheon Books, 2000 (pp. 493-494 overview plus lyrics to 3 songs). American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950-2000, New York: Routledge, 2006 (p. ).
• Billie Holiday, "Me, Myself and I": purple0accident
• Billie Holiday, "Prelude to a Kiss": RoundMidnightTV
• Nat King Cole: davidthomas85
• The Hilltopers: CatsPjamas1
• Patti Page: overjazzrecords

Notes

• Billie Holiday album: The Quintessential Billie Holiday Vol. 4
• Same track of "Me, Myself and I" as on the video
• Billie Holiday album: Music for Torching
• Nat King Cole The Very Best of Nat King Cole
• same track of "Unforgettable" as on video

Cite this page: Irving Gordon, songwriter: Reference Sources, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/g_sws/gordon_irving.html