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

Burton Lane was born Burton Levy in 1912 in New York City. At 15 he dropped out of school to work as a song plugger (someone who works for a music publisher promoting songs from the company's catalog by playing and/or singing them for potential customers) with the idea of becoming a songwriter. George Gershwin, no less, became his friend and mentor after their mothers met and gabbed about their sons the songwriters. Lane, unlike Gershwin, left New York after trying his hand at only one Broadway production (Earl Carroll's Vanities, 1931), and soon after set out for Hollywood to take his chance on writing songs for the movies, which had only recently introduced sound and, therefore, the prospect of musicals on the screen. There he worked with a series of lyricists including Frank Loesser, Yip Harburg, Ralph Freed and others turning out tunes for a series of mostly minor pictures.

It wasn't until 1947, when he composed the score for the hit show Finian's Rainbow that Lane was able to establish a reputation in New York, which has remained firmly in tact ever since; and having later been greatly augmented when, in 1965, he wrote the score for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

• Everything I Have Is Yours
• How About You?
• How Are Things in Glocca Morra?
• I Hear Music
• The Lady's in Love with You
• If This Isn't Love
• Look to the Rainbow
• Moments like This
• Old Devil Moon
• On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
• Poor You
• Says My Heart
• Too Late Now
• When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love
• The World Is in My Arms
• You're All the World to Me

Research Resources: Burton Lane

• AllMusic.com (overview, credits, compositions, awards)
• Amazon (publications by and about, recordings, videos, sheet music, etc.)
• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list; awards; hit songs; co-writers)
• The Idependent (UK publication, obituary for Lane)
• Indiana University Sheet Music Collection: Burton Lane
• Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) (Broadway productions and song credits)
• 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 (articles about or related to the songwriter) Richard Severo, "Burton Lane, Composer of Finian's Rainbow and 'Clear Day,' Is Dead at 84." The New York Times, Jan. 7, 1997 (obituary).
• NPRmusic.org (archive of relevant programs often including audio segments on Burton Lane)
• Songwriters Hall of Fame (biography and song list)
• Wikipedia (Burton Lane 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. 286)
• Max Wilk, They're Playing Our Song: Conversations with America's Classic Songwriters (originally published 1973 as They're Playing Our Song: From Jerome Kern to Stephen Sondheim—The Stories behind the Words and Music of Two Generations), New York and Stratford, CT: Easton Studio Press, 2008 (chapter on/interview with Lane).
• David Ewen. American Songwriters, An H. W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary. New York: The H. W. Wilson Co., 1987 (includes 146 bios of composers and lyricists). -- a wide selection of used copies is available at abebooks.com (entry pp. 253-256).
• Gary Marmorstein, Hollywood Rhapsody: Movie Music and Its Makers, 1900-1975,
  New York: Schirmer Books, 1997 (multiple references).
• William Zinsser. Easy to Remember The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs. Jaffrey, New Hampshire: David R. Godine, 2001 (multiple references).
• David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: An Encyclopedia of the Golden Age of American Song, New York: Routledge, 2003 (pp. 251-252).
• Ken Bloom. The American Songbook, The Singers, The Songwriters and the Songs. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2005 (entry and multiple references).
• Thomas S. Hischak. The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 (entry--p 414.).
• Stephen Sondheim, Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. New York: Alfred A. Knoph, 2010 (several references to Lane).
• "Where Have I Seen Your Face Before?": markellman

Cite this page: Burton Lane, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/l_sws/lane_burton.html