Lewis, Sam(uel) M.

Lewis, Sam(uel) M., American lyricist; b. N.Y., Oct. 25, 1885; d. there, Nov. 22, 1959. Lewis was one of the most successful lyricists writing in Tin Pan Alley from 1910 through the 1930s. His hit songs included “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” “My Mammy” “Dinah” and “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl)?” (all cowritten with his longtime partner, Joe Young). He was particularly adept at catching the tone of the times, whether that meant reflecting the patriotism of World War I in “Just a Baby’s Prayer at Twilight (For Her Daddy over There),” the optimism of the 1920s in “I’m Sitting on Top of the World,” or the pessimism of the Depression years of the 1930s in “Gloomy Sunday.”

Lewis was the son of a tailor. He had a public-school education that ended in his teens, after which he held three jobs: he worked as a runner at a Wall Street brokerage until the stock exchange closed in mid-afternoon, then at a Broadway ticket office until the theaters opened in the evening; then at night he sang at such clubs as the Brighton Café in the Bowery district.

Lewis wrote his first successful song, “Never Do Nothing for Nobody that Does Nothing for You,” at 16; it was popularized by May Irwin and Sis Hopkins. By the age of 18 he was writing both songs and vaudeville skits for such entertainers as George Jessel, Lew Dockstader, and Van and Schenck. He had his first song interpolated into a Broadway musical when “Mother Pin a Rose on Me” (music by Bob Adams and Paul Schindler, lyrics also by Adams) was used in Coming thro’ the Rye (N.Y., Jan. 9, 1906). In 1910 he opened an office in the Shubert building in the Times Square area. Around the same time, he married Ann O’Brien; she died in 1955.

Lewis wrote several lyrics to tunes by Kerry Mills for Fascinating Widow (N.Y., Sept. 11, 1911). In 1914 the Haydn Quartet scored its final record hit with his “’Cross the Great Divide (I’ll Wait for You)” (music by George W. Meyer). Later the same year, Henry Burr had a hit with “When You’re a Long, Long Way from Home” (music by Meyer), the first successful song on which Lewis collaborated with Joe Young (1889–1939).

The year 1915 brought two more hits: “My Little Girl” (music by Albert Von Tilzer, lyrics also by Will Dillon), which had popular recordings by the duos of Burr and Albert Campbell and Ada Jones and Will Robbins, and “There’s a Little Lane without a Turning on the Way to Home Sweet Home” (music by Meyer), another big seller for Burr. Burr also scored a hit with “My Mother’s Rosary (or, Ten Baby Fingers and Ten Baby Toes)” (music by Meyer) in the spring of 1916. By then Lewis, working for music publishers Waterson, [Irving] Berlin, and Snyder, had formed long-standing alliances with two men who would share his enormous success, Young and Al Jolson.

Lewis and Young launched a lyric-writing team that lasted until 1930, and they contributed the comic song “Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go with Friday on Saturday Night?” (music by Meyer) to the Jolson show Robinson Crusoe Jr.(N.Y., Feb. 17,1916). Jolson recorded the hit version of the song, the first of many Lewis-Young lyrics he would sing. Also in 1916, Lewis and Young wrote “If I Knock the ’U Out of Kelly (It Would Still Be Kelly to Me)” (music by Bert Grant) for the musical Step This Way (N.Y, May 29,1916). The biggest hit recording was by Marguerite Farrell, though Jones also recorded it successfully. Outside of the theater, Lewis and Young had hits during the year with “Arrah Go On (I’m Gonna Go Back to Oregon)” (music by Grant), introduced by Maggie Cline and recorded by the Peerless Quartet, and “I’m Gonna Make Hay While the Sun Shines in Virginia” (music by Archie Gottler), the first hit for Marion Harris. Van and Schenck had a best-selling record in 1917 with “Huckleberry Finn” (music and lyrics by Lewis, Young, and Cliff Hess).

Early in 1918, Irving Kaufman scored a hit with “I’m All Bound ’Round with the Mason-Dixon Line” (music by Jean Schwartz). A couple of months later Jolson had an even bigger hit with it. By then he was interpolating songs with Lewis-Young lyrics into his latest show, Sinbad (N.Y., Feb. 14, 1918), songs that would be identified with him for the rest of his career. Chief among these was “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” (music by Schwartz), which became a massive hit in the summer and was also successfully recorded by Arthur Fields. The timely World War I ditty “Hello, Central, Give Me No Man’s Land” (music by Schwartz) was also a big hit for Jolson. After Sinbad’s 164-performance run in N.Y, Jolson took it on tour around the country, continuing to interpolate new songs into it. Meanwhile, Burr recorded the World War I-themed “Just a Baby’s Prayer at Twilight (For Her Daddy Over There)” (music by M. K. Jerome) and realized the biggest hit of his career with it, earning a gold record. Prince’s Orch. and Edna White’s Trumpet Quartet had instrumental hits with the song, and Charles Hart also recorded it successfully; it sold a million copies of sheet music. Also in 1918, Lewis was a co-librettist and cast member in the show Hello America, which closed before reaching N.Y.

Shortly after the end of the war, Burr followed up the success of “Just a Baby’s Prayer” with “Oh, How I Wish I Could Sleep Until My Daddy Comes Home” (music by Pete Wendling), another big hit that sold a million copies of sheet music. Monte Cristo Jr.(N.Y, Feb. 12, 1919) sounded like a Jolson show and opened at his Broadway home, the Winter Garden, but he wasn’t in it. Nevertheless, Lewis and Young contributed several songs in the Jolson style, notably “Who Played Poker with Pocahontas When John Smith Went Away?” (music by Fred E. Ahlert). The lyricists continued to mine the subject of World War I and its aftermath with “How Ya Gonna Keep ’Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree)?” (music by Walter Donaldson), which was introduced by Nora Bayes, who had the first hit recording, and was also featured by Sophie Tucker and Eddie Cantor and successfully recorded by Fields and by Byron G. Harlan. It was then interpolated into the Ziegfeld Follies of 1919 (N.Y, June 16, 1919), along with other Lewis-Young songs. The team also tried writing a show of their own, contributing the lyrics for The Water’s Fine (N.Y, 1919) with lyrics by Ted Snyder, but little was heard of this effort.

“Old Pal, Why Don’t You Answer Me?” (music by Jerome) was a hit for both Ernest Hare and Lewis James in the last quarter of 1920, though Burr scored the biggest hit with it in early 1921. Continuing the “mammy” theme of “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody,” Lewis and Young also had a hit with “I’d Love to Fall Asleep and Wake Up in My Mammy’s Arms” (music by Ahlert), recorded by the Peerless Quartet in the fall of 1920. Jolson, on tour with Sinbad, interpolated another Lewis-Young mammy song, simply titled “My Mammy” (music by Donaldson), into the show at the end of January 1921. It became an enormous hit, successfully recorded in instrumental versions by Paul Whiteman and His Orch., Isham Jones and His Orch., and the Yerkes Jazarimba Orch., and in vocal versions by the Peerless Quartet and Aileen Stanley. (Curiously, Jolson did not record it at this time, though he did later.) Lewis and Young’s other hits of 1921 were “Singin’ the Blues (Till My Daddy Comes Home)” (music by Con Conrad and J. Rüssel Robinson), successfully recorded by Stanley and featured in an instrumental medley with “Margie” by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and “Tuck Me to Sleep in My Old ’Tucky Home” (music by Meyer), introduced by Jolson, popularized by Cantor, and successfully recorded by Hare, Billy Jones, and Vernon Dalhart.

Lewis and Young’s next significant hit came in early 1925 with “Put Away a Little Ray of Golden Sunshine (for a Rainy Day)” (music by Ahlert), recorded by James. Their song “Home Pals” (music by Jerome) was used in the play The Jazz Singer (N.Y, Sept. 14, 1925), presaging the success they would enjoy with the film version two years later. With composer Harry Akst they wrote the songs for the Plantation Café Nightclub’s New Plantation Revue (1925), including “Dinah,” sung by Ethel Waters. In 1926, Waters became the first person to record this standard, though there were also successful early versions by the Revelers, Cliff Edwards, and Fletcher Henderson and His Orch. in an instrumental recording.

Lewis and Young also had two other major hits during 1926, songs that epitomized the Flapper era of the Roaring Twenties: “I’m Sitting on Top of the World” (music by Ray Henderson), the most popular recording of which was by Jolson, though it was also successfully recorded by Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orch. (as an instrumental) and by Frank Crumit, and “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl?)” (music by Henderson), a best-seller for Gene Austin and also recorded by Ernie Golden and by Art Landry and His Orch.

Lewis and Young began 1927 with “In a Little Spanish Town” (music by Mabel Wayne), which was a massive hit for Whiteman, also successfully recorded by Ben Selvin’s Cavaliers and by Sam Lanin and His Orch. The writing team tried another full-scale musical, writing the songs for Lady Do (N.Y, April 18, 1927) with composer Abel Baer, but it lasted only 56 performances. Frankie Trumbauer and His Orch. revived “Singin’ the Blues (Till My Daddy Comes Home)” that spring in a hit instrumental version with a famous solo by cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, a recording later enshrined in the NARAS Hall of Fame. Later that year Trumbauer scored a hit with “There’s a Cradle in Caroline” (music by Ahlert), though the most popular recording was by Austin.

The film version of The Jazz Singer, the first sound motion picture, opened in N.Y on Oct. 6, 1927, and featured its star, Jolson, singing “My Mammy.” Jolson finally recorded the song at the end of March 1928 and scored a hit with it in June. Also that spring, Lewis and Young had hits with “Keep Sweeping Cobwebs off the Moon” (the first published composition by Oscar Levant), recorded by Ruth Etting with Ted Lewis and His Band, and “Laugh, Clown, Laugh” (music by Ted Fiorito, based on a theme from Leoncavallo’s opera I Pagliacci), recorded by Lewis, though the most popular version was by Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians. In the fall, Ted Lewis scored a hit with “King for a Day” (music by Fiorito).

Adding English words to a German song written by Ralph Erwin, Lewis and Young fashioned “I Kiss Your Hand, Madame,” which was used in the show Lady Fingers (N.Y., Jan. 31, 1929) and enjoyed hit recordings by the orchestras of Smith Ballew and Leo Reisman. The arrival of sound films led the lyricists to write songs for some of the early talkies, including Looping the Loop, Wolf Song, and She Goes to War (originally titled The War Song), while “Sweeping Cobwebs off the Moon” was used in The Dance of Life and “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” in The Show of Shows; all five films opened in 1929.

But Lewis and Young’s most substantial work for film came with the screen adaptation of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s musical Spring Is Here, released in 1930. Their contributions, with music by Harry Warren, included “Have a Little Faith in Me,” which became a record hit for Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians; “Cryin’ for the Carolines,” which generated hits for Lombardo, Etting, Waring, and Ben Bernie and His Orch.; and “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder (for Somebody Else),” a hit for Bernie Cummins and His Orch. Meanwhile, Ted Lewis revived “Dinah” as a hit record.

Spring Is Here marked the end of the Lewis-Young partnership. Writing lyrics by himself, Lewis immediately scored a hit with “Telling It to the Daisies” (music by Victor Young), recorded by Nick Lucas in the spring of 1930. Early in 1932, Kate Smith, backed by Lombardo, had a hit with “Too Late” (music by Victor Young). The song had been introduced on radio by Bing Crosby, who recorded another version of “Dinah” with The Mills Brothers and scored the biggest hit with it yet at the end of January. (Later in the year he sang it in his first starring film, The Big Broadcast.) “Just Friends” (music by John Klenner) was a hit for Russ Columbo and for Selvin in the spring of 1932, and in the same season Lombardo and Louis Armstrong each scored with “Lawd, You Made the Night Too Long” (music by Victor Young).

At the start of 1933, Lombardo, Selvin, and Crosby each had hit recordings of “Street of Dreams” (music by Victor Young). In September, Lombardo and Isham Jones both hit with “This Time It’s Love” (music by J. Fred Coots). Morton Downey introduced “For All We Know” (music by Coots) on his radio show; the hit recordings in August 1934 were by the orchestras of Hal Kemp and Isham Jones. “I Believe in Miracles” (music by Meyer and Wendling) was a big hit for the Dorsey Brothers Orch. with Bob Crosby on vocals and for Fats Waller in February 1935. “Dinah,” that perennial favorite, had been used in the film The Lemon Drop Kid in the fall of 1934; The Boswell Sisters made it a hit record yet again in February 1935. Jeanette MacDonald then interpolated it into the film adaptation of Victor Herbert’s Rose Marie in early 1936; it was sung in the Shirley Temple feature Poor Little Rich Girl that summer; and Waller had a hit recording in December. The next summer it was back onscreen in the Gene Autry film Round-Up Time in Texas.

Lewis’s next newly written hit was “A Beautiful Lady in Blue” (music by Coots), which was in the hit parade in the winter and spring of 1936 for Jan Garber and His Orch. and was also recorded by the orchestra of Ray Noble. Also that spring, Kemp scored a hit with “Gloomy Sunday,” a Hungarian song (original title “Szomoru Vasarnap”) composed by Rezsó Seress with Hungarian lyrics by Laszlo Javor. Lewis’s pessimistic English lyrics caused it to be dubbed a “suicide song,” and it was banned from radio play by the BBC in England and by some American stations. It nevertheless went on to become a standard, recorded by Paul Robe-son, Billie Holiday, and others. Lewis closed out the year with “Close to Me” (music by Peter De Rose), a hit for Tommy Dorsey and His Orch.

Lewis seems to have been less active after 1936, though his songs continued to be covered by the swing bands. Benny Goodman and His Orch. had a hit with “What’s the Matter with Me?” (music by Terry Shand) in the late winter of 1940. For the most part, however, record and film producers preferred to mine Lewis’s back catalog of hits for new cover versions and interpolations. “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl)?” became a minor hit for Tiny Hill and His Orch. in August 1940; “Dinah” was used in the film Hit Parade of 1941 in the fall of 1940; Dorsey, with vocals by Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers, had a hit with “Street of Dreams” in the summer of 1942; and “How Ya Gonna Keep ’Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree)?” was used in the film For Me and My Gal that year, while “In a Little Spanish Town” was heard in the film Ridin’ Down the Canyon.The exuberant tone of many of Lewis’s World War I—era songs was appropriate to the patriotic spirit of World War II, and they turned up repeatedly in Hollywood films made during the conflict.

After the war, Lewis’s songs began to return to the charts as well. Sam Donohue and His Orch. had a Top Ten hit with “Dinah” in the summer of 1946. Jolson, who had sung “My Mammy” and “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” in the period film Rose of Washington Square in 1939, sang them again dubbing for Larry Parks in the film The Jolson Story (1946), and when he recorded “My Mammy” again, he was rewarded with a gold record in early 1947. (He sang it again in the film Jolson Sings Again[1949].) Crosby, who had recorded “I Kiss Your Hand, Madame” early in his career, sang it in the film The Emperor Waltz (1948), and it was used in the Grace Moore film biography So This Is Love (1953). Benny Strong and His Orch. had a minor hit with “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl)?” the following year, and, appropriately enough, the song was used in the film Has Anybody Seen My Gal?in 1952. “Singin’ the Blues (Till My Daddy Comes Home)” was a chart hit for Connee Bos well in 1953, the same year that Les Paul and Mary Ford enjoyed a Top Ten hit with “I’m Sitting on Top of the World,” also used in the Ruth Etting film biography Love Me or Leave Me (1955), starring Doris Day. “In a Little Spanish Town” was revived as a chart record by David Carroll and His Orch. in 1954. In 1956 comedian Jerry Lewis scored a Top Ten gold record with “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody,” which he sang straight.

In the years after Lewis’s death, his songs were used primarily to set a period mood in musical revues and films and on television, though Aretha Franklin had a Top 40 hit with “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” in 1961 and the Happenings took “My Mammy” into the Top 40 in 1967, testifying to the songs’ enduring appeal.

—William Ruhlmann