He was a musician and lyricist born in New York who began to work in music by writing musicals while at the University of Michigan and after graduation he began to work with musicians that included Victor Young, with whom he would later be nominated for an Academy Award with for “Love Letters”.
He joined the United States Air Force in 1941 and served in WWII and as a result he wrote At Your Service for the stage.
He wrote songs that were included in the film scores for Curly Top, Delightfully Dangerous and Kissing Bandit among others but his most successful song was the co-written “Body and Soul” which was written in 1930 and has since appeared on countless soundtracks and has been recorded by hundreds of artists.
His collaborators included Nacio Herb Brown, Sigmund Romberg, Vincent Youmans and Morton Gould. He was a member of ASCAP and in 1975 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He died in Jalisco , Mexico , in October 1981 aged 74.
The Manhattan Transfer Recordings
Body and Soul (Edward Heyman/Johnny Green/Robert Sour/Frank Eyton)
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