Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981) is one of the great songwriters of the 20th century, having composed some of the most recorded songs of all time, including ‘Stardust’ and ‘Georgia On My Mind’. In a career lasting from the late twenties into the early fifties. He wrote many songs for Hollywood, the first of which was ‘Moonburn’, sung by Bing Crosby in Anything Goes (1936) with lyrics by Edward Heyman. He won an Oscar for his collaboration with regular writing partner Johnny Mercer, ‘In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening’ (1951) and often appeared in films playing his own songs, as in To Have and Have Not with Bacall and Bogart (1942). He and Mercer wrote one Broadway musical which was not a success, Walk with Music in 1940. His songs have been performed by a broad spectrum of singers including Dean Martin, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Norah Jones, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and George Harrison.
Carmichael learnt to play the piano as a child, taught by his mother who played accompaniment to silent films. As an impoverished teenager and self-confessed “jazz maniac”, Carmichael would play the piano wherever he could find one and his skills as a pianist also helped to support himself and his family. He became friends with bandleader and pianist, Reg DuValle, known as “the elder statesman of Indiana jazz” and “the Rhythm King” from whom he learnt about hot ragtime and jazz improvisation. He began writing in 1918 when the death of his sister prompted him to write ‘My sister Joanne’. Whilst at Indiana University, studying law and playing with The Carmichael Collegians, he met cornetist, Bix Beiderbecke with whom he became close friends. Carmichael composed a Dixieland piece ‘Free Wheeling’ for Beiderbecke who recorded it as ‘Riverboat Shuffle’ in 1924. Louis Armstrong made ‘Rockin’ Chair’ famous in 1929 and in 1933 ‘Lazy Bones’ with Johnny Mercer’s lyrics which was a huge hit.
Although Carmichael worked hard, long hours composing his songs, he maintained that “You don’t write melodies, you find them”. His relaxed almost hypnotic style of singing also gives the impression that the song has just emerged naturally with no effort or affectations. Carmichael described his voice thus, “I have Wabash fog and sycamore twigs in my throat”.
Carmichael wrote two autobiographies: ‘The Stardust Road’ and ‘Sometimes I Wonder’.
Key Songs:
- Georgia On My Mind
- Heart and Soul
- My Resistance Is Low
- The Nearness of You
- Stardust
- Two Sleepy People
- Memphis In June (1945)