Jimmy Van Heusen
For much of the 20th century, the best pop songwriters were nearly as famous as the musicians who performed their songs. For many singers, Jimmy Van Heusen was one of the biggest names in songwriting.
“James Van Heusen” was a pseudonym adopted by Edward Chester Babcock to keep his music career a secret from his father. “Chet” was born in Syracuse, Onondaga County, on January 26, 1913. His father allowed Chet to take piano lessons, but didn’t want him to pursue a musical career at the expense of a solid academic education.
Chet was often more interested in music than schoolwork. He was expelled from high school and a private seminary before getting his act together. Meanwhile, at age 16 he became an announcer for radio station WSYR. His professional name, “Van Heusen,” came from a popular line of men’s shirts. He later got his own show on WFBL, performing the latest songs published on New York’s “Tin Pan Alley.”
After studying composition at Syracuse University, Jimmy Van Heusen was briefly a songwriter for Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club. In 1933 he made his first sale to Tin Pan Alley when Santly Bros. published “There’s a House in Harlem for Sale.” Santly Bros. also hired him as a song plugger – a musician who performed songs by writers like himself hoping to get published.
Van Heusen kept submitting songs to other publishers. His first hit came in 1938, when Jerome H. Remick & Co, published “It’s the Dreamer in Me.” The song sold 100,000 copies of sheet music after the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra recorded it, and earned Van Heusen a job as one of Remick’s staff composers.
Now partnered with lyricist Eddie de Lange, Van Heusen made hits more frequently. Singers performed them regularly on the Your Hit Parade radio show, while record companies released competing recordings by different artists.
In 1940 Hollywood took notice. Paramount Pictures hired Van Heusen to write songs for the nation’s most popular singer Bing Crosby, starting with Road to Zanzibar (1941). “Swingin’ on a Star,” from Going My Way (1944), won Van Heusen and lyricist Johnny Burke an Academy Award for Best Original Song. At the same time, he was a World War II civilian test pilot – using his real name to keep the job secret from Paramount and his celebrity secret from his fellow pilots.
Van Heusen reached the top of his profession in 1944 when he formed his own publishing company. His greatest artistic successes were still to come. Beginning with The Tender Trap (1955) he became a favorite songwriter for Frank Sinatra. Usually collaborating with lyricist Sammy Cahn, he wrote more songs for Sinatra than any other writer, including two Academy Award winners – “All the Way” and “High Hopes.” He won a fourth Oscar for “Call Me Irresponsible” in 1963.
One of the first inductees in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Jimmy Van Heusen lived to see his Emmy Award winning 1955 hit “Love and Marriage” used ironically as the theme for the sitcom Married With Children before his death on February 7, 1990. His songs are still heard and performed today, keeping his voice alive for another generation.