Cahn, Sammy (redirected from Sammy Cahn)

Cahn, Sammy (kän), 1913–93, American lyricist, b. New York City as Samuel Cohen. With his first collaborator, Saul Chaplin, he wrote material for vaudeville, and scored his first success (1935) with "Rhythm Is Our Business." He was even more successful with a 1938 version of the Yiddish "Bei Mir Bist du Shoen," which became a number-one hit for the Andrews Sisters. Cahn soon moved to Hollywood, where he collaborated with composer Jule Styne (1942–51) to write songs for 19 movies. He also wrote lyrics for several Broadway musicals, beginning with High Button Shoes (1947). Later collaborating with Jimmy Van Heusen, Cahn often worked with Frank Sinatra. The singer recorded 89 Cahn songs, including "Three Coins in the Fountain" (1954), "All the Way" 1957), "High Hopes" (1959), and "Call Me Irresponsible" (1963), each of which won Cahn an Academy Award. Toward the end of his active career (1974) he starred in a one-man Broadway show featuring his songs.

Bibliography

See his autobiography, I Should Care (1974).

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Cahn, Sammy

 orig. Samuel Cohen

(born June 18, 1913, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 15, 1993, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. song lyricist. He became a professional songwriter while still a teenager and later formed a songwriting team with Saul Chaplin; their first hit was “Rhythm Is Our Business” (1935). With Jule Styne he collaborated on songs for many films and musicals, including “Three Coins in the Fountain” (1954, Academy Award). In 1955 Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen formed a partnership and went on to write dozens of songs for Frank Sinatra, whose recordings won them Academy Awards for “All the Way,” “High Hopes,” and “Call Me Irresponsible.”

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Cahn, Sammy (b. Samuel Cohen) (1913–93) lyricist; born in New York City. While a boy he played violin in a Dixieland band and decided to write songs. With pianist Saul Chaplin he wrote many hits of the 1930s. Throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s he wrote many popular songs for Hollywood, Broadway, and television with composers Jule Styne and James Van Heusen. A prolific lyricist and writer, he published The Songwriter's Rhyming Dictionary in 1984.