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Irving Gordon

sheet music cover: "Unforgettalbe"
Vintage sheet music for
"Unforgettable"
words and music by Irving Gordon
1951
(Nat King Cole on cover)

Basic Information

Born: Irving L. Gordon, February 14, 1915, New York City

Died: December 1, 1996 (age 81), Los Angeles, California

Primary songwriting role: lyricist; also a composer

Co-writers: Duke Ellington, Jack Lawrence, Jerry Livingston; See also a database of 10 Irving Gordon co-writers.

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Basic Songwiter Information
Overview and Commentary
Music-Video Cabinet
Songs by This Songwriter
in the Cafe Songbook Catalog
of The Great American Songbook
Web Research Resources
Print Research Resources
Visitor Comments
Master List of Songwriters
Credits

Overview and Commentary
Irving Gordon
(This section is currently in preparation)


book cover: "Reading Lyrics" Ed. by Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball
Reading Lyrics,
Edited and with an Introduction by Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball, New York: Pantheon Books, 2000.

Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball attest to Irving Gordon's versatility by pointing out that he wrote songs made into hits by both Billie Holiday ("Me, Myself and I") and Patti Page "(Throw) Mama from the Train (a kiss)." Patti Page also recorded another one of his novelty songs from a series based on the names of a states, "Mister and Mississippi." Among his other songs are "What Will I Tell My Heart?" "Moments in the Moonlight," "All Dressed Up To Smile," and perhaps his most important contribution, the lyric for Ellington's "Prelude to a Kiss."

Gordon grew up in Brooklyn, started his music training on the violin, later worked at Catskill resort hotels writing musical parodies for their shows, and in the thirties, was employed by Mills Music, a publishing and performer management company in New York City, as a contract composer and lyricist. It was there in 1937 that he was introduced to Duke Ellington who asked him to put words to some of his compositions including "Prelude to a Kiss." According to the Wikipedia article on Gordon (based on Gordon's obituary by Benny Green in The Guardian, London), "Working with Ellington was probably the most difficult commission there was, because most of the Ellington songs were really instrumental pieces whose singable potential only emerged after they had been played and recorded by one or another of the soloists in the Ellington orchestra."

Also according to Wikipedia, "Gordon did not care for Rock music, which he said was composed not of 'melodies but maladies.' Gordon told the Los Angeles Times that by 1960 the vogue for rhymed words and hummable melodies had passed, 'So I became a tennis pro. I have many lives'."

His last and biggest hit had two lives itself, first by a father and then, after his death, by his daughter as a duet with her father: Nat King Cole's version of "Unforgettable" (for which Gordon wrote both words and music), reached the charts in 1952, and Natalie Cole's recording, on which her voice was superimposed over her father's to create the effect of a duet, won a Grammy in 1992. So neither Cole, Sr. nor Gordon were around for the award.

   
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Cafe Songbook
Music-Video Cabinet:
Irving Gordon

A Sampling of the Wide Variety of Musical Styles for Which Irving Gordon's Wrote


"Me, Myself and I" (words and music by Irving Gordon, Allan Roberts, and Alvin S. Kaufman; sung by Billie Holiday (with Buck Clayton (trumpet) Edmond Hall (clarinet) Lester Young (tenor sax) James Sherman (piano) Freddie Green (guitar) Walter Page (bass) Jo Jones (drums)--1937

Billie Holiday
album: The Quintessential
Billie Holiday Vol. 4

Amazon iTunes

Same track of "Me, Myself and I" as on the video



"Prelude to a Kiss" (music by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills, words by Irving Gordon,
sung by Billie Holiday with Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison (trumpet) Benny Carter (alto sax) Jimmy Rowles (piano) Barney Kessel (guitar) John Simmons (bass) Larry Bunker (drums) -- 1955

Billie Holiday
album: Music for Torching

Amazon iTunes icon


Video tribute to Marilyn Monroe over Irving Gordon's "Unforgettable" sung by Nat King Cole
(1952)

Nat King Cole
The Very Best of Nat King Cole

album cover: The Very Best of Nat King Cole

Amazon iTunes

same track of "Unforgettable" as on video



"The Kentuckian Song" (1955, words and music by Irving Gordon) was the theme song of the movie The Kentuckian starring Burt Lancaster. Sung here by The Hilltopers, it was also a #8 hit for Eddy Arnold on the Country chart that year.


"Mister and Mississippi" (1951, words and Music by Irving Gordon) vocal by Patti Page

Amazon iTunes icon

same track of "Mister and Mississippi" as on the album Patti Page's Greatest Hits as on the video. (a different recording on The Millennial Collection from iTunes.
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Irving Gordon Songs
currently included in the
Cafe Songbook Catalog of
The Great American Songbook
  1. Prelude to a Kiss
  2. Unforgettable
Click here for a database of songs written or co-written by Irving Gordon.
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Research Resources:
Irving Gordon

Irving Gordon research resources on the web (listed alphabetically by web source):
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Irving Gordon research resources in print (listed chronologically):
 
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Credits

(Irving Gordon page)

 

Credits for Videomakers of videos used on this page:

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Cafe Songbook
Master List
of Great American Songbook Songwriters

Names of songwriters who have written at least one song included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook are listed below.

 

Names of songwriters with two or more song credits in the catalog (with rare exceptions) are linked to their own Cafe Songbook pages, e.g. Fields, Dorothy.

 

Names of songwriters with only one song credit in the catalog are linked to the Cafe Songbook page for that song, on which may be found information about the songwriter or a link to an information source for him or her.

 

Please note: Cafe Songbook pages for songwriters are currently in various stages of development.

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Adams, Lee

Adams, Stanley

Adamson, Harold

Ager, Milton

Ahbez, Eden

Ahlert, Fred

Akst, Harry

Alexander, Van

Allen, Lewis

Allen, Steve

Alter, Louis

Altman, Arthur

Anderson, Maxwell

Andre, Fabian

Arlen, Harold
Arnheim, Gus

Arodin, Sid

Atwood, Hub

Astaire, Fred

Austin, Gene

Ayer, Nat D.

Barbour, Dave

Barnes, Billy

Barris, Harry

Bassman, George

Belle, Barbara

Bennett, Dave

Bergman, Alan and Marilyn

Berlin, Irving

Bernie, Ben

Bernstein, Leonard

Best, William "Pat"

Blackburn, John

Blackwell, Otis (a.k.a. John Davenport)

Blake, Eubie

Blane, Ralph

Blitzstein, Marc

Bloom, Rube

Bock, Jerry

Block, Martin

Boland, Clay

Borne, Hal

Borodin, Alexander

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Boyd, Elisse

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Brooks, Harry

Brooks, Shelton

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Brown, Lew

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Cahn, Sammy

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Carey, Bill (William D.)

Carmichael, Hoagy

Carroll, Harry

Carter, Benny

Casey, Kenneth

Casucci, Leonello

Chaplin, Charlie

Chaplin, Saul

Charlap, Moose

Clare, Sidney

Chase, Newell

Churchill, Frank

Clarke, Grant

Clifford, Gordon

Clinton, Larry

Coates, Carroll

Coleman, Cy

Comden, Betty and Adolph Green

Conley, Larry

Connelly, Reginald

Conrad, Con

Cooley, Eddie

Coots, J. Fred

Cory, George

Coslow, Sam

Creamer, Henry

Crosby, Bing

Cross, Douglas

Daniels, Charles N.
Davenport, John (See Otis Blackwell.)

David, Mack

Davis, Benny

Davis, Jimmy

Dee, Sylvia

De Lange, Eddie

Denniker, Paul

Dennis, Matt

De Paul, Gene

De Rose, Peter

De Sylva, B.G. (Buddy)

DeVries, John

Dietz, Howard

Distel, Sacha

Dixon, Mort

Donaldson, Walter

Dorsey, Jimmy

Dougherty, Doc

Drake, Ervin
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Dreyer, Dave

Dubin, Al

Duke, Vernon

Edens, Roger

Edwards, Michael

Egan, Raymond B.

Eliscu, Edward

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L. E. Freeman

Gaines, Lee

Gallop, Sammy

Gannon, Kim

Garner, Errol

Gaskill, Clarence

Gensler, Lewis E.

George, Don

Gershwin, George

Gershwin, Ira

Gillespie, Haven

Golden, John

Goodman, Benny

Goodwin, Joe

Gordon, Irving

Gordon, Mack

Gorney, Jay

Gorrell, Stuart

Goulding, Edmund

Grainger, Porter

Grand, Murray

Grant, Ian

Gray, Chauncey

Gray, Timothy

Grever, Maria

Grey, Clifford
Green, Adolph and Betty Comden

Green, Bud

Green, Freddie

Green, Johnny

Gross, Walter

Haggart, Bob

Hamilton, Arthur

Hamilton, Nancy

Hamm, Fred

Hammerstein, Arthur

Hammerstein II, Oscar

Hampton, Lionel

Handy, W. C.
Hanighen, Bernie

Hanley, James F.

Harbach, Otto

Harburg, E. Y. (Yip)

Harling, W. Franke

Harline, Leigh

Hart, Lorenz

Henderson, Jimmy

Henderson, Ray

Herbert, Victor

Herman, Woody

Herron, Joel S.

Herzog Jr., Arthur

Heyman, Edward

Heyward, Dubose

Higginbotham, Irene

Higgins, Billy

Hilliard, Bob

Hirsch, Walter

Hodges, Johnny

Holiday, Billie

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Hollander, Frederick

Holofcener, Larry

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James, Freddy (Pseud. for Teddy Powell)

James, Harry

James, Paul

Jenkins, Gordon

Johnson, James P.

Johnston, Arthur

Johnston, Patricia

Jolson, Al

Jones, Isham

Kahal, Irving

Kahn, Gus

Kahn, Roger Wolfe

Kalmar, Bert

Keith, Marilyn
Kent, Walter

Kern, Jerome

Kisco, Charles

Kitchings, Irene

Koehler, Ted

Kosma, Joseph

Kramer, Alex

Kramer, Joan Whitney

Kurtz, Manny

Laine, Frankie

Lamare, Jules (a.k.a Charles N.

Daniels and Neil Moret)

Lane, Burt
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Latouche, John

Lawrence, Eddie

Lawrence, Jack

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Lee, Peggy

Leigh, Carolyn

Leonard, Anita

Lerner, Alan Jay
Leslie, Edgar

Levant, Oscar

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Lewis, Sam M.

Link, Harry

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Livingston, Fud

Livingston, Jay

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Maschwitz, Eric

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McCarthy, Joseph

McCarthy, Jr., Joseph

McHugh, Jimmy

McCoy, Joe

Mellin, Robert

Mercer, Johnny

Merrill, Bob

Mertz, Paul Madeira

Meyer, Joseph

Miles, Dick

Miller, Glenn

Miller, Nathan Ned

Mills, Irving
Mitchell, Sidney D.

Moll, Billy

Monaco, Jimmy

Moret, Neil (aka Charles N. Daniels)

Morey, Larry

Moross, Jerome

Mundy, Jimmy

Muse, Clarence

Myrow, Josef

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Rose, Fred

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Ruby, Harry

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Sherwin, Manning

Sigman, Carl

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Skylar, Sunny

Snyder, Ted

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