Jule Styne: I’ve Heard That Song Before

The December 31 birthday of Jule Styne (1905-1994) comes with its own holiday soundtrack — Styne wrote the tunes for “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! (1945), “The Christmas Waltz” (1957), and the 1962 tv special Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.In light of the scope of his catalog, some may be appalled that I lead with those precise compositions, but think of it: if one is his songs is playing at this very moment, it’s most likely to be of those.

Styne’s early years are the stuff of legend, though he did not hit his stride in life until quite a middle aged man. Born in London to Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine, his fate was sealed when at the age of five he joined Sir Harry Lauder onstage and sang with him at the Hippodrome theatre. He was eight when the family moved to Chicago, and ten when he played piano with several major symphony orchestras throughout the midwest as a performing prodigy. His formal training was at the Chicago Musical College.

At 13, Styne was told his hands were going to be too small for a career as a concert pianist. He responded by plunging into the theatrical world. He played burlesque houses and speakeasies in Chicago throughout the ’20s. A teenaged Mike Todd commissioned his first original song. By 1929 he was playing in Ben Pollack’s band. Shortly after that he led Harry Richman’s orchestra, and became that performer’s vocal coach. This brought him to Hollywood where he briefly coached Shirley Temple at 20th Century Fox, wrote cowboy tunes for Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, and songs for several Ritz Brothers pictures. With Frank Loesser he wrote the 1941 hit “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You”. Most of his early hits were written with Sammy Cahn, with whom he wrote standards like “It’s Magic” (1947) and “Three Coins in the Fountain” (1955).

Styne was already in his 40s when he began his career as a Broadway composer, and this would prove to be his life for the next half century. His shows included High Button Shoes (1947-49), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949-51), Two on the Aisle (1951-52), Bells Are Ringing (1956-59), Gypsy(1959-61), Do Re Mi (1960-62), Subways Are for Sleeping (1961-62), Funny Girl (1964-67), and the Tony winning Hallelujah, Baby (1967-68) among others. He also did the songs for the 1955 film My Sister Eileen (quite distinct from Comden and Green’sWonderful Town). One of his more unusual assignments was writing songs for the Bronx amusement park Freedomland USA in 1960. His last original score for Broadway was the 1993 stage adaptation of The Red Shoes.

For more about show business historyconsult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,