Jimmy McHugh
b. James Francis McHugh, 10 July 1894, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, d. 23 May 1969, Beverly Hills, California, USA. McHugh was a prolific composer for films and the Broadway stage. He was educated at St. John's Preparatory School and Holy Cross College, where he received an honours degree in music. After receiving professional tuition he worked as a rehearsal pianist at the Boston Opera House, and later as a song-plugger for the Boston office of Irving Berlin Music. After moving to New York, he wrote for Harlem's Cotton Club revues, and had hits with When My Sugar Walks Down The Street (with lyric by Irving Millsand Gene Austin, which was a record hit for Austin and popular '20s vocalist Aileen Stanley), and I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me (with lyric by Clarence Gaskill). 
His first Broadway success was the score for the all-black revue, Blackbirds Of 1928, in collaboration with Dorothy Fields, who became his first main lyricist. The show's songs included I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Diga Diga Doo, I Must Have That Man, Doin The New Low-Down’ and Porgy. The original stars, Adelaide Hall and Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson were joined by the Mills Brothers, Ethel Waters, and the orchestras of Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Don Redman on a rare reissue album. The McHugh/Fields team wrote the songs for two more Broadway shows, HELLO DADDY (1929) featuring In A Great Big Way and Let's Sit And Talk About You, and INTERNATIONAL REVUE (1930), starring Gertrude Lawrence and Harry Richman, and featuring two important McHugh songs, On The Sunny Side Of The Street and Exactly Like You. McHugh and Fields also wrote songs for the Chicago revue, CLOWNS IN CLOVER, which introduced Don't Blame Me. During the '30s and '40s McHugh is reputed to have written songs for over 50 films, initially with Fields, and including the title song from CUBAN LOVE SONG; the title song from DINNER AT EIGHT, starring Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, and Clark Gable; the title song and You Say The Darndest Thing, from SINGIN’ THE BLUES; Lost In A Fog from HAVE A HEART; I'm In The Mood For Love and I Feel A Song Coming On, from EVERY NIGHT AT EIGHT, starring Alice Faye; the title song from Dancing Lady; and two songs, Lovely To Look At and I Won't Dance, for the film of the Broadway hit, Roberta, on which McHugh and Fields collaborated with Jerome Kern. After Fields, McHugh's other main collaborator was Harold Adamson. Together they wrote the film songs There's Something In The Air, from BANJO ON MY KNEE; the title song and My Fine Feathered Friend, from YOU'RE A SWEETHEART, starring Alice Faye and George Murphy; My Own, from THAT CERTAIN AGE; A Serenade To The Stars and I Love To Whistle, from Mad About Music, starring Deanna Durbin; How Blue The Night, from FOUR JILLS IN A JEEP, starring Dick Haymes, Alice Faye, and Betty Grable; and eight songs for an early Frank Sinatra film, Higher And Higher, including The Music Stopped, I Couldn't Sleep A Wink Last Night, A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening and I Saw You First; Have I Told You Lately That I Love You and A Lovely Night To Go Dreaming, from CALENDAR GIRL; Red Hot And Beautiful’ and Hushabye Island, from SMASH UP; and In The Middle Of Nowhere and I Get The Neck Of The Chicken, from SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS. Two other well-known McHugh/Adamson songs were Coming In On A Wing And A Prayer, and Love Me As Though There Were No Tomorrow. In 1939, McHugh collaborated with Al Dubin for the song, South American Way. It featured in the Broadway show, STREETS OF PARIS, and the movie, Down Argentine Way. In both show and film, it was given the full treatment by Carmen Miranda. In 1940, McHugh again wrote with Dubin, and Howard Dietz, for the show Keep Off the Grass, which included the songs Clear Out Of This World and A Latin Tune, A Manhattan Moon, And You. Other popular McHugh songs include I'm Shooting High, Let's Get Lost, I'd Know You Anywhere’, You've Got Me This Way, ‘Sing A Tropical Song, ‘Murder She Says’, Say A Prayer For The Boys Over There, Can't Get Out Of This Mood, In A Moment Of Madness, Blue Again, Goodbye Blues, I've Just Found Out About Love And I Like It, ‘Warm and Willing’, ‘The Star You Wished Upon Last Night, Where The Hot Wind Blows and Massachusetts. McHugh's collaborators during his long career included Ted Koehler, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer, Herb Magidson, Ralph Freed, Ned Washington and Arnold Johnson. 
During World War II, McHugh wrote several US Government-commissioned War Savings Bond songs such as Buy, Buy, Buy A Bond and We've Got Another Bond To Buy. For his work during the war he was awarded the Presidential Certificate Of Merit. He continued writing well into the '50s, and in 1955 had a hit with Too Young To Go Steady, recorded by Patti Page and Nat King Cole.