Johnny Mercer
b. John Herndon Mercer, 18 November 1909, Savannah, Georgia, USA, d. 25 June 1976, Los Angeles, California, USA. A lyricist, composer and singer, Mercer was an important link with the first generation of composers of indigenous American popular music such as Jerome Kern and Harry Warren, through to post-World War II writers like Henry Mancini. Along the way, he collaborated with several others, including Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, Gene DePaul, Rube Bloom, Richard Whiting, Victor Schertzinger, Gordon Jenkins, Jimmy Van Heusen, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Matty Malneck, Arthur Schwartz and more. Most of the time, Mercer wrote the most literate and witty lyrics, but occasionally the melody as well. 
He moved to New York in the late '20s and worked in a variety of jobs before placing one of his first songs, Out Of Breath And Scared To Death Of You, (written with Everett Miller), in the Garrick Gaieties Of 1930. During the '30s, Mercer contributed the lyrics to several movie songs, including If You Were Mine from To Beat The Band, a record hit for Billie Holiday with Teddy Wilson, I'm An Old Cowhand (words and music) (Rhythm On The Range), Too Marvellous For Words (co-written with Richard Whiting for Ready, Willing And Able), Have You Got Any Castles, Baby? (Varsity Show), Hooray For Hollywood (Hollywood Hotel), Jeepers Creepers (Going Places) and Love Is Where You Find It (Garden Of The Moon). 
Mercer's other songs during the decade included Fare-Thee-Well To Harlem, Moon Country, When A Woman Loves A Man (with Gordon Jenkins and Bernard Hanighan), P.S. I Love You, Goody Goody, You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby, And The Angels Sing, Cuckoo In The Clock, Day In—Day Out and I Thought About You. In the latter part of the decade, he appeared frequently on radio, as MC and singer with Paul Whiteman, with Benny Goodman and Bob Crosby. With his southern drawl and warm, good-natured style, he was a natural for the medium, and, in the early '40s, had his own show, JOHNNY MERCER'S MUSIC SHOP. During this period, Mercer became a director of the songwriter's copyright organization, ASCAP. Also, in 1942, he combined with songwriter-turned-film-producer, Buddy De Sylva, and businessman, Glen Wallich, to form Capitol Records, which was, in its original form, dedicated to musical excellence, a policy which reflected Mercer's approach to all his work. 
He had previously had record hits with other writers’ songs, such as Mr Gallagher And Mr Sheen and Small Fry, along with his own Mr. Meadowlark (a duet with Bing Crosby), and Strip Polka. For Capitol, he continued to register in the US Hit Parade with popular favourites such as Personality, Candy; and some of his own numbers such as G.I. Jive, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive, Glow Worm; and On The Atchison, Topeka, And The Santa Fe, which was also sung by Judy Garland in the film, The Harvey Girls, and gained Mercer his first Academy Award. 
His other '40s song successes, many of them from movies, included The Waiter And The Porter And The Upstairs Maid (from Birth Of The Blues); Blues In The Night and This Time's The Dream's On Me (Blues In The Night); Tangerine, I Remember You and Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In A Hurry ( The Fleet's In), Dearly Beloved and I'm Old Fashioned ( You Were Never Lovelier) (Kern); Hit The Road To Dreamland and That Old Black Magic, Billy Daniels’ Identity Song (Star Spangled Rhythm), My Shining Hour (The Sky's The Limit) and Come Rain Or Come Shine, Legalize My Name and Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home, from the stage show St. Louis Woman (Arlen). 
Two particularly attractive compositions were Fools Rush In (with Rube Bloom), which was a big hit for Glenn Miller and the movie title song Laura, with Mercer's lyric complementing a haunting tune by David Raksin. Mercer's collaboration with Hoagy Carmichael produced some of his most memorable songs, such as Lazybones, The Old Music Master, Skylark, How Little We Know and the Oscar-winning In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening, sung by Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman in the film Here Comes The Groom. In the same year, Mercer provided both the music and lyrics for the Broadway show, Top Banana, a ‘burlesque musical’ starring Phil Silvers and a host of mature funnymen. The entertaining score included the witty A Word A Day. 
The '50s were extremely productive years for Mercer, with songs such as Here's To My Lady, I Wanna Be Around (later successful for Tony Bennett), and yet more movie songs, including I Want To Be A Dancing Man, The Bachelor Dinner Song and Seeing's Believing, sung by Fred Astaire in The Belle Of New York; I Like Men (covered by Peggy Lee), I Got Out Of Bed On The Right Side and Ain't Nature Grand from Dangerous When Wet; and Something's Gotta Give and Sluefoot (words and music by Mercer) from another Fred Astaire film, Daddy Long Legs. Mercer also provided additional lyrics to When The World Was Young (Ah, The Apple Trees), Midnight Sun, Early Autumn and Autumn Leaves. The highlight of the decade was, perhaps, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954). Starring Howard Keel and Jane Powell, Mercer and Gene DePaul's ‘pip of a score’ included Spring, Spring, Spring, Bless Your Beautiful Hide, Sobbin' Women, When You're In Love, and Goin' Courtin', amongst others. Two years later Mercer and DePaul got together again for the stage show, Li'l Abner, starring Stubby Kaye, and including such songs as Namely You, Jubilation T. Cornpone and The Country's In The Very Best Of Hands. It ran on Broadway for nearly 700 performances and was filmed in 1959. 
The early '60s brought Mercer two further Academy Awards; one for Moon River from Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961), and the other, the title song to The Days Of Wine And Roses. Moon River was the song in which Mercer first coined the now- famous phrase, ‘my huckleberry friend’. Danny Williams took the former song to the UK number slot in 1961, while namesake Andy Williams and Mercer's co-composer Henry Mancini both scored US Top 40 hits with the latter in 1963. Mancini also wrote other movie songs with Mercer, such as Charade, The Sweetheart Tree (from The Great Race) and Whistling Away The Dark (Darling Lili). In the early '70s, Mercer spent a good deal of time in Britain, and, in 1974, wrote the score, with André Previn, for the West End musical, The Good Companions. He died, two years later, on 25 June 1976, in Los Angeles, California, USA. 
Several of his 1,000-plus songs became an integral part of many a singer's repertoire. In 1992, Frank Sinatra was still using One For My Baby (music by Harold Arlen), ‘the greatest saloon song ever written’, as a moving set-piece in his concert performances. Dream (words and music by Mercer), closed Sinatra's radio and television shows for many years, and the singer also made impressive recordings of lesser-known Mercer items, such as Talk To Me, Baby and The Summer Wind. Memories of his rapport with Bing Crosby in their early days were revived in 1961, when Mercer recorded Two Of A Kind with Bobby Darin, full of spontaneous asides, and featuring Mercer numbers such as Bob White and If I Had My Druthers, plus other humorous oldies, like Who Takes Care Of The Caretaker's Daughter and My Cutie's Due At Two-To-Two Today. Further recordings include: AUDIO SCRAP BOOK (1964-74), JOHNNY MERCER SINGS JOHNNY MERCER, AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE, JOHNNY MERCER'S MUSIC SHOP and MY HUCKLEBERRY FRIEND. Several artists, such as Marlene VerPlanck and Susannah McCorkle, have devoted complete albums to his work. In 1992 Capitol Records celebrated its 50th anniversary by issuing TWO MARVELLOUS FOR WORDS (CAPITOL SINGS JOHNNY MERCER), which included some of the label's most eminent artists singing their co-founder's popular song lyrics. 
Further reading: Our Huckleberry Friend : The Life, Times And Song Lyrics Of Johnny Mercer, B. Back and G. Mercer. Johnny Mercer In Song By Song, C. Brahms and N. Sherrin.