Victor Young
b. 8 August 1900, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 11 November 1956, Palm Springs, California, USA. Young was a violinist, conductor, bandleader, arranger, and composer, responsible for over 300 film scores and themes. He studied at the Warsaw Conservatory in 1910 before joining the Warsaw Philharmonic as a violinist, and touring Europe. He returned to the USA at the outbreak of World War I, and later, in the early '20s, toured as a concert violinist, before becoming a concert master in theatre orchestras. On ‘defecting’ to popular music he served for a while as violinist-arranger with the popular pianist-bandleader Ted Fio Rito. During the '30s, Young worked a great deal on radio, conducting for many artists including Al Jolson, Don Ameche, and Smith Ballew. He also started recording with his own orchestra, and had a string of hits from 1931-54, including ‘Gems From The Band Wagon, The Last Round-Up, Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf, The Old Spinning Wheel, This Little Piggie Went To Market (featuring Jimmy Dorsey, Bunny Berigan and Joe Venuti), Flirtation Walk, Ev'ry Day, Way Back Home, About A Quarter To Nine and She's A Latin From Manhattan (both from the Jolson movie, Go Into Your Dance), It's A Sin To Tell A Lie, Mona Lisa, The Third Man Theme, Ruby, Limelight Theme, and The High And The Mighty. 
He also provided the orchestral accompaniments for other artists, including Dick Powell, Eddie Cantor, Deanna Durbin, Helen Forrest, Frances Langford, trumpet virtuoso Rafael Mendez, Cliff Edwards, the Boswell Sisters, and western movies singer Rex Allen. Most notably, it was Young's orchestra behind Judy Garland on her record of Over The Rainbow, the Oscar-winning song from the 1939 film, The Wizard Of Oz; and with Bing Crosby on two of his million-sellers, Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That's An Irish Lullaby), from Going My Way, the Best Picture of 1944; and British doctor Arthur Colahan's somewhat unconventional song, Galway Bay (1948). Young's extremely successful and prolific career as a film composer, musical director, conductor and arranger, initially for Paramount, started in the early '30s. Some of his best-known film works included WELLS FARGO (1937), SWING HIGH, SWING LOW (1937), BREAKING THE ICE (1938), GOLDEN BOY (1939), MAN OF CONQUEST (1939), ARIZONA (1940), I WANTED WINGS (1941), HOLD BACK THE DAWN (1941), FLYING TIGERS (1942), SILVER QUEEN (1942), THE GLASS KEY (1942), TAKE A LETTER, DARLING (1942), FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (1943), THE UNINVITED (1944), SAMSON AND DELILAH (1949), RIO GRANDE (1950), SCARAMOUCHE (1952), THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952), SHANE (1953) and THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN (1954). Young was awarded a posthumous Academy Award for his score for the 1956 film, AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, after his death in November 1956. 
His record of the title song made the US charts in 1957, and had a vocal version by Bing Crosby on the b-side. He also wrote some television themes including Blue Star, for the US MEDIC series, and contributed music to two minor Broadway shows, PARDON OUR FRENCH (1950) and SEVENTH HEAVEN (1955). Young's popular songs were written mostly with lyricist Ned Washington. These included Can't We Talk It Over?, A Hundred Years From Today (from the show BLACKBIRDS OF 1933/34), A Ghost Of A Chance (with co-writer, Bing Crosby), Stella By Starlight and My Foolish Heart (film title song). Young's other lyricists included Will J. Harris (Sweet Sue), Wayne King, Haven Gillespie, and Egbert Van Alstyne (Beautiful Love), Sam M. Lewis (Street Of Dreams), Edward Heyman (When I Fall In Love and Love Letters) and Sammy Cahn (the film title song, Written On The Wind). Young also wrote Golden Earrings with the song writing team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.