![]() ![]() After that the successes kept coming with another Oscar in 1959 for “High Hopes,” from the film “A Hole in the Head”, and again in 1963 for the song “Call Me Irresponsible,” from “Papa’s Delicate Condition”. In 1957 the Van Heusen/Cahn team won an Oscar for their song “All the Way,” from the movie “The Joker Is Wild”, the second for both Cahn and Van Heusen. He flew as a test pilot during WWII for Lockheed in California while at the same time composing songs.ĭue to Johnny Burke’s poor health Van Heusen later joined forces with composer Sammy Cahn. One of the other accomplishments during this time era was Jimmy’s flying. All together Jimmy Van Heusen composed songs for 23 Crosby Movies. It was with Johnny Burke that Jimmy received his first Oscar in 1944 for the song “Swinging on a Star” from the movie “Going My Way”, a Bing Crosby classic. Van Heusen and Burke were, in the words of Sammy Cahn, “ The A Team” writing hit after hit for Bing Crosby the most popular singer in the world at the time. Together they wrote the scores for Road to Zanzibar, Road to Morocco, Dixie, and Going My Way, among others. It was with Johnny at Paramount that he composed many songs for Bing Crosby movies. In the same season he teamed up with lyricist Johnny Burke and began writing songs for Paramount Pictures. In the year 1939-1940 Jimmy published 60 songs, nearly all of them receiving radio play. The following year they followed up with more hits: Polka Dots and Moonbeams, All This and Heaven Too, Imagination and Shake Down the Stars. His first big hit came in 1939 with Darn That Dream, a song written for Benny Goodman. ![]() Through his friendship with Harold Arlen’s (Music for Wizard Of Oz) brother Jerry several of his songs were featured in one of the Cotton Club revues in Harlem. Soon he was working in Tin Pan Alley, the Mecca of popular music in the early 20th century. But as hard as he worked to plug his own work he realized that to have a shot at real success he needed to go to New York City. Chester then asked Ralph- well how about my first name? Ralph mentioned he had a favorite cousin named James and that is how the name James Van Heusen came about. Ralph Harris was looking out the window of the 11th floor of the Hotel Syracuse and saw a billboard for Van Heusen collars. ![]() It was around 1928 when Chester Babcock was working as a DJ that his childhood friend helped him come up with his stage name. This all coincided with birth and infancy of radio and as such he was able to also get airplay for some of his songs. He felt every man and woman in the United States wanted to be a songwriter and for a trifling ten dollars he would compose a complete piano part to go along with the lyrics. He was once expelled from Central High in Syracuse after performing the satire song “My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes.” The student body loved the song but the teachers thought otherwise.ĭuring his early years he worked as a disc jockey for a local radio station and would invite people to send in lyrics. From early on he was always entertaining audiences with his wit and musical skill though not always gaining the support of all. His close friends called him Chester or “Chet”. Jimmy was born Edward Chester Babcock on Januin Syracuse New York to Ida and Arthur Babcock. Most of his songs were written with two lyricist partners Johnny Burke (1940 to 1953) and then Sammy Cahn. In spite of such accolades he personally felt one of his biggest honors was being elected by his peers as one of the original inductees to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971. He also composed the songs for another good friend, Bing Crosby for six of the seven Crosby/Hope Road pictures. Claiming four “Oscars” and one Emmy award among his credits he also wrote more songs (85) recorded by Frank Sinatra, his long time friend, than any other composer. Jimmy Van Heusen was inarguably one of the most accomplished songwriters in history. ![]()
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