- Collection:
- Johnny Mercer Oral History Project
- Title:
- Ray Evans and Jay Livingston oral history interview
- Creator:
- Evans, Ray, 1915-2007
Livingston, Jay, 1915-2001 - Contributor to Resource:
- Paton, Christopher Ann, 1956-
- Publisher:
- Georgia State University Library
- Date of Original:
- 1996-06-01
- Subject:
- Lyricists
Popular music
Composers
Capitol Records, Inc. - People:
- Mercer, Johnny, 1909-1976
- Location:
- United States, 39.76, -98.5
- Medium:
- oral histories (literary works)
- Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- application/pdf
audio/mpeg - Description:
- In this interview, which took place on June 1, 1996, Mr. Evans and Mr. Livingston discuss their recollections of songwriter Johnny Mercer, including particularly Mercer's assistance with their careers during their first years in Hollywood (ca. 1945-ca. 1947). They mention Mercer's activities in seeking out new talent for Capitol Records during this time: they talk about Mercer's discovery of Nat King Cole, and his support of talented singers and musicians such as Margaret Whiting, Jo Stafford, Paul Weston, and others. They describe Mercer's personality, their personal relationships with Mercer, and their social interactions with him. In the course of praising Mercer's unique abilities as a lyricist, they mention "I'll Remember You" "Blues in the Night" "G.I. Jive" "Satin Doll" "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses" among other songs. They speak in some detail of the ten-year period they were employed as contract songwriters at Paramount Pictures (ca. 1946-ca. 1956) and the songs they wrote while there, including "To Each His Own", "Mona Lisa" and "Silver Bells." They also talk about life and work at Paramount and in Hollywood as musicians and songwriters during the era before the advent of rock and roll. In the final section of the interview, before the conversation turns to the upcoming Olympics in Atlanta, they talk briefly about a variety of subjects, including Mercer's work with Mancini, the recording process in the 1940s, and the decline in musical standards in the rock-and-roll era.
Ray Evans and Jay Livingston worked as a songwriting team in Hollywood during a long period that began after World War II and extended to the decade of the 1970s. Together they wrote a number of well-known songs for film, including "To Each His Own" (1946) and the Oscar-winning "Buttons and Bows" (1948) and "Mona Lisa" (1950). In the 1950s and 1960s they expanded their work to include television and Broadway: the two created the Broadway musical Oh, Captain! in 1958, and they wrote the themes for the television series Bonanza and Mr. Ed. One of their last collaborative works was the Broadway musical Sugar Babies (1979). - Local Identifier:
- M134_EvansR-LivingstonJ
- Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/merceroh/id/34
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/iiif/2/merceroh:34/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Copyright to items in this collection is owned by Georgia State University Library. Georgia State University Library has made this digital collection available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License. Please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ for more information.
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: M134_EvansR-LivingstonJ, Johnny Mercer Oral History Project, Popular Music and Culture Collection, Special Collections and Archives, University Library, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
- Extent:
- Audio: 00:49:52, Transcript: 48 pages
- Holding Institution:
- Georgia State University. Special Collections
- Rights:
-
