Alan Jay Lerner
b. 31 August 1918, New York, USA, d. June 1986. A lyricist and librettist, and one of the most eminent and literate personalities in the history of the Broadway musical theatre, Lerner played the piano as a child, and studied at the Juilliard School of Music, the Bedales public school in England, and Harvard University, where he took a Bachelor of Science degree in the late 30s. After working as a journalist and radio scriptwriter, he met composer Frederick Loewe at the Lamb's Club in 1942. Also a pianist, Loewe had moved to the USA in 1924, and had previously been involved in some unsuccessful musical shows. The new team's first efforts, What's Up? and The Day Before Spring (1945; "A Jug Of Wine", "I Love You This Morning"), did not exactly set Broadway alight, but two years later, they had their first hit with Brigadoon. Lerner's whimsical fantasy about a Scottish village that only comes to life every 100 years, contained "Waitin' For My Dearie", "I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean", "The Heather On The Hill", "Come To Me, Bend To Me", "From This Day On", and the future standard, "Almost Like Being In Love". A film version was made in 1954, starring Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse and Van Johnson.
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Albums
Top Tracks
- Camelot
- If Ever I Would Leave You
- I Loved You Once In Silence
- How to Handle a Woman
- What Do the Simple Folk Do?
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