JOHNNY MERCER

Lyricist, composer and singer Johnny Mercer was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1909. He had hit songs with Bing Crosby in the late 1930s, with Jo Stafford ("Candy') and on his own, especially "Accentuate the Positive." On the radio he sang with Benny Goodman and had his own shows, including "Johnny Mercer's Music Shop." Greatly admired in the music industry both personally and for his intelligent, optimistic lyrics, he wrote or co-wrote over 1,100 songs, including "Blues in the Night," "That Old Black Magic," "One For My Baby, "Come Rain or Come Shine" (all with Harold Arlen); "Lazy Bones" and "Skylark" with Hoagy Carmichael; "I'm a Old Cowhand," "I Remember You," "P.S. I Love You," "Jeepers Creepers," "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," "When a Woman Loves a Man," "Too Marvelous for Words," and "Fools Rush In." He won Academy Awards for "The Atchison, Topeka and The Santa Fe" (1946, with Harry Warren), "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (1951, with Hoagy Carmichael), "Moon River' (1961, with Henry Mancini) and "Days of Wine an Roses" (1962, with Mancini). As president and co-founder of Capitol Records, Mercer was instrumental in the early recording careers of such musicians as Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole. He died in Los Angeles in 1976.