Word: tunesmith
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...when ragtime was still the thing, a natty Chicago tunesmith named Abe Olman wrote a dumpy, foursquare little ragtime tune called Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh! Within a few months it rolled up a sale of nearly 1,500,000 copies. Then, as it must to all tunes, oblivion came to Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny...
...music copies and some 350,000 records sold to date, the revived Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh! was nudging South of the Border for first place on the best-seller list. Meanwhile Band Leader Tucker and Bonnie moved into big time on the Lucky Strike Your Hit Parade, and Tunesmith Olman was taking in more royalties than Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh! had earned in its first incarnation...
Last year a morose Czech tunesmith named Jaromir Vejvoda wrote a bouncing little tune and called it Skoda Isky ("No more love"). Popular among polka-dancing Bohemians and Moravians, Vejvoda's bit of tinkle-tonkle was soon recorded by an old-fashioned Czech beer-garden band, and in disc form reached the U. S. Because of the record's quaint, beery boopishness, Victor (its U. S. distributor) renamed it the Beer Barrel Polka. The Beer Barrel Polka record not only caught on, it spouted continuously and deliriously from slot machines in every skating rink, juke joint and hamburger stand...
...comes to patriotism he is not only regular but ready. Long before the World War he warmed up with such rousing ditties as I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy and You're a Grand Old Flag. When the War really gave him something to pitch to, Tunesmith Cohan wrote its U. S. theme song. Over There sold around 2,000,000 copies...
Last week Tunesmith Cohan tried his aging right arm again. Before 1,500 approving members of the American Newspaper Publishers' Association in Manhattan, he sang his latest marching song. Its title: We Must Be Ready. Sample lines...