Composer/Lyricist Richard Adler Has Died.
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Always found it fascinating he and Jerry Ross shared duties and shared credits for lyrics and music. And they wrote 2 brilliant shows that are still performed today.
After his Navy service he began his career as a lyricist, teaming up with Jerry Ross in 1950. As a duo they worked in tandem, both taking credit for lyrics and music.
After establishing their partnership, Adler and Ross quickly became protégés of composer/lyricist/publisher Frank Loesser. Their first notable composition was the song Rags to Riches, which was recorded by Tony Bennett and reached number 1 on the charts in late 1953.
At the same time Bennett’s recording was topping the charts, Adler and Ross began their career in the Broadway Theater with John Murray Anderson’s Almanac, a revue for which they provided most of the songs.
Adler and Ross’s second Broadway effort, The Pajama Game, opened in May 1954 and was a popular as well as a critical success, winning Tony Awards as well as the Donaldson Award and the Variety Drama Critics Award. Three songs from the show were covered by popular artists and made the upper reaches of the US Hit Parade: Patti Page’s version of “Steam Heat” reached #9; Archie Bleyer took “Hernando’s Hideaway” to #2; and Rosemary Clooney’s recording of “Hey There” made it to #1.
Opening almost exactly a year later, their next vehicle, Damn Yankees replicated the awards and success of the earlier show. Cross-over hits from the show were “Heart”, recorded by Eddie Fisher and “Whatever Lola Wants”, by Sarah Vaughan.
The duo had authored the music and lyrics for three great Broadway successes in three years, and had seen over a half-dozen of their songs reach the US top ten, two of them peaking at #1. However, their partnership was cut short when Ross died of a lung ailment in November 1955, aged 29.
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