Don Raye
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Don Raye | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Donald MacRae Wilhoite Jr. |
Born | March 16, 1909 |
Origin | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Died | January 29, 1985 | (aged 75)
Occupation(s) | Songwriter |
Don Raye (born Donald MacRae Wilhoite Jr., March 16, 1909 – January 29, 1985)[1] was an American songwriter, best known for his songs for The Andrews Sisters such as "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar", "The House of Blue Lights", "Just for a Thrill" and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." The latter was co-written with Hughie Prince.
While known for such wordy novelty numbers, he also wrote the lyrics to "
In 1985, Don Raye was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[2]
History
Raye started his career as a dancer, going on to win the "Virginia State Dancing Championship."[1] He started work in vaudeville as a song and dance man often writing his own songs for his act.[1] In 1935, he started work as a songwriter, collaborating with composers Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin, and bandleader-saxophonist Jimmie Lunceford.[1]
His great success with "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" (co-written with Bradley's drummer Ray McKinley) led Raye to write follow-up songs, in collaboration with Hughie Prince: "Scrub Me Mama, with a Boogie Beat" and "Bounce Me Brother, with a Solid Four." Raye and Prince were signed by Universal Pictures to score musical comedies with The Andrews Sisters, The Ritz Brothers, and Abbott and Costello; the Andrews trio recorded some of the Raye-Prince compositions for Decca Records.[1] Raye and Prince also penned a risqué, best-selling novelty hit, "She Had to Go and Lose It at the Astor."
Raye joined the
Raye co-wrote "The Ballad of Thunder Road" with its script writer and star, Robert Mitchum. The Robert Mitchum version of the song did not appear in the 1958 movie Thunder Road, but was released by Capitol Records.
He co-wrote "The House of Blue Lights" in 1946 with Freddie Slack, a song which was recorded originally by Freddie Slack with Ella Mae Morse on vocals, by The Andrews Sisters, Merrill Moore (1952), Chuck Miller (1955), Chuck Berry, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Asleep at the Wheel, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Publications
In 1971, the Charles E. Tuttle Company published Raye's Like Haiku, a collection of poems. He called them "not haiku in the true sense. They are 'like' haiku. An Occidental songwriter's haiku. I have merely used that stringent form to frame my own pictures of wonder, my moments of awareness of those things which have made me feel."[citation needed]
References
- ^ ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
- ^ "Don Raye Exhibit Home". Songwriters Hall of Fame. 1909-03-16. Archived from the original on 2016-04-14. Retrieved 2016-05-13.
External links
- Don Raye at IMDb