One of the last popular song lyricists in the old tradition of Broadway and the classical Hollywood musical. Growing up on New York's Lower East Side, Cahn created vaudeville material with Saul Chaplin and later moved to Hollywood in the late 1930s after they penned a No. 1 hit for the Andrews Sisters, "Bei Mir Bist du Schoen". When Chaplin moved on to orchestrating musicals, Cahn teamed with Jule Styne, co-writing songs for 19 films between 1942 and 1951 as well as the landmark Broadway musical, "High Button Shoes" (1947). Although he worked occasionally with such other collaborators as Nicholas Brodszky ("Be My Love", "I'll Never Stop Loving You"), Cahn made a memorable partner for Styne, encapsulating wartime nostalgia with "It's Been a Long, Long Time" and providing No. 1 hits for Frank Sinatra (the Oscar-winning "Three Coins in the Fountain") and Doris Day ("It's Magic").
When Styne decided to stay with Broadway work, Cahn teamed with Jimmy Van Heusen in 1956. They practically became Frank Sinatra's personal songwriters, creating such classics for Ol' Blue Eyes as "Love and Marriage", "Come Fly with Me", and the Oscar winners "High Hopes" and "All the Way". A lyricist whose words could be brash and showbizzy or touchingly sentimental, Cahn took to the stage himself late in life with Broadway's highly successful one-man show, "Words and Music".
Family
SON: Steven Cahn. Survived him.
DAUGHTER: Laurie Cahn. Survived him.
Companion
WIFE: Tita Cahn. Fashion coordinator. Cahn's second wife; survived him; at one time worked for clothing designer Donald Brooks.
Milestone
Studied the violin as a child; worked in his teens as an itinerant fiddler, playing at wedding, bar mitzvahs and other festivities
1935: Began career as lyricist
1935: Teamed with Saul Chaplin writing material for vaudeville; pair had first song hit with "Rhythm Is Our Business", written for Jimmie Lunceford's orchestra
Cahn and Chaplin asked by Decca Records producer Jack Kapp to write an English-language version of a song from the score of "I Would If I Could", a Yiddish musical of 1933
Moved to Los Angeles in the early 1940s; worked for a time for Columbia Studios
1942: Began songwriting collaboration with Jule Styne (date approximate)
1947: Wrote (with Styne) the score for the popular Broadway musical, "High Button Shoes"
1956: Ended collaboration with Styne; partnered with composer Jimmy Van Heusen
1965 - 1966: Co-wrote (with Van Heusen) two unsuccessful Broadway musicals, "Skyscraper" and "Walking Happy"
1974: Opened on Broadway at the Golden Theatre with "Words and Music"; later toured with the show
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