Joe Young

Tin Pan Alley lyricist Joe Young wrote prolifically from early 1910 through the late '30s, usually with songwriting partner and lyricist Sam M. Lewis. Born in N.Y.C. in 1889, Young got his first job in the music business as a singer in a publishing house. His hits before teaming up with Lewis in 1916 include "Don't Blame It All on Broadway" (1913). Young and Lewis collaborated with a number of different composers -- including George Meyer, Fred Ahlert, Jean Schwartz, and Ray Henderson -- on many successful songs, some of which were used in stage musicals like Sinbad (1918) and Kid Boots (1924). Lewis and Young had a prolific output and remained partners through 1930, when they worked with composer Harry Warren on the early "talkie" Spring Is Here, which featured several hits, including "Have a Little Faith in Me." Some of their best-known songs include "Rock-a-bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody" (1918), "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?" (1919), "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue," "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" (1925), "In a Little Spanish Town" (1926), and their last lyric, "Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder" (1930). After parting ways with Lewis, Young scored the 1931 Broadway show The Laugh Parade and wrote many hits, including "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" (1932), "Your Gonna Lose Your Gal" (1933), and "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" (1936). Young is also a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. ~ Joslyn Layne