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American pop music composer Gene DePaul was writing successfully throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and is best known for his songs and scores for movie musicals, particularly Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), co-written with Johnny Mercer. DePaul got his start in the music business as an arranger for vocal groups and a pianist in theaters and dance bands. He started composing songs in 1940, and had his first hit that same year with "Your Red Wagon." The following year, he worked on music for two films, including Keep 'Em Flying, which featured the songs "You Don't Know What Love Is" and "Pig Foot Pete," an Oscar nominee. DePaul often collaborated with lyricist Don Raye for the earlier part of his career, but through the years also worked with such acclaimed lyricists as Mercer and Sammy Cahn. In addition to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, DePaul and Mercer scored the Broadway musical, Li'l Abner (1956), which was later adapted for film. Cahn and DePaul teamed up, for instance, to pen the 1954 hit pop tune "Teach Me Tonight." Other songs counted among DePaul's best include "I'll Remember April," "You Were There" (Academy Award nominee for Best Song), "Rockin' and Reelin'" (1942), "He's My Guy" (1942), "Cow Cow Boogie" (1943), "Irresistible You" (1944), and "If I Had My Druthers" (1956). In all, DePaul wrote music for over 15 films, including Disney animated features like Alice in Wonderland (1952). He is also a member of the American Songwriter's Hall of Fame. ~ Joslyn Layne

Johnny Mercer's main claim to immortality is his incredible songwriting output, penning the lyrics or music and lyrics to roughly 1,500 songs. Marked by a sophisticated, occasionally whimsical mastery of language and rhymes, many of Mercer's songs have become standards regularly covered by jazz artists. Yet he was also a successful singer, with a relaxed, Southern-accented, jazzy, rhythmically agile delivery that resulted in several major hits in the 1940s. At first, he was torn between acting and songwriting, but having failed to land a part in Garrick Gaities in 1930, he ended up writing his first hit, "Out of Breath, Scared to Death of You," for the show. His first charted songwriting hit was Ted Lewis' 1933 recording of "Lazybones." By 1938, he was recording duets with Bing Crosby for Decca and the following year, he was on Benny Goodman's Camel Cavalcade radio program as a featured singer. In 1942, he, Glenn Wallichs, and Buddy DeSylva founded Capitol Records, which would eventually become an industry behemoth, and Mercer reeled off a string of hits for his label, including "Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe," "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive," "Candy," and "Personality." "Atchison" is an especially good example of his flip, catchy, vocal style. While running Capitol, Mercer the talent scout attracted the likes of Nat King Cole, Stan Kenton, Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee, and Margaret Whiting to the label, where they had their greatest successes. Among Mercer's most durable lyrics -- a highly abbreviated list -- are those for "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)," "Blues in the Night," "Come Rain or Come Shine," "My Shining Hour," and "Early Autumn," and his many collaborators have included Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Gordon Jenkins, and Harry Warren. He also contributed to the scores of seven Broadway musicals and films. Following an album with Bobby Darin and collaborations with Henry Mancini in the early '60s, Mercer's career slowed down under the onslaught of rock & roll, but time has since reconfirmed his status as an American popular music giant. ~ Richard S. Ginell