Arthur Johnston

Best-known for his work on the Hollywood musicals of the 1930s, composer/arranger Arthur Johnston was born in New York City on January 10, 1898. At 15, he began playing piano at local movie houses, two years later landing work as a vocal arranger with a Big Apple publishing firm; Johnston later tenured as the personal pianist and assistant to <a href="spotify:artist:32zXZpxwb2bq7oGzAhe1Ii">Irving Berlin</a>, additionally serving as musical director on most of <a href="spotify:artist:32zXZpxwb2bq7oGzAhe1Ii">Berlin</a>'s early stage shows. In 1924, Johnston composed the score to the musical Dixie to Broadway, which generated the songs "Mandy, Make Up Your Mind" and "I'm a Little Blackbird Looking for a Bluebird." He relocated to Hollywood five years later, in 1931, arranging the score to the <a href="spotify:artist:1qqZKSFPWKwT4Rtcu5zc8h">Charlie Chaplin</a> landmark City Lights; in 1933, Johnston scored his first of several <a href="spotify:artist:6ZjFtWeHP9XN7FeKSUe80S">Bing Crosby</a> pictures, College Humor, yielding "Learn to Croon," "Down the Old Ox Road," and "Moonstruck." The following year's Murder at the Vanities arguably featured his most famous tune, "Cocktails for Two," co-written with <a href="spotify:artist:5IRK9LwST0bON295CbIkxH">Sam Coslow</a>. Belle of the Nineties, meanwhile, generated "My Old Flame," sung in the film by the legendary <a href="spotify:artist:1aiPGAbZSHYGO0nyrpUnAU">Mae West</a>. Other Johnston notables: "Sitting High on a Hilltop," "Sing, Brother, Sing," "Pennies From Heaven," "It's the Natural Thing to Do," "All You Want to Do Is Dance," and "Song of the South." A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he died in Corona del Mar, CA, on May 1, 1954. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

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