Harry Warren Biography

Harry Warren (24 December , 1893 – 22 September 1981) was an American composer and lyricist.

Born Salvatore Anthony Guaragna in Brooklyn, New York, he is regarded as one of America's most prolific but least known composers. He married Josephine Wensler in 1917. They had a son, also named Harry (who died of pneumonia in 1939 aged 19), and a daughter, Joan. Warren wrote songs with Ira Gershwin, Mack Gordon, Johnny Mercer, Billy Rose, and Al Dubin. "Chattanooga Choo Choo" was the first gold record. Among his hits are "I Only Have Eyes for You", "42nd Street", "Chattanooga Choo-Choo", "Serenade in Blue", "Jeepers Creepers" and "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me".

Warren is particularly remembered for his association with the films of Busby Berkeley. The musical 42nd Street celebrates this. He won the Oscar for Best Song with three different collaborating lyricists: "Lullaby of Broadway" with Al Dubin in 1935, "You'll Never Know" with Mack Gordon in 1943, and "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" with Johnny Mercer in 1946.

Warren is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. The plaque bearing Warren's epitaph displays the first few notes of "You'll Never Know".

Music by Warren, unless noted.

Feinstein, Michael Nice Work If You Can Get It: My Life in Rhythm and Rhyme. Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-6093-6