Sammy Cahn Biography

Sammy Cahn (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993) was an American songwriter and musician, playing the piano and violin.

He was born Samuel Cohen in the Lower East Side of New York City, the only son (he had four sisters) of Jewish immigrants from Poland. He was married twice: first to vocalist and former Goldwyn girl Gloria Delson in 1945, with whom he had two children, and later to Virginia Basile in 1970.

He changed his last name from Cohen to Kahn to avoid confusion with comic and MGM actor Sammy Cohen and again from Kahn to Cahn to avoid confusion with lyricist Gus Kahn.

He described the beginnings of his career thusly:

He wrote lyrics for many songs, including:

Cahn wrote the lyrics to "Love and Marriage," well known today as the theme song from the hit TV show on FOX, Married... with Children. The song originally debuted in a 1955 television production of Our Town, and won an Emmy Award in 1956.

Cahn contributed lyrics for two otherwise unrelated films about the Land of Oz, Journey Back to Oz (1971) and The Wizard of Oz (1982). The former were composed with James Van Heusen, the latter with Allen Byrns, Joe Hisaishi, and Yuichiro Oda.