“Songs always fascinated me more than anything.”
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Johnny Mercer
John Herndon Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallichs.
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business · American lyricist, songwriter, singer (1909–1976) · singer · songwriter · composer · film score composer · lyricist · businessperson · recording artist · screenwriter · poet · musician · also Johnny Mercer, Mercer
Born 18 November 1909 · Died 25 June 1976 · Q363698
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2026· 2 entries
“Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry”
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2015· 1 entry
It was announced that Mercer's version of the popular song "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" would be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry for the song's "cultural, artistic and/or historical
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2012· 1 entry
Released album “Johnny Mercer Sings Just for fun”.
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2009· 4 entries
Released album “Moon River: Johnny Mercer Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook”.
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Released album “Clint Eastwood Presents: Johnny Mercer “The Dream’s on Me””.
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Released album “Mercer Sings Mercer”.
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Eastwood produced a documentary film about Mercer's life and work called The Dream's on Me (Turner Classic Movies)
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2007· 2 entries
Released album “Mosaic Select 28”.
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Released album “The Definitive Collection”.
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2005· 1 entry
Released album “The Man From Georgia”.
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2002· 2 entries
Released album “Sings Personality”.
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Released album “Foxy”.
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1997· 1 entry
Released album “The Best Of”.
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1995· 2 entries
Released album “Bing Crosby & Friends”.
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Released album “Sweet Georgia Brown”.
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1993· 1 entry
Released album “Johnny Mercer Sings!”.
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1992· 1 entry
Released album “Saint Louis Woman (original Broadway cast)”.
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1990· 1 entry
Released album “Two of a Kind”.
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1989· 1 entry
Released album “The Capitol Collector's Series”.
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1987· 1 entry
Awarded Grammy Trustees Award (1987).
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1984· 1 entry
When it became a top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the United States
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1983· 1 entry
Mercer earned a posthumous nomination for a Tony Award for Best Original Score for his original lyrics and for Gene de Paul's original music and score with new songs by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for the stage musical
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1980· 1 entry
The Songwriters Hall of Fame established the annual Johnny Mercer Award as its highest honor, for songwriters with a history of outstanding creative works
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1976· 2 entries
Died 1976-06-25.
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Aged 66, from an inoperable brain tumor, in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, California
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1974· 3 entries
Collaborated on the West End production The Good Companions
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With the Pete Moore Orchestra and with the Harry Roche Constellation, later compiled into a single album and released as
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Released album “... My Huckleberry Friend”.
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1971· 1 entry
Mercer presented a retrospective of his career for the "Lyrics and Lyricists Series" in New York, including an omnibus of his "greatest hits" and a performance by Margaret Whiting
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1969· 1 entry
Mercer helped publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond found the National Academy of Popular Music's Songwriters Hall of Fame
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1964· 1 entry
Awarded Grammy Award for Song of the Year for Days of Wine and Roses (1964).
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1963· 1 entry
Awarded Academy Award for Best Original Song for Days of Wine and Roses (1963).
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1962· 3 entries
Awarded Academy Award for Best Original Song for Moon River (1962).
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Awarded Grammy Award for Song of the Year for Moon River (1962).
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As was the Frank Sinatra hit "Summer Wind" in 1965
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1961· 2 entries
Wrote the lyrics to "Moon River" for Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's and for Days of Wine and Roses, both with music by Henry Mancini, and Mercer received his third and fourth Oscars for Best Song
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A duet album by Bobby Darin and Johnny Mercer with Billy May and his Orchestra, produced by Ahmet Ertegun
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1960· 2 entries
Released album “Saratoga (An original Cast Recording)”.
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Mandy married Bob Corwin, who was a pianist for Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, and Carmen McRae, and also Mercer's long-time accompanist
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1957· 1 entry
Released album “Accentuate the Positive”.
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1952· 1 entry
Awarded Academy Award for Best Original Song for In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening (1952).
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1950· 1 entry
Released album “Johnny Mercer Sings”.
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1948· 1 entry
Released album “Willard Robison's Deep River Music”.
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1947· 2 entries
Awarded Academy Award for Best Original Song for On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe (1947).
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Released album “Tales of Uncle Remus”.
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1946· 2 entries
Released ep “Hawaiian War Chant / Jones Polka / My Sugar Is So Refined / Ugly Chile”.
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Released album “Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers”.
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1945· 1 entry
After being used in the film "Here Come the Waves"
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1944· 4 entries
Released ep “Goodbye Sue / How Many Hearts Have You Broken / You’ve Got Me Where You Want Me”.
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Released ep “Strip Polka / Wreck of the Old 97 / Somewhere”.
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Released album “Songs by Johnny Mercer”.
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“Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive”
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1943· 1 entry
Johnny Mercer's Music Shop was a summer replacement for The Pepsodent Show on NBC
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1942· 1 entry
With the help of producer Buddy DeSylva and record store owner Glen Wallichs
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1941· 1 entry
Mercer began an affair with 19-year-old Judy Garland, while she was engaged to composer David Rose
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1940· 1 entry
The Mercers adopted a daughter, Amanda ("Mandy")
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1939· 1 entry
Mercer wrote the lyrics to a melody by Ziggy Elman, a trumpet player with Benny Goodman
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1938· 1 entry
Was "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby"
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1937· 1 entry
Mercer began working for Warner Bros
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1936· 2 entries
And from then on the demand for Mercer as a lyricist took off
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“I'm an old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)”
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1932· 1 entry
Mercer won a contest to sing with the Paul Whiteman orchestra, but singing with the band did not help his situation significantly
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1931· 1 entry
Mercer married Ginger Meltzer, a chorus girl, later a seamstress
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1909· 2 entries
Born 1909-11-18.
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In Savannah, Georgia, where one of his first jobs, aged 10, was sweeping floors at the original 1919 location of Leopold's Ice Cream
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1834· 1 entry
To Ivana Cucevic and Marijo Dundovic, was a merchant seaman who ran the Union blockade during the Civil War
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