Byron Gay
{{short description|American songwriter}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2021}}
File:Byron Gay looking at music for The Vamp.jpg
Byron Sturges Gay (August 28, 1886 – December 22, 1945) was an American songwriter. One of his best-known songs "Four or Five Times" (co–written with Marco H. Hellman) has been recorded by numerous artists including King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Lionel Hampton, Bob Wills, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Peggy Lee and more.{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/byron-gay-p334771/songs |title=Byron Gay – Songs |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=March 31, 2013}} Byron also worked with the composer Richard A. Whiting, together they wrote such songs as "Horses" and "Fire", both popular dance and comedy songs.
Personal life
Gay was born on August 22, 1886, in Illinois to Cassius Mason Gay (1862–1917) and Julia Iona Fessenden Gay (1893–1947). He had two brothers and two sisters, one of whom he outlived by four months. Gay married Ethel May Stokes (June 19, 1893 – May 1, 1947) and had one daughter. He died at age 59 of congestive heart failure on December 22, 1945, in Tucson, Arizona.
Stage productions
Gay wrote the music for The Uplifters' Minstrels, L. Frank Baum's 1916 stage farce for The Uplifters; he also had songs in The Greenwich Village Follies of 1919 and 1921.{{cite web|url=http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=477170 |title=Byron Gay | IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information |publisher=IBDB |access-date=March 31, 2013}}
Selected list of songs
- "Fate" (1921){{cite web |url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=12619 |title=The Greenwich Village Follies [1921] {{!}} IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information |website=www.ibdb.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100212050324/http://ibdb.com/production.php?id=12619 |archive-date=2010-02-12}} {{Cite web|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/34711006?q&versionId=42994935|title = Trove}}
- "Fast Asleep in Poppy Land"
- "Fire!" (Byron Gay, Richard A. Whiting) (1926) {{Cite web|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/34816807?versionId=43166619|title = Trove}}
- "Four or Five Times" (Byron Gay, Marco H. Hellman) (recorded in 1928 by King Oliver)
- "Horses" (Bryon Gay, Richard A. Whiting) (1924){{Cite web|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/30391041?q&sort=holdings+desc&_=1367457896610&versionId=36882747|title=Trove}}
- "The Little Ford Rambled Right Along" (Byron Gay, C. R. Foster) (1914)
- "O (Oh!)" (Byron Gay, Arnold Johnson) (1919),{{Cite web|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18838978?q&sort=holdings+desc&_=1367457522089&versionId=22115116|title=Trove}} (a 1953 recording by Pee Wee Hunt sold a million copies)
- "Sand Dunes" (1918)
- "Song of the West"
- "The Vamp" (1919){{Cite web|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/7627341?versionId=8787650+40402923|title=Trove}}
- "Wide Open Spaces" (Byron Gay, Richard A. Whiting, Paul Whiteman) (1927)
References
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