Irwin Dash
{{short description|American songwriter}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Irwin Dash
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Irwin Louis Dash
| alias = Lewis Ilda
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|12|1}}
| birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1984|3|18|1892|12|1}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| genre = Traditional pop, ragtime, novelty songs
| associated_acts =
| occupation = Songwriter, music publisher, pianist
| years_active = 1911–1960s
}}
Irwin Louis Dash (December 1, 1892 – March 18, 1984) was an American songwriter, music publisher and pianist, who sometimes used the pseudonym Lewis Ilda.
Biography
He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and published his first composition, "Blue Ribbon Rag", a ragtime piano piece, in Philadelphia in 1911.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WNuwiKJPtnwC&dq=%22Irwin+Dash%22+%22Blue+Ribbon+Rag%22&pg=PT515|title=Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography|first=David A.|last=Jasen|date=1 May 2007|publisher=Taylor & Francis|access-date=1 May 2023|via=Google Books}} By the early 1920s, he formed a songwriting partnership in New York City with Al Dubin and Jimmy McHugh. They wrote "It's A Man, Ev'ry Time, It's A Man" (1923, recorded by Marcia Freer); and were joined by Irving Mills to write "Hard Boiled Rose" (1924) and "Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo?" (1925).[http://www.dbopm.com/link/index/4201/3640 "Songs written by Irwin Dash", Database of Popular Music]. Retrieved 19 November 2020 Dash worked as a songwriter for Leo Feist, and as an accompanist,[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/2000157866/11018-When_the_red_red_robin_comes_bob_bob_bobbin_along Accompanist, Frank Braidwood: "When the Red Red Robin Goes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along"]. Retrieved 19 November 2020 and regularly worked in London as well as in New York.
In the 1930s and 1940s, he published songs and dance music as the proprietor of Irwin Dash Music Co., Ltd., in Denmark Street, London. It was while visiting Dash's office that singer Vera Lynn came across the song "We'll Meet Again", written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles, which she then recorded; it became her signature song and epitomised the songs of the Second World War.[http://interlitq.org/glasgowvoices/kate_mcloughlin/job.php#_ftnref2 Kate McLoughlin, "Vera Lynn and the ‘We’ll Meet Again’ Hypothesis", International Literary Quarterly, Issue 10, February 2010]. Retrieved 19 November 2020
Dash also wrote songs under the name Lewis Ilda. One of his best remembered songs is "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts", written with English songwriters Elton Box and Desmond Cox of Box and Cox Publications, under the collective pseudonym of Fred Heatherton,[https://grainger.de/music/composers/dashi.html "Irwin Dash"], Grainger.de. Retrieved 19 November 2020 and copyrighted in 1944. The song was a hit in 1949 for Freddy Martin and his Orchestra, and for Danny Kaye. The same trio of writers, this time using the collective pseudonym Jack Spade, wrote "When Mother was Bathing the Baby", also known variously as "The Mother's Lament" (as recorded by rock band Cream), "The Drain Song", and "Your Baby 'as Gorn Dahn the Plug'ole".[http://folksongandmusichall.com/index.php/when-mother-was-bathing-the-baby/ "When mother was bathing the baby"], Folksongandmusichall.com. Retrieved 19 November 2020[https://mainlynorfolk.info/martin.carthy/songs/yourbabyasgorndahntheplugole.html "Your Baby 'as Gorn Dahn the Plug'ole"], . Mainlynorfolk.info, Retrieved 19 November 2020
Dash died in 1984, aged 91, and was buried in the Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, New York.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mounthebroncemetery.com/interment/?id=186600#details|title=Mount Hebron Cemetery|website=Mounthebroncemetery.com|access-date=1 May 2023}}
References
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Category:Songwriters from Maryland
Category:American music publishers (people)
Category:American male pianists
Category:20th-century American male musicians
Category:American male songwriters
Category:20th-century American songwriters