Paul Francis Webster

Webster was born in New York City, United States, the son of Myron Lawrence Webster and Blanche Pauline Stonehill Webster. His family was Jewish. His father was born in Augustów, Poland.{{cite web |url=http://baumcrohnwebster.org/baumcrohnwebster.org/We_Remember_Folder/We_Remember_09.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2017-07-09 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180503155724/http://baumcrohnwebster.org/baumcrohnwebster.org/We_Remember_Folder/We_Remember_09.pdf |archive-date=2018-05-03 }} He attended the Horace Mann School (Riverdale, Bronx, New York), graduating in 1926, and then went to Cornell University from 1927 to 1928 and New York University from 1928 to 1930, leaving without receiving a degree. He worked on ships throughout Asia and then became a dance instructor at an Arthur Murray studio in New York City.{{cite web|url=http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/biographies/paulfrancis_webster.htm|title=Potted biographies of musical theatre composers|website=Guidetomusicaltheatre.com|access-date=3 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814174021/http://guidetomusicaltheatre.com/biographies/paulfrancis_webster.htm|archive-date=14 August 2017}}{{cite web |url=http://www.michaelfeinsteinsamericansongbook.org/songwriter.html?p=156 |title=Paul Francis Webster |work=Michael Feinstein's American Songbook |publisher=Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook Initiative |access-date=2015-01-12 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113033640/http://www.michaelfeinsteinsamericansongbook.org/songwriter.html?p=156 |archive-date=2015-01-13 }} After college, Webster served as an officer in the U.S. Navy.[https://www.songhall.org/profile/Paul_Francis_Webster Paul Francis Webster; His "Shadow of Your Smile" won both Grammy and Oscar for Best Song] Songwriters Hall of Fame. Retrieved November 9, 2024.[https://www.jazzstandards.com/biographies/biography_119.htm Paul Francis Webster; Lyricist (1907-1984)] jazzstandards.com. Retrieved November 9, 2024.

By 1931, however, he turned his career direction to writing song lyrics. His first professional lyric was "Masquerade" (music by John Jacob Loeb) which became a hit in 1932, performed by Paul Whiteman.

In 1935, Twentieth Century Fox signed him to a contract to write lyrics for Shirley Temple's films, but shortly afterward he went back to freelance writing. His first hit was a collaboration in 1941 with Duke Ellington on the song "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)".

After 1950, Webster worked mostly for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He won two Academy Awards in collaboration with Sammy Fain, in 1953 and 1955, and another with Johnny Mandel in 1965. Altogether, sixteen of his songs received Academy Award nominations; among lyricists, he is third after Sammy Cahn with twenty-six and Johnny Mercer, who was nominated eighteen times, in number of nominations. In addition, a large number of his songs became major hits on the popular music charts.

Webster is the most successful songwriter of the 1950s on the UK Singles Chart. In 1967, he was asked to write the lyrics for the Spider-Man theme song{{citation needed|date=October 2022}} for the television cartoon series of the same name. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.{{Shof|id=74|name=Paul Francis Webster}} His papers are collected at Syracuse University Libraries.{{cite web |url=http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/w/webster_pf.htm |title=Paul Francis Webster Papers |work=Syracuse University Libraries |publisher=Syracuse University |access-date=2015-01-12 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030120736/http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/w/webster_pf.htm |archive-date=2013-10-30 }}

Webster's first born son, Guy Webster, was a prolific photographer of musicians and bands in the 1960s and 1970s.{{cite news|title=Guy Webster, Photographer of Album Covers by The Doors and Rolling Stones, Dies at 79|first=Steve|last=Marinucci|date=February 7, 2019|access-date=February 8, 2019|url=https://variety.com/2019/music/news/guy-webster-photographer-albums-doors-rolling-stones-mamas-papas-byrds-dead-1203131144/|magazine=Variety}} His younger son, Mona Roger Webster, is a conceptual artist, a real estate investor and a longtime resident of Venice, CA.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

Webster continued writing through 1983. He died in 1984 in Beverly Hills, California, and is buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.

Here is a partial list of songs for which he wrote the lyrics:{{cite web |url=http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/songs/detailed/C74 |title=Paul Francis Webster Song Catalog |work=Songwriters Hall of Fame |publisher=Songwriters Hall of Fame |access-date=2015-01-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150112182349/http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/songs/detailed/C74 |archive-date=2015-01-12 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.musicvf.com/songs.php?page=artist&artist=Paul+Francis+Webster&tab=songaswriterchartstab |title=Songs Written by Paul Francis Webster |work=MusicVF.com |publisher=VF Entertainment |access-date=2015-01-12 }}

• "Secret Love" (Calamity Jane, 1953)
• "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" (Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, 1955)
• "The Shadow of Your Smile" (The Sandpiper, 1965)

• "Remember Me to Carolina" (Minstrel Man, 1944)
• "Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)" (Friendly Persuasion, 1956)
• "April Love" (April Love, 1957)
• "A Certain Smile" (A Certain Smile, 1958)
• "A Very Precious Love" (Marjorie Morningstar, 1958)
• "The Green Leaves of Summer" (The Alamo, 1960)
• "Love Theme from El Cid (The Falcon and the Dove)" (El Cid, 1961)
• "Tender Is the Night" (Tender Is the Night, 1962)
• "Love Song From Mutiny on the Bounty (Follow Me)" (Mutiny on the Bounty, 1962)
• "So Little Time" (55 Days at Peking, 1963)
• "A Time for Love" (An American Dream, 1966)
• "Strange Are the Ways of Love" from the film The Stepmother (1972)
• "A World that Never Was" from the film Half a House (1976)

• "The Shadow of Your Smile" (love theme from The Sandpiper, 1966)

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• "Anastasia" (1956)
• "Ballad of the Alamo" (1960)
• "Baltimore Oriole"
• "Beloved" (1954)
• "Billy-A-Dick" (1945)
• "Black Coffee"
• "The Black Hills Of Dakota"
• "Blowing Wild (The Ballad Of Black Gold)" (1953)
• "Boy on a Dolphin"
• "The Brown-Skin Gal in the Calico Gown" (1941)
• "Chocolate Shake" (1941)
• "Days of Love" (1967)
• "The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away!)"
• "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief"
• "The First Snowfall" (1953) [music composed by Sonny Burke]
• "Guns of Navarone" (1961)
• "Honey-Babe" (1955)
• "How Green Was My Valley" (1957)
• "How It Lies, How It Lies, How It Lies!"
• "I Got it Bad (And That Ain't Good)" (1941)
• "I'll Remember Tonight"
• "I'll Walk with God" (1954)
• "Invitation" (1952)
• "Jump for Joy"
• "Just Blew in from the Windy City" (1953)
• "The Lamplighter's Serenade" (1942)
• "Like Young" (1958)
• "The Loveliest Night of the Year" (1950)
• "Man on Fire"
• "Masquerade" (1931)
• "Maverick"
• "Memphis in June" (1945) for RKO's Johnny Angel, Music by Hoagy Carmichael
• "The Mood I'm In" (co-written with Pete King)
• "My Moonlight Madonna"
• "Padre"
• "Rainbow on the River" (1936)
• "Rio Bravo" (1959)
• "Somewhere My Love" (1966) (The lyrics, which are Webster's original work, are sung to the melody of "Lara's Theme" from the film Doctor Zhivago.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}})
• "The Song Angels Sing" (1951)
• "Song of Green Mansions (1959)
• "The Song of Raintree County" (1957)
• "Spider-Man" (1967)
• "Sugarfoot"
• "Summertime in Heidelberg" (1954)
• "There They Are"
• "There's Never Been Anyone Else But You"
• There's a Rising Moon (1954)
• "Too Beautiful to Last" (1971)
• "The Twelfth of Never"
• "Two Cigarettes in the Dark" (1934)
• "Veni Vidi Vici"
• "Virgins Wrapped in Cellophane" (1932)
• "Who Are We?"
• "The Winds of Chance" (1969)
• "A Woman's Touch" (1953)
• "You Was"

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• The Songs of Paul Francis Webster ({{ISBN|0-7935-0665-4}})
• Award-Winning Songs By Paul Francis Webster, Robbins Music Corporation, 1964

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|0916990}}

• Hill, Tony L. "Paul Francis Webster, 1907-1984", in Dictionary of Literary Biography 265. Detroit: Gale Research, 2002.
• [http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/sammys2016.htm Sammy Lifetime Achievement Film Music Award for Paul Francis Webster]

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Category:1907 births

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