COMPOSER OF "MAIRZY DOATS" AND OTHER GREAT POP STANDARDS

Jerry Livingston (1909–1987) was one of the leading songwriters of American popular music from the Tin Pan Alley and big band years of the 1930s until the coming of rock 'n roll in the 1960s. He composed the music for such standards as "It's The Talk Of The Town," "Mairzy Doats," and "The Twelfth of Never," along with the score for Walt Disney's CINDERELLA, other movie and television theme songs (including "77 Sunset Strip"), the UCLA "fight song" and the 1973 Broadway show, MOLLY. Jerry was nominated three times for a "best song" Oscar for "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo," "The Hanging Tree," and "The Ballad of Cat Ballou" and honored by his peers by election in 1980 to the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

ABOUT JERRY provides more details about Jerry's long career in every facet of the music business.

LISTEN TO A SELECTION OF JERRY'S SONGS AND VIEW VINTAGE SHEET MUSIC: An alphabetical set of Jerry's songs, including both familiar hits and some lesser-known gems, may be heard here. They were recorded live at my TIN PAN ALLEY TO SILICON ALLEY revue (see below). Each song is accompanied in most cases by an early copy of the sheet music. This page also includes two songs written by Jerry's dad, Sam Levinson, in the early 20th century.

FROM TIN PAN ALLEY TO SILICON VALLEY is a revue that features songs by Jerry and his son, Dennis Livingston.

ASCAP AUDIO PORTRAIT of Jerry features a nine-minute audio interview with Dennis talking about his father’s career, interspersed with excerpts from Jerry’s songs. You don’t have to be a member of ASCAP to access this material.

RADIO INTERVIEWS WITH JERRY LIVINGSTON offers recordings of interviews Jerry had on several radio programs, including a long, informative discussion on “Talking Trivia” (host: Morgan White Jr.); “Voices of VISTA” (host: Willis Conover); and “The Ralph Story Show.” These programs also highlight musical selections from Jerry’s career.

JERRY LIVINGSTON'S TOP SONGS lists highlights from Jerry's large catalog, sure to be of interest to any cabaret or jazz singer looking for material from the golden age of the American songbook. For a complete catalog of Jerry’s song titles registered with ASCAP, along with links for each title to information on co-writers, publishers and performers, click HERE.  Another listing of Jerry’s songs, including recordings and chart appearances, can be found at the Database Of Popular Music; click HERE. Both ASCAP and DOPM can also be searched for individual songs.

ABOUT "MAIRZY DOATS": JERRY'S ICONIC "NOVELTY TUNE" tells the inside scoop on what may be Jerry's most famous song, the impossible-to-get-out-of-your-head tune and wacky lyrics that every generation learns anew.

ABOUT "THIS IS IT" – THE BUGS BUNNY OVERTURE sends you to the ClassicThemes.com website for background on theme music for the Warner Bros. TV cartoons, including the 1960s Bug Bunny Show.

ABOUT "MOLLY": JERRY'S BROADWAY MUSICAL depicts Jerry's one attempt at a Broadway musical, drawn from characters originated by Gertrude Berg. At this page, you can read about the show; view the song playlists used for the Broadway run and in an earlier version of the script; and listen to a selection of songs from MOLLY taken from an interview by Leonard Nimoy with Kaye Ballard and other cast members, as well as from other sources.

Sheet music: Sheet music for Jerry's hit songs is available in THE SONGS OF JERRY LIVINGSTON: THE TWELFTH OF NEVER AND OTHER GREAT STANDARDS (Warner Bros. Publications, 1996). This songbook may be purchased from Amazon.com.

Cinderella on stage: “Disney’s Cinderella Kids,” an abridged version of the movie for performance by schools and theaters, is available for licensing from Music Theatre International

Filmography: A partial list of the films and television shows to which Jerry contributed songs, along with videotape purchase information, may be found at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

Slide show: Dennis Livingston is available to present a one hour lecture on the life and times of Jerry Livingston, including slides of historic photos that feature many of the Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood luminaries with whom Jerry collaborated. For further information, CONTACT DENNIS.

Licensing & other info: Hallmark Music Co. Inc. owns and administers the songs of Jerry Livingston along with other publishing companies that represent the interests of his songwriting partners, other than songs written as work-for-hire. Information on co-publishers for each song may be obtained from ASCAP's ACE Title Search, noted above. Requests to license a Livingston song for recording may be sent to the Mechanical Licensing Dept. at Harry Fox Agency (711 Third Ave. 8th Floor, New York, NY 10017) (212/370-5330). If you have any questions or wish further information about Jerry's work, CONTACT DENNIS.