Bob Merrill

Bob Merrill, born Henry Robert Merrill Levan on May 17, 1921, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was an American songwriter, theatrical composer, lyricist, and screenwriter whose work spanned popular music, Broadway, film, and television. He grew up in Philadelphia above his family's candy factory and soda fountain, and as a teenager pursued performance, competing in local talent contests and working as an impressionist-emcee at a burlesque house. His early ambitions were interrupted when he was drafted into the Horse Cavalry Division of the Army during World War II.

After the war, Merrill relocated to Hollywood and took work as a dialogue director at Columbia Pictures. While on location for a film, he was asked to contribute songs for actress Dorothy Shay, who was recording what would become the hit album Park Avenue Hillbilly. That success opened the door to further songwriting collaborations, including one with Al Hoffman and Clem Watts that produced the novelty song "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake," recorded in 1948 by Eileen Barton. Throughout the 1950s, Merrill became one of the most successful songwriters on both the US and UK single charts, composing hits that included "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?," "Mambo Italiano," and multiple recordings by Guy Mitchell, among them "She Wears Red Feathers," "Sparrow in the Treetop," and "My Truly, Truly Fair." Many of these songs were composed by tapping out melodies on a toy xylophone.

Merrill made his Broadway debut in 1957 with New Girl in Town, a musical adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie, which earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical. His follow-up, Take Me Along, arrived in 1959 with music and lyrics by Merrill and starred Jackie Gleason and Walter Pidgeon; it received a 1960 Tony Award nomination for Best Musical. In 1961, Merrill adapted the film Lili into the Broadway musical Carnival!, starring Anna Maria Alberghetti, with words and music entirely his own. The production earned him the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award in 1961 and a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical in 1962.

Merrill's most commercially prominent Broadway work came with Funny Girl in 1964, starring Barbra Streisand, for which he wrote the lyrics to a score composed by Jule Styne. The show introduced the standards "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade," and Merrill and Styne received a Tony Award nomination for Best Composer and Lyricist, as well as a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical that same year. When Funny Girl was adapted as a film in 1968, Merrill and Styne wrote the title song, which was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

Behind the scenes, producer David Merrick engaged Merrill to contribute material to Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly!, for which Merrill wrote the songs "Motherhood March" and "Elegance," as well as additional lyrics to "It Takes a Woman." Merrill declined billing or credit for these contributions. His other Broadway credits include Breakfast at Tiffany's (1966), Henry, Sweet Henry (1967), and Sugar (1972), which was later reworked as Some Like It Hot for a 1992 West End production starring Tommy Steele and a 2002–2003 national tour starring Tony Curtis. Two productions closed during out-of-town tryouts: Prettybelle (1971), starring Angela Lansbury and directed by Gower Champion, which closed in Boston, and The Prince of Grand Street (1978), starring Robert Preston and directed by Gene Saks, which closed following tryouts in Philadelphia and Boston. Merrill also contributed to The Red Shoes (1993), for which he was credited under the pseudonym Paul Stryker.

Beyond the stage, Merrill wrote the scores for two television holiday specials: Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962) and The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood (1965), the latter written for Liza Minnelli. He also provided lyrics to "Loss of Love," the theme composed by Henry Mancini for the 1970 Italian film Sunflower. His screenwriting credits include W. C. Fields and Me (1976) and the television movies Portrait of a Showgirl (1982) and The Animated Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1998). In 1987, Merrill was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Merrill was married to Dolores Marquez in 1964; the couple later divorced, and he married Suzanne Reynolds in 1976. In his later years he suffered from depression and ill health. He died by suicide on February 17, 1998, at the age of 76.