Buddy Kaye

Jules Leonard "Buddy" Kaye was born on January 3, 1918, in New York, New York, and died on November 21, 2002. He worked across multiple disciplines in the music industry as a songwriter, lyricist, arranger, producer, and author, and his Broadway credits include Hilarities.

Kaye's songs reached the top of the Billboard charts on two occasions. In 1945, "Till the End of Time," co-written with Ted Mossman and recorded by Perry Como, spent nine weeks at number one. Four years later, "'A' You're Adorable (The Alphabet Song)," co-written with Sid Lippman and Fred Wise, again reached the top position as recorded by Como and The Fontane Sisters. His catalog attracted recordings from a wide range of artists, among them Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Glenn Miller, Sammy Kaye, Elvis Presley, Harry Belafonte, Bobby Darin, Little Richard, Barry Manilow, Karen Carpenter, Diana Krall, Dusty Springfield, Tony Bennett, Charles Aznavour, Pat Boone, Cliff Richard, and The McGuire Sisters.

Several of Kaye's compositions became embedded in broader popular culture. He wrote the theme songs for the Famous Studios theatrical cartoon characters Little Lulu and Little Audrey. His co-written theme for the television series I Dream of Jeannie, created with Hugo Montenegro, became widely recognized. Pat Boone's recording of "Speedy Gonzales," co-written by Kaye with David Hess and Ethel Lee, became an international hit. In 1976, Kaye received a Grammy Award for Best Children's Album for his production of The Little Prince, narrated by Richard Burton.

Among the individual songs in his catalog, "Full Moon and Empty Arms," co-written with Ted Mossman, was first recorded by Frank Sinatra. Seventy years later, in 2015, Bob Dylan included a cover of the song on his album Shadows in the Night, a collection of Sinatra standards. In his MusiCares Person of the Year speech that year, Dylan cited Kaye by name as one of the great songwriters deserving wider recognition. Additional notable credits include "I'll Close My Eyes" with Billy Reid, recorded by Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald; "The Old Songs" with David Pomeranz, recorded by Barry Manilow; "Quiet Nights," his English lyrics for Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Corcovado," recorded by Tony Bennett; and multiple film main title songs for Elvis Presley, co-written with Ben Weisman, including "Almost," "Change of Habit," and "Let Us Pray."

Kaye also published four books during his career: The Wisdom of Baltasar Gracian through Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster, Method Songwriting through St. Martin's Press, The Gift of Acabar co-authored with Og Mandino and published by Lippincott with subsequent editions from Bantam Books, Penguin, and Random House, and "'A' You're Adorable" through Candlewick Press.

His final work was the stage musical When Garbo Talks!, for which he completed the book and lyrics in 2002. The production received its world premiere at International City Theatre at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center on October 15, 2010. On January 3, 2018, the centennial of his birth, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers recognized his career in a published article, referring to him as "a lyricist for the ages" and acknowledging his status as a Golden Circle member. On April 29, 2018, the James Madison Alumni Association added Kaye to the Madison Wall of Distinction in Brooklyn, New York.