Charles E. Henderson

Charles Edward Henderson (January 19, 1907 – March 7, 1970) was a songwriter, lyricist, arranger, and vocal coach whose career spanned Broadway, Hollywood film productions, and published instruction on the craft of singing. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he died in Laguna Beach, California.

Henderson's Broadway career included an appearance in the 1930 revue The New Yorkers, and he later contributed music to Blackouts of 1949, a production that also featured music by Royal Foster. His work in film music began in the late 1930s, with contributions to The Rage of Paris in 1938, and extended across several decades of Hollywood productions.

Among his most prominent film credits, Henderson provided choral arrangements for the Ave Maria sequence in Fantasia (1940), vocal arrangements for the "Song of the Roustabouts" in Dumbo (1941), and choral arrangements for Bambi (1942). He served as vocal director on The Bishop's Wife (1947) and vocal supervisor on The Enemy Below (1957), and brought his expertise to the film adaptation of The Music Man (1962) as vocal arranger. His work on State Fair (1945) earned him and composer Alfred Newman a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Music in the category of Scoring of a Musical Picture.

As a composer, Henderson wrote the songs "Deep Night" and "The Right Kind." He also co-authored a book with Charles Palmer, published in 1939 under the title How to Sing for Money: The Art and Business of Singing Popular Songs Professionally, released through G. Palmer Putnam in Hollywood, California.