J. Fred Coots

J. Fred Coots, born John Frederick Coots on May 2, 1897, in Brooklyn, New York, was an American songwriter and Broadway composer who wrote more than 700 popular songs and contributed music to more than a dozen stage productions over the course of his career. He died on April 8, 1985, in a New York City hospital following a lengthy illness.

Coots began his working life at age seventeen as an employee of Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. in New York. His first published song, "Mr. Ford You've Got The Right Idea," with words by Ray Sherwood, appeared in 1916 through A. J. Stasny Music Co. His path to the Broadway stage opened in 1919, when actor-producer Eddie Dowling offered him the opportunity to write a musical score for Friars' Frolics. Dowling returned to Coots in 1922, commissioning him to write the songs for Sally, Irene and Mary, with words by Raymond W. Klages. The production ran on Broadway from September 1922 through June 1923, and again briefly in March and April of 1925. On February 18, 1924, Coots married Marjorie Decker Jennings in Manhattan.

His Broadway output through the 1920s was extensive. He contributed music to the revue Spice of 1922, the musical comedy Dew Drop Inn, and the revue Innocent Eyes in 1924. The following year brought the revues Artists and Models and June Days, as well as Mayflowers. In 1926, three revues featured his music in close succession: The Merry World, A Night in Paris, and Gay Paree, the last of which he also contributed lyrics to and which ran in two separate engagements. White Lights followed in 1927, and George White's Scandals in 1928. Broadway Nights and Sons O' Guns, the latter running from November 1929 through August 1930, rounded out his most active period on the Broadway stage.

In 1928, Coots wrote "Doin' The Raccoon," and the following year he relocated to Los Angeles. He wrote "Love Letters in the Sand" in 1931 and "I Still Get a Thrill (Thinking of You)," with words by Benny Davis, in 1930. His most enduring popular songs emerged in 1934. Working with his principal collaborator, lyricist Haven Gillespie, Coots developed the melody for "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" in approximately ten minutes after Gillespie presented him with the completed lyrics. He brought the song to his publisher, Leo Feist, who received it favorably but regarded it as a children's song and held modest expectations for its commercial prospects. Coots then placed the song with entertainer Eddie Cantor, who performed it on his radio program that November. The broadcast generated orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music by the following morning, and sales surpassed 400,000 by Christmas. Total sheet music sales for the song ultimately exceeded four million copies, making it one of the largest-selling songs in American history. Also in 1934, Coots wrote "For All We Know," with words by Sam M. Lewis, published by Leo Feist.

Among his other notable songs were "You Go to My Head," with words by Haven Gillespie, published by Remick Music in 1938; "Louisiana Fairy Tale," written with Mitchell Parish and Haven Gillespie, published by Mills Music in 1935; and "There's Honey On The Moon Tonight," with words by Haven Gillespie and Mack Davis, published by Miller Music in 1938. In 1940, he wrote "The Rangers' Victory Song."