Richard Adler

Richard Adler (August 3, 1921 – June 21, 2012) was an American composer, lyricist, writer, and producer born in New York City. His father, Clarence Adler, was a concert pianist and teacher whose students included Aaron Copland, and his mother, Elsa Adrienne, was a debutante from Mobile, Alabama. Adler graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1943 and served in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II before beginning his career as a lyricist.

In 1950, Adler partnered with Jerry Ross, and the two quickly became protégés of composer, lyricist, and publisher Frank Loesser. Both men shared credit for music and lyrics on their collaborative work. Their first significant composition was "Rags to Riches," recorded by Tony Bennett, which reached number one on the charts in late 1953. Around the same time, Adler and Ross made their Broadway debut with John Murray Anderson's Almanac, a revue for which they contributed the majority of the songs.

Their second Broadway project, The Pajama Game, opened in May 1954 and earned both popular and critical acclaim, winning Tony Awards, the Donaldson Award, and the Variety Drama Critics Award. Three songs from the show crossed over to the pop charts: Patti Page's recording of "Steam Heat" reached number nine, Archie Bleyer's "Hernando's Hideaway" climbed to number two, and Rosemary Clooney's version of "Hey There" hit number one. Damn Yankees followed almost exactly a year later, replicating the awards success of its predecessor and producing additional chart hits in Eddie Fisher's recording of "Heart" and Sarah Vaughan's "Whatever Lola Wants." Both shows earned Adler Tony Awards for Best Musical — The Pajama Game in 1955 and Damn Yankees in 1956. The partnership was cut short when Ross died of leukemia in November 1955 at age 29.

Working alone and with new collaborators after Ross's death, Adler co-wrote "Everybody Loves a Lover" with Robert Allen, which became a major hit for Doris Day in 1958. His subsequent Broadway musicals included Kwamina (1961), which he wrote for his then-wife, actress Sally Ann Howes, who starred in the show opposite Terry Carter. The musical centered on an interracial love story and ran only briefly, from October 23 to November 18, 1961; it received a Tony nomination for Best Composer. Adler also received a Tony nomination for Best Composer for Kwamina. His final original Broadway musical, Music Is, with lyrics by Will Holt, opened December 20, 1976, and was based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Beyond Broadway, Adler composed the television musicals Little Women (1958) and Gift of the Magi (1958), the latter starring Howes, as well as the musical Olympus 7-0000 for ABC Stage 67. He also composed symphonic and ballet pieces, including a work commemorating the centennial of the Statue of Liberty. In 2000, Debelah Morgan sampled "Hernando's Hideaway" for her song "Dance With Me," which reached number eight on the U.S. Billboard charts, earning Adler co-composer credit at age 79. The following year, Adler and Ross songs originally written for The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees were featured in the Broadway musical Fosse.

Adler staged and produced events for U.S. presidents, most notably a 1962 birthday celebration for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden at which Marilyn Monroe performed. Two days before Kennedy's assassination, on November 20, 1963, Adler was among a group that visited the president at the White House, alongside figures including Lena Horne, Carol Lawrence, and DNC Chairman John Bailey.

Revivals of The Pajama Game ran on Broadway in 1973 and again in 2006, the latter starring Harry Connick Jr., Kelli O'Hara, and Michael McKean; the 1973 production included one new Adler song, which was retained for the 2006 revival. Damn Yankees returned to Broadway in a revival that ran from March 1994 through August 1995.

Among Adler's honors were four Pulitzer Prize nominations, two Donaldson Awards, two Variety Critics Awards, a London Evening Standard Award, an Emmy Award, and induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984. He was married three times; his second wife was Sally Ann Howes, whom he married in 1958 and divorced in 1966. He is survived by his third wife, Susan A. Ivory, his son Andrew, his daughter Katherine, and his stepson Charlie Shipman. Adler died on June 21, 2012, at his home in Southampton, New York, at age 90.