Frederick Emil Ahlert (September 19, 1892 – October 20, 1953) was an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

Early life

He received a degree from

Fordham Law School Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city. In 2013, 91% of the law school's first-time test tak ...

, but instead of pursuing a legal career he began work as an arranger, initially for

Irving Aaronson and his Commanders Irving A. Aaronson (February 7, 1895 – March 10, 1963) was an American jazz pianist and big band leader. Aaronson's most popular song, "The Loveliest Night of the Year", was not recorded with his band but was adapted by Aaronson in 1950 for ...

and then for composer and band-leader Fred Waring. Ahlert had his first hit song in 1920, and eventually started his own publishing company in 1928.

Career

His songs have been recorded by numerous artists, including

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

, Nat King Cole,

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "B ...

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

, Moon Mullican,

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...

Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made ...

, and

Fats Waller Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz pi ...

. Ahlert most frequently collaborated with lyricist Roy Turk, but he also wrote with others including Joe Young and Edgar Leslie. Ahlert was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. Ahlert was born in, and died in,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he lived all his life.

Selected works

Among his compositions (with Roy Turk unless otherwise noted): * " I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)" * "I Wake Up Smiling" (with Edgar Leslie) * "I'll Follow You" * " I'll Get By (as Long as I Have You)" * " I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" (with Joe Young) * "Life is a Song" (with Joe Young) * "Love, You Funny Thing!" * " Mean to Me" * "The Moon Was Yellow" (with Edgar Leslie) * "Take My Heart" (with Joe Young) * " Walkin' My Baby Back Home" * "Where Do You Keep Your Heart?" (with Al Stillman) * "

Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day) "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)" was the theme Bing Crosby selected for his radio show. It was recorded in November 1931 with Bennie Krueger and his Orchestra. The song was featured in a Mack Sennett movie short starring B ...

Family

Fred Ahlert and his wife, Mildred ("Millie") (c. 1894

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

– 1955

), had three sons: # Frederick Emil Ahlert, Jr. (16 February 1926,

; – 8 September 2005,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

) was one of the last independent music publishers. He worked for the

Leo Feist Leopold Feist (January 3, 1869, New York City – June 21, 1930, Mount Vernon, New York), in 1897 founded and ran a music publishing firm bearing his name. In the 1920s, at the height of the golden age of popular music, his firm was among the seve ...

Agency until he started Fred Ahlert Music Group after the death of his father in 1953. In addition to his father's catalog, among the songwriters Fred Jr. represented were

Ted Koehler Ted L. Koehler (July 14, 1894 – January 17, 1973) was an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. Life and career Koehler was born in 1894 in Washington, D.C. He started out as a photo-engraver, but w ...

, Irving Kahal, Walter Donaldson,

Mort Dixon Mort Dixon (March 20, 1892 – March 23, 1956) was an American lyricist. Biography Born in New York City, United States, Dixon began writing songs in the early 1920s, and was active into the 1930s. He achieved success with his first published ef ...

, Joe Burke, Edgar Leslie, John Jacob Loeb, Harold Stanley,

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...

and Hal David. Fred Jr. had a son, Fred Emil Ahlert III (17 May 1958 – 21 April 2008). # Arnold Ahlert # Richard Ahlert (4 September 1921 – 9 August 1985 Scarsdale, New York) graduated from Juilliard when he was 17. He was a clarinetist and songwriter who composed over 1,000 songs, including the Broadway musical, ''Adam'', for which his wife, June Tansey, wrote the book. He was a member of

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

and his songs included ''My Days of Loving You,'' recorded by

Perry Como Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an Italian-American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing ...

, and ''Running Out of Fools,'' recorded by

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

.''Richard Ahlert Is Dead at 63; Song Writer and Composer'',

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, Aug. 12, 1985 Fred Ahlert had a brief prior marriage to Minnie Campbell. They were married October 17, 1912, in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York.

References

General references * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 14: September, 1984-August, 1986. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1986 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 15: September, 1986-August, 1988. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1988 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 16: September, 1988-August, 1990. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1990 * The New American Dictionary of Music. By Philip D. Morehead with Anne MacNeil. New York: Dutton, 1991 * American Popular Songs. From the Revolutionary War to the present. Edited by David Ewen. New York: Random House, 1966 * American Songwriters. By David Ewen. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1987 Biography contains portrait. * The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Third edition. New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, 1966 * ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Fourth edition. Compiled for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers by Jaques Cattell Press. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1980 * Biographical Dictionary of American Music. By Charles Eugene Claghorn. West Nyack, NY: Parker Publishing Co., 1973 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 1: January, 1946-July, 1949. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1949 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 3: September, 1952-August, 1955. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1956 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 6: September, 1961-August, 1964. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1965 * The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz, 1900–1950. Three volumes. By Roger D. Kinkle. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers, 1974. Biographies are located in Volumes 2 and 3 * The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Third edition. Eight volumes. Edited by Colin Larkin. London: MUZE, 1998. Grove's Dictionaries, New York, 1998 * Notable Names in the American Theatre. Clifton, NJ: James T. White & Co., 1976 * The Oxford Companion to Popular Music. By Peter Gammond. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1991 * The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Edited by Donald Clarke. New York: Viking Press, 1989 * Popular American Composers. From Revolutionary times to the present. A biographical and critical guide. First edition. Compiled and edited by David Ewen. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1962 Biography contains portrait. * Songwriters. A biographical dictionary with discographies. By Nigel Harrison. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1998 * Sweet and Lowdown. America's popular songwriters. By Warren Craig. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1978. Biographies appear in the 'After Tin Pan Alley' section, beginning on page 91 * Tin Pan Alley. An encyclopedia of the golden age of American song. By David A. Jasen. New York: Routledge, 2003 * Obituaries on File. Two volumes. Compiled by Felice Levy. New York: Facts on File, 1979 Inline citations

External links

* *
Fred Ahlert recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahlert, Fred 1892 births 1953 deaths Jewish American songwriters Jewish American composers Musicians from New York (state) Songwriters from New York (state) Townsend Harris High School alumni 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American Jews