Jack Strachey (25 September 1894 – 27 May 1972) was an English composer 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 ...

Born John Francis Strachey in London on 25 September 1894, he began writing songs in the 1920s for the

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

and the music hall, scoring his first success with songs he had written for

Frith Shephard Frith is an Old English word meaning "peace; protection; safety, security". Etymology Derived from Old English ''friðu, friþ'', it is cognate to Old Norse '' friðr'', Old Saxon '' frithu'', Old High German '' fridu'', German '' Friede'' ...

's long running musical revue ''Lady Luck'' which opened at The Carlton Theatre in April 1927 where it ran for 324 performances. In the 1930s, he began to collaborate with Eric Maschwitz and in 1936 Strachey, Maschwitz (using the pen name Holt Marvell), and Harry Link co-wrote " These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)", which was to provide a top ten hit for five separate artists in 1936.

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His conce ...

was among the five artists to record the song in 1936, and it has been widely covered since - by

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...

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", ...

and

Bryan Ferry Bryan Ferry CBE (born 26 September 1945) is an English singer and songwriter. His voice has been described as an "elegant, seductive croon". He also established a distinctive image and sartorial style: according to ''The Independent'', Ferry and ...

among others. Under the title "Ces Petites Choses", it was also a hit in France for Dorothy Dickson. Strachey scored another success in 1940 (this time with Eric Maschwitz and Manning Sherwin) with the song "

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" is a British romantic popular song written in 1939 and published in 1940, with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz and music by Manning Sherwin. Setting Berkeley Square is a large leafy square in Mayfair, a part ...

". In the 1940s Strachey began to compose popular light music pieces for orchestra, and is best remembered in Britain as the composer of "Theatreland", "Pink Champagne", and especially " In Party Mood" (1944), which was the signature tune of '' Housewives' Choice'', a popular radio show on the

BBC Light Programme The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...

which ran until 1967. Jack Strachey moved to Brighton in 1958 and died there on 27 May 1972.''The Argus'' (Brighton), 31 May 1972.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strachey, Jack 1894 births 1972 deaths Musicians from London English composers English songwriters Light music composers Jack