John George Lange (August 15, 1905 – January 6, 2006) was an American

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 ...

, working mostly in the motion picture industry. His chief musical collaborators were

Archie Gottler Archie Gottler (May 14, 1896 – June 24, 1959) was an American composer, screenwriter, actor, and film director.

and Jack Meskill.

Biography

Lange was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and attended high school there. He began writing for film studios in 1937, and joined

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 ...

in 1940. He resumed his film music career in 1946 and 1947, after World War II. He also wrote special material for night club singers, and the "Ice Capades of 1950". Lange's most popular composition was "

Mule Train "Mule Train" is a popular song written by Johnny Lange, Hy Heath, Ramblin' Tommy Scott and Fred Glickman. It is a cowboy song, with the singer filling the role of an Old West wagon driver, spurring on his team of mules pulling a delivery wagon. ...

" which earned him an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination in 1950 (it was featured in the film ''

Singing Guns ''Singing Guns'' is a 1950 American Trucolor Western film directed by R. G. Springsteen and starring Vaughn Monroe. The film features three songs by Monroe. " Mule Train", one of the songs featured in this 1950 Republic Western and sung by ...

''). The ASCAP online database shows him as the author of 211 songs. Among them are such well-known compositions as "Blue Shadows on the Trail" and "

Clancy Lowered the Boom "Clancy Lowered the Boom" is a song written by Hy Heath and Johnny Lange in 1947, made famous by Dennis Day on Jack Benny's radio program (''The Jack Benny Program''). The song follows the adventures of an Irish-American stereotype as he "lowers ...

Death

Johnny Lange died in Los Angeles in 2006, at the age of 100.

References

1905 births 2006 deaths American centenarians Men centenarians 20th-century American composers Musicians from Philadelphia Songwriters from Pennsylvania {{US-songwriter-stub