Arthur Altman (1910 – January 18, 1994) was an American songwriter whose credits include "
All or Nothing at All
"All or Nothing at All" is a song composed in 1939 by Arthur Altman, with lyrics by Jack Lawrence.
Frank Sinatra recording
Frank Sinatra's August 31, 1939 recording of the song, accompanied by Harry James and his Orchestra was a huge hit in 19 ...
", with lyrics by
Jack Lawrence, and the lyrics for "
All Alone Am I
"All Alone Am I" is a song from 1962 popularized by the American singer Brenda Lee. The song was originally composed by the Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis and recorded in Greek by Tzeni Karezi for the soundtrack of the film ''To nisi ton genneon ...
", "
I Will Follow Him
"I Will Follow Him" is a popular song that was first recorded in 1961 by Franck Pourcel, as an instrumental entitled "Chariot". The song achieved its widest success when it was recorded by American singer Little Peggy March with English lyrics on ...
", and "
Truly, Truly True".
Altman studied
violin
The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
and began his professional career as a violinist with the CBS Radio Orchestra. His first nationally known song was "Play Fiddle Play", which he wrote in the early 1930s for the orchestra leader Emory Deutsch.
Among the 400 songs he wrote, "All or Nothing at All" appears on more than 180 albums recorded by more than 150 artists including
Count Basie
William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...
,
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...
,
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ...
,
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor who performed Pop music, pop, Swing music, swing, Folk music, folk, rock and roll, and country music.
Darin started ...
,
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, 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, phra ...
,
Jimmy Dorsey
James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards " I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary Peopl ...
,
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombone, trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-to ...
,
Harry James
Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band to great commercial success from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947, but ...
,
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. As a virtuoso who is considered to be one of the greatest Jazz piano, jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordin ...
,
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
, and
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan (, March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Sassy" and "List of nicknames of jazz musicians, The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, ...
.
He died of a heart ailment.
References
External links
List of songs written by Altman, as listed as ASCAP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Altman, Arthur
1910 births
1994 deaths
Jewish American songwriters
Songwriters from New York (state)
American male violinists
20th-century American violinists
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century American Jews
American male songwriters
20th-century American songwriters