Thomas Joseph Wolf Jr. (1925 – 1979) was an American composer and piano player. He was best known for his songwriting collaboration with

Fran Landesman Fran Landesman (October 21, 1927 – July 23, 2011) was an American lyricist and poet. She grew up in New York City and lived for years in St. Louis, Missouri, where her husband Jay Landesman operated the Crystal Palace nightclub. One of her be ...

Life

Born in St. Louis,

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, Wolf met Fran Landesman while playing piano at the Jefferson Hotel there. She showed him a poem which he set to music. The resulting song "

This Little Love of Ours This may refer to: * ''This'', the singular proximal demonstrative pronoun Places * This, or ''Thinis'', an ancient city in Upper Egypt * This, Ardennes, a commune in France People with the surname * Hervé This, French culinary chemist Arts, ...

" began a collaboration that continued for more than a decade. Wolf's albums include "

Wolf at Your Door The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

," and " Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most", both recorded for Fraternity Records. After moving to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, he was a rehearsal pianist, working on the

Andy Williams Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...

and

Red Skelton Richard Red Skelton (July 18, 1913September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program '' The Red Skelton Show''. He has stars ...

television shows, and numerous musical specials, most memorably the award-winning

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...

show "Evenings." Several of Wolf's songs, including " Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most", have become jazz

Jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive l ...

s, and have been recorded by artists such as

Kurt Elling Kurt Elling (born November 2, 1967) is an American jazz singer and songwriter. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church. He sang in cho ...

Carmen McRae Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpre ...

, Sarah Vaughan,

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

, and

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, i ...

. In the 1960s Wolf switched to lyric writing, collaborating with

on " Life Is Beautiful" and

Victor Feldman Victor Stanley Feldman (7 April 1934 – 12 May 1987) was an English jazz musician who played mainly piano, vibraphone, and percussion. He began performing professionally during childhood, eventually earning acclaim in the UK jazz scene as ...

on "

A Face Like Yours A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

". He worked on television shows in Utah with Donnie Osmond and

Marie Osmond Olive Marie Osmond (born October 13, 1959) is an American singer, actress, television host, and a member of the show business family the Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a country and pop ...

until shortly before his death on January 9, 1979.

Selected works

;Broadway musicals * ''

The Nervous Set ''The Nervous Set'' is a 1959 Broadway musical written by Jay Landesman and Theodore J. Flicker which centers on the Beat Generation. It tells the story of a wealthy publisher and his wife from a Connecticut suburb exploring the Greenwich Village ...

'' (1959) ;Songs (partial list) composed with

The Ballad Of The Sad Young Men ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

(1959) * Fun Life * How Do You Like Your Love? * It Wasn't So Good It Couldn't Get Better * I've Got A Lot To Learn About Life (1959) * Laugh, I Thought I'd Die * Listen, Little Girl * Man, We're Beat * Night People * Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most (1955); written for the show ''The Nervous Set'' (1959), but not used. * The Ballad of the Sad Young Men * Travel The Road Of Love

References

"dbopm: The Database of Popular Music"

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf, Tommy 1925 births 1979 deaths American pianists American composers