Jimmy Van Heusen
Jimmy Van Heusen, born Edward Chester Babcock in Syracuse, New York, was a prominent American songwriter known for his contributions to the golden age of popular music from the mid-1920s through the early 1960s. Changing his name to avoid potential embarrassment for a local radio station, he began his songwriting career while still in high school. Van Heusen achieved his first hit in 1938 with "Deep in a Dream" and went on to collaborate with notable lyricists, including Johnny Mercer, Johnny Burke, and Sammy Cahn, crafting many memorable songs for iconic performers like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
During World War II, he balanced his songwriting with a career as a skilled aviator and test pilot for Lockheed. Van Heusen won four Academy Awards for his work, creating enduring standards such as "Imagination," "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," and "Swingin' on a Star." His partnership with Cahn revitalized Sinatra's career in the 1950s, producing hits like "All the Way" and "High Hopes." Despite being associated with the glamorous lifestyle of Hollywood's Rat Pack, his music captured both optimism and deep emotional resonance. Van Heusen's legacy endures through his notable contributions to American music, though some of his later works reflect the era's ethos and have aged differently.
Subject Terms
Jimmy Van Heusen
American musical-theater composer
- Born: January 26, 1913
- Birthplace: Syracyse, New York
- Died: February 7, 1990
- Place of death: Rancho Mirage, California
One of the most gifted popular songwriters between 1940 and the mid-1960’s, Van Heusen shaped the musical careers of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra with the lilting and award-winning melodies he produced for these two singers.
The Life
Jimmy Van Heusen (van HEW-zehn) was born Edward Chester Babcock in Syracuse, New York, and commenced his songwriting career and musical studies as a high school student. When he went to work for a local radio station, WSYR in Syracuse, the management insisted that he change his name because Babcock seemed potentially and improbably obscene to the station’s listeners. Seeing a truck with the title of the Van Heusen shirt company, he opted for that professional name but retained his own name throughout his life. He moved to New York City and began songwriting. By 1938 he had his first hit with the song “Deep in a Dream.” Other hits, written with Johnny Mercer, soon followed. Van Heusen was on his way.
In 1940, Van Heusen move to California, where until 1969 he wrote songs with Johnny Burke and Sammy Cahn that attained popularity when Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra featured the melodies. During World War II (1941-1945), Van Heusen’s songwriting career was not his only activity. He had learned to fly during the late 1930’s and soon became a skilled aviator. When he was not turning out hits, he served as a test pilot for the defense contractor Lockheed in the mornings, returning to the studios to practice his other profession in the afternoons.
Van Heusen won four Academy Awards for his songs. Within the Hollywood community, he enjoyed a reputation as a ladies’ man that rivaled the success of his friend Sinatra. He partied with great intensity but could rebound after a hard night on the town to work the next day. He finally married Josephine Brock Perlberg in 1969, the same year in which he retired; the couple had no children. He died in 1990 after a lengthy illness.
The Music
Jimmy Van Heusen is associated with the later phase of what has been called the golden age of American popular song, from the mid-1920’s through the early 1960’s. Though he was not an innovator of the stature of George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, or Jerome Kern, Van Heusen was an adept creator of attractive melodies that resonated with the popular taste of the time. In his work for Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, he mastered the genre of the romantic ballad while providing up-tempo songs of broad appeal. Among his major hits from that period, “Imagination,” “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” and “It Could Happen to You” have all attained the status of standards in the repertoire of jazz signers and musicians.
In his partnerships with Burke and Cahn, Van Heusen several times tried to achieve a Broadway musical hit. Although these shows were flops, some of the songs that Van Heusen wrote for them became standards, including “Here’s That Rainy Day” from 1953’s Carnival in Flanders.
Songs with Burke. In 1940 Van Heusen went to work at Paramount Pictures, where he teamed with Johnny Burke, a popular writer of song lyrics. The team became songwriters both for the up-and-coming singer Frank Sinatra and the established star crooner, Bing Crosby. Van Heusen and Burke wrote the songs for the high-grossing “Road” pictures that starred Crosby and Bob Hope. A song called “Swingin’ on a Star” featured in Going My Way with Bing Crosby won the Academy Award for best song in 1944, the first of four Oscars that Van Heusen would achieve. The Burke-Van Heusen partnership continued after the war ended but broke up during the mid-1950’s because of Burke’s chronic alcoholism.
Songs with Cahn. The second important phase of Van Heusen’s career came when he teamed with lyric writer Sammy Cahn and the duo began writing songs for Frank Sinatra. Cahn reported that Van Heusen could provide melodies for his lyrics with great ease. If one melody did not work, Van Heusen turned out several others the same day. The professionalism and skill that Van Heusen and Cahn brought to their songs impressed Sinatra, who also liked to work fast. More important, Sinatra’s career had been in a downward spiral in the early 1950’s, and the songs that Van Heusen and Cahn produced help resurrect the singer’s artistic fortunes. Among the hits that they crafted for the crooner were “The Tender Trap,” “All the Way” (which won him a second Oscar), and “High Hopes.” Van Heusen’s ability to keep up with Sinatra’s frenetic night routine forged a bond with the singer that spurred them both to an intense artistic collaboration.
Musical Legacy
At his best, Jimmy Van Heusen captured the sense of optimism and confidence that permeated the United States during the height of his career. At the same time, he understood the melancholy that lay just beneath the surface of these emotions. The enduring popularity of “Here’s That Rainy Day” among jazz musicians and cabaret singers attests to Van Heusen’s ability to evoke deeper emotional feelings with his melodies.
His later work with Sammy Cahn has aged less well, since it was so intimately connected to the Rat Pack ethos of Sinatra and the “swinging” attitudes of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The “booze, broads, and Sinatra” image that Van Heusen cultivated has become a stale cliché of an era that now seems dated and distant. Yet “The Second Time Around” and “Call Me Irresponsible” are still popular among fans of the music of this period. In the “Road” pictures with Hope and Crosby and in the other songs that he wrote with Johnny Burke, however, Van Heusen proved himself a songwriter of great versatility and a winning style. His work is still underrated; his best songs merit greater attention for what he contributed to a unique American art form.
Principal Works
musical theater (music): Swingin’ the Dream, 1939 (libretto by Gilbert Seldes and Erik Charell; based on William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; lyrics by Eddie De Lange); Nellie Bly, 1946 (libretto by Joseph Quillan; lyrics by Johnny Burke); Carnival in Flanders, 1953 (libretto by Preston Sturges; lyrics by Burke); Eddie Fisher at the Winter Garden, 1962 (lyrics by Sammy Cahn); Come on Strong, 1962 (libretto by Garson Kanin; lyrics by Cahn); Skyscraper, 1965 (libretto by Peter Stone; based on Elmer Rice’s play Dream Girl; lyrics by Cahn); Walking Happy, 1966 (libretto by Roger O. Hirson and Ketti Frings; based on Harold Brighouse’s play Hobson’s Choice; lyrics by Cahn).
songs (music): “Deep in Dream,” 1938 (lyrics by Eddie De Lange; performed by Artie Shaw Orchestra, with Helen Forrest on vocals); “Oh! You Crazy Moon,” 1939 (lyrics by Johnny Burke; performed by Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, with Jack Leonard on vocals); “Imagination,” 1940 (lyrics by Burke; performed by Fred Waring Pennsylvanians); “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” 1940 (lyrics by Burke; performed by Frank Sinatra); “It Could Happen to You,” 1944 (lyrics by Burke; performed by Dorothy Lamour); “Like Someone in Love,” 1944 (lyrics by Burke; performed by Dinah Shore); “Swinging on a Star,” 1944 (lyrics by Burke; performed by Bing Crosby); “But Beautiful,” 1947 (lyrics by Burke; performed by Crosby); “Here’s That Rainy Day,” 1953 (lyrics by Burke; performed by Dolores Gray); “Love and Marriage,” 1955 (lyrics by Sammy Cahn; performed by Sinatra); “All the Way,” 1957 (lyrics by Cahn; performed by Sinatra); “Come Fly with Me,” 1957 (lyrics by Cahn; performed by Sinatra); “Come Dance with Me,” 1958 (lyrics by Cahn; performed by Sinatra); “High Hopes,” 1959 (lyrics by Cahn; performed by Sinatra and Eddie Hodges); “The Second Time Around,” 1960 (lyrics by Cahn; performed by Sinatra); “Call Me Irresponsible,” 1963 (lyrics by Cahn; performed by Sinatra).
Bibliography
Cahn, Sammy. I Should Care: The Sammy Cahn Story. New York: Arbor House, 1974. These memoirs by one of Van Heusen’s collaborators illuminate their work for Frank Sinatra.
Ewen, David. American Songwriters. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1987. Contains a chapter on Van Heusen and his career.
Hemming, Roy. The Melody Lingers On: The Great Songwriters and Their Movie Musicals. New York: Newmarket Press, 1986. Includes an essay on Van Heusen and a listing of the films in which his songs appeared.
Sheed, Wilfred. The House That George Built with a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty. New York: Random House, 2007. Provides an incisive and thoughtful chapter on Van Heusen as a songwriter.
Wilder, Alec. American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972. Includes an examination of Van Heusen’s work from the perspective of one of his fellow songwriters.