Irving Gordon

Irving Gordon (February 14, 1915  – December 1, 1996) was an American songwriter. Irving Gordon was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a child, he studied violin, and after attending public schools in New York City, went to work in the Catskill Mountains at some of the resort hotels in the area. While working in the hotels, he took to writing parody lyrics to some of the popular songs of the day. In the 1930s, he took a job with the music publishing firm headed by talent agent Irving Mills, at first writing only lyrics but subsequently writing music as well. After Gordon was introduced to Duke Ellington in 1937, Ellington sometimes invited Gordon to put words to his compositions. Working with Ellington was probably the most difficult...