Larry Shay ''(né'' Lawrence Fredrick Schaetzlein; 10 August 1897

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

– 22 February 1988

Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city of about 85,000 in southern Orange County, California, United States. Located about southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Newport Beach is known for its sandy beaches. The city's harbor once supported maritime indu ...

) was an American

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates 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 genre and film scoring. ...

. Shay was born in

, Illinois. While still young, he studied the

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

at the Bush Conservatory of Music in Chicago. He eventually moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to become a songwriter. His first composition was "Do You, Don't You, Will You, Won't You," published in

1923 In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...

. In 1925 he 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, broadc ...

(American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), and remained a member for 63 years. In

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

he co-authored his most famous song, "

When You're Smiling "When You're Smiling" is a popular song written by Larry Shay, Mark Fisher and Joe Goodwin. First published in 1928, popular recordings were made by Seger Ellis (1928), Louis Armstrong (1929), and Ted Wallace & His Campus Boys (1930). The lyri ...

" (As with many other of his songs, this was a collaboration with Joe Goodwin and

Mark Fisher Mark Fisher (11 July 1968 – 13 January 2017), also known under his blogging alias k-punk, was an English writer, music critic, political and cultural theorist, philosopher, and teacher based in the Department of Visual Cultures at Golds ...

; see Shay, Fisher, and Goodwin). In the 1930s,

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

hired him to become their music director and Shay and his wife Doris moved from New York to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

. In that capacity, he hired

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 ...

, who was paid $50 a day by MGM for his first picture. He published over 300 songs in his life. He died in

. He had a daughter.

References

Biography of Larry Shay on CDBaby.com

External links

*
Larry Shay recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database catalog of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The 78rpm era was the time period in which any flat disc records were being played at ...

. Songwriters from Illinois 1897 births 1988 deaths Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) 20th-century American composers 20th-century American songwriters {{US-songwriter-stub