Maurice Abrahams (March 18, 1883 – April 13, 1931) was an American

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes 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 ...

and

music publisher A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers started to play a role in the management of the intellect ...

, who was successful in the early years of the 20th century.

Biography

Abrahams was born in Odessa,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, and emigrated to the US as a child in 1892, becoming a

naturalized citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

in 1910.New York, State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1940 for Maurice Abraham, Circuit Court, Southern District Vol 078-080 14 May-10 June 1910 (No 38491-39986), ''Ancestry.com''
/ref> He became a songwriter, writing popular

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott J ...

songs in

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Successful songs co-written by Abrahams included "Hitchy-Koo" (1912, written with L. Wolfe Gilbert and Lewis F. Muir); "

Ragtime Cowboy Joe Ragtime Cowboy Joe is a popular western swing song. The lyrics were written by Grant Clarke and the music was composed by Lewis F. Muir and Maurice Abrahams. It was copyrighted and published in 1912 by F.A. Mills. Artists The song has been ...

" (1912, written with Muir and

Grant Clarke Grant Clarke (May 14, 1891, Akron, Ohio – May 16, 1931, California) was an American songwriter. Clarke moved to New York City early in his career, where he worked as an actor and a staff writer for comedians. He began working on Tin Pan Alley, ...

); and " He'd Have to Get Under — Get Out and Get Under (to Fix Up His Automobile)" (1913, written with Clarke and

Edgar Leslie Edgar Leslie (December 31, 1885 – January 22, 1976) was an American songwriter. Biography Edgar Leslie was born in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1885. He studied at the Cooper Union in New York. He published his first song in 1909, starting a lo ...

).Biography, ''Allmusic.com''
Retrieved 29 March 2017 His biggest success, "Ragtime Cowboy Joe", was a pop hit for Bob Roberts (1912), Pinky Tomlin (1939),

Eddy Howard Edward Evan Duncan Howard (September 12, 1914 – May 23, 1963) was an American vocalist and bandleader who was popular during the 1940s and 1950s. Early years Eddy Howard was born in Woodland, California, and after attending San Jose State Coll ...

(1947),

Jo Stafford Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop music singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classi ...

(1949), and David Seville and the Chipmunks (1959). Some of his songs were written for his wife, the vaudeville performer

Belle Baker Belle Baker (December 25, 1893 in New York City – April 29, 1957 in Los Angeles) was an American singer and actress. Popular throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Baker introduced a number of ragtime and torch songs including Irving Berlin's " ...

, whom he married in 1919. Abrahams became manager of several music publishing firms, before starting his own publishing business in 1923. He died in New York in 1931, aged 48.

References

External links

* Jewish American songwriters 1883 births 1931 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States {{US-composer-19thC-stub