Kermit "Ken" Lane (December 20, 1912 – November 23, 1996) was an American musician from

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He was best known to audiences as

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of ...

's pianist on ''

The Dean Martin Show ''The Dean Martin Show'' is a TV Variety show, variety-Television comedy, comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by Dean Martin. The theme song to the series was his 1964 hit "Everybody Loves ...

'' in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but was already well known in the film community before that. With Irving Taylor, Lane co-wrote " Everybody Loves Somebody" in 1947.

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

recorded it first, followed by

Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (; born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a ...

and

Peggy Lee Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local r ...

before Martin himself recorded it in 1964 and took it to #1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 list in August of that year. It would be Lane's biggest hit as a composer. He also arranged the music for ''Tars and Spars'', ''Monsieur Beaucaire'', ''California'', ''Ladies' Man'', ''Champagne For Two'', ''Smooth Sailing'', and ''Paris In The Spring'' in 1946 and 1947. Lane composed the music for ''Lucy Gets Lucky'', a 1975 made-for-TV movie starring

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for h ...

. Lane had two children: a daughter, Robin Lane, who is a rock singer, with her band "Robin Lane and the Chartbusters", and a son, Christopher "Kit" Robert Lane. Lane died of

emphysema Emphysema is any air-filled enlargement in the body's tissues. Most commonly emphysema refers to the permanent enlargement of air spaces (alveoli) in the lungs, and is also known as pulmonary emphysema. Emphysema is a lower respiratory tract di ...

in 1996 in

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; Washo language, Washo: ''dáʔaw'') is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest a ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

at the age of 83.

External links

*
Robin Lane biography (source for father/daughter relationship)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Ken 1912 births 1996 deaths Songwriters from New York (state) 20th-century American pianists American male pianists 20th-century American male musicians American male songwriters 20th-century American songwriters