Lee Julian Pockriss (January 20, 1924 – November 14, 2011) 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. ...

who wrote popular songs and scores for films and Broadway shows, mainly during the 1960s and 1970s.

Early life and career

Born in

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 ...

and graduating from

Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush, Brooklyn, Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brookly ...

, Pockriss's education at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

was interrupted by World War II, where he served as a

cryptographer Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or '' -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More gen ...

for the US Army Air Force. Upon his return he studied English and music at Brooklyn College, and later attended graduate school in musicology at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Songwriting success

With

Paul Vance Joseph Paul Florio (November 4, 1929 – May 30, 2022), known professionally as Paul Vance, was an American songwriter and record producer, primarily from the 1950s until the 1970s. His most successful song compositions, all written with Lee Po ...

he co-wrote

Perry Como Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987 ...

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

-nominated " Catch a Falling Star", recorded in 1957;

Brian Hyland Brian Hyland (born November 12, 1943) is an American pop singer and instrumentalist who was particularly successful during the early 1960s. He had a No. 1 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with " Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot B ...

's " Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini", recorded in 1960; and The Cuff Links' " Tracy", recorded in 1969.

Lee and Paul

In 1959, Pockriss and Vance released a single for

Columbia records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

as "Lee and Paul", a novelty tune called "The Chick".

Other songs

With Hal Hackady he co-wrote Billy Thornhill's "The Key", recorded in 1968 on Wand Records. Again with Hal Hackady, he co-wrote the ballad "Kites"', first recorded by The Rooftop Singers, though a subsequent recording by Simon Dupree and the Big Sound charted at number 8 in Britain. He also wrote Anita Bryant's " My Little Corner of the World", recorded in 1960,

Shelley Fabares Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares (; born January 19, 1944) is a retired American actress and singer. She is known for her television roles as Mary Stone on the sitcom ''The Donna Reed Show'' (1958–1963) and as Christine Armstrong on the sitc ...

' " Johnny Angel", recorded in 1962, and

Clint Holmes Clinton Raymond Holmes (born 9 May 1946) is a British-born singer-songwriter and Las Vegas entertainer, and TV announcer. He had a hit single in the US with " Playground in My Mind". Bio He was born in Bournemouth, England, the son of an Afri ...

' " Playground in My Mind", recorded in 1972.

Broadway and film

With lyricist Anne Croswell he wrote the songs for the Broadway musical ''Tovarich'' starring

Vivien Leigh Vivien Leigh ( ; born Vivian Mary Hartley; 5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967), styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. After completing her drama school education, Leigh appeared in small roles in four films in 1935 and progress ...

, which received a Grammy nomination for Original Cast Album. Pockriss and Croswell also collaborated on the frequently produced '' Ernest in Love'' (based on ''

The Importance of Being Earnest ''The Importance of Being Earnest, a Trivial Comedy for Serious People'' is a play by Oscar Wilde, the last of his four drawing-room plays, following ''Lady Windermere's Fan'' (1892), ''A Woman of No Importance'' (1893) and ''An Ideal Husban ...

'') and ''Bodo''. Pockriss also wrote the music for the musicals ''Wonderful Olly'', ''Dolley Madison'', and ''Divorce Of Course'', another collaboration with Hal Hackady. Pockriss wrote seven original songs for MGM's full-length animated film ''The Phantom Tollbooth'', scored the film '' The Subject Was Roses'' and wrote the title songs for ''

One, Two, Three ''One, Two, Three'' is a 1961 American political comedy film directed by Billy Wilder, and written by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond. It is based on the 1929 Hungarian one-act play ''Egy, kettő, három'' by Ferenc Molnár, with a "plot borrowe ...

'' and the 1966 Western ''Stagecoach''. In 1969, Pockriss wrote the unproduced musical "Gatsby" based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel. with lyrics by

Carolyn Leigh Carolyn Leigh (August 21, 1926 – November 19, 1983) was an American lyricist for Broadway, film, and popular songs. She is best known as the writer with partner Cy Coleman of the pop standards "Witchcraft" and " The Best Is Yet to Come". W ...

and book by Hugh Wheeler. UnsungMusicalsCo. Inc. presented its world premiere in concert form as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival in September 2011.GATSBY: THE SONGS IN CONCERT
New York Musical Theatre Festival. Retrieved 18 November 2011.

Sesame Street

In the 1980s, Pockriss wrote several songs for the children's educational series ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'', including "I'm Between" (sung by Tony), "My Polliwog Ways" (sung by

Kermit the Frog Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created in 1955 and originally performed by Jim Henson. An anthropomorphic green frog, Kermit is the pragmatic everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably as the showrunner and host o ...

), "Transylvania Love Call" (

Count von Count Count von Count (known simply as the Count) is a Muppet character on the PBS/HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street.'' He is meant to parody Bela Lugosi's vampiric character, Count Dracula. His first appearance on the show was in the 4 ...

), and "My Rock" ( Bert).

Death

Pockriss died aged 87, on November 14, 2011, at his home in Bridgewater, Connecticut, United States, following a long illness.

References

External links

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

biography of Lee Pockriss
Michael Rose Limited
list of Pockriss songs * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pockriss, Lee 1924 births 2011 deaths United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II American cryptographers Musicians from Brooklyn American musical theatre composers American male musical theatre composers Jewish American songwriters Songwriters from New York (state) New York University alumni Erasmus Hall High School alumni Mathematicians from New York (state) Brooklyn College alumni 21st-century American Jews