Melville A. Leven (11 November, 1914–17 December, 2007) was an American composer and lyricist who had a long association with

the Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

, although he also wrote songs for

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 ...

("Every Time"),

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("Commoners Boogy"),

Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, alternatively billed as Nat "King" Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and Traditional pop, pop ...

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, and Les Brown, among others.

Biography

Mel Leven was born in Chicago. His most famous song is arguably "Cruella de Vil" from the 1961 Disney animated feature ''

One Hundred and One Dalmatians ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (also known as ''101 Dalmatians'') is a 1961 American Animated film, animated adventure film, adventure comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions with distribution by Buena Vista Distribution. Adapted fr ...

'', which is claimed to have been written in homage to

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk ( October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the Jazz standard, standard jazz repertoire, includ ...

's "Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are". That same year, he also wrote the story and new lyrics to sixteen tunes for the film '' Babes in Toyland''. In later years, he wrote songs, stories, and did voice-over work for the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

children's series '' Big Blue Marble'', as well as working on a number of projects for television commercials. He also composed " When The Buzzards Return To Hinckley Ridge" for the 1969 Disney animated short, " It's Tough to Be a Bird", which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Short Subject in 1970. The song was sung by comedian

Ruth Buzzi Ruth Ann Buzzi ( ; July 24, 1936 – May 1, 2025) was an American actress and comedian. She appeared on stage, in films, and on television. She was best known for her performances on the comedy-variety show ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' from 196 ...

. Leven was also in Snap, Crackle, Pop commercials. He also wrote the ''Little Ranger Nature'' series for Disney in the 1960s. His work has been honored with two

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

and two

Peabody Awards The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

. A conservationist and talented fly fisherman, in retirement Leven traveled the world in pursuit of fish and became a beloved fixture along Northern California rivers in particular. He features prominently in the 2009 documentary Rivers of a Lost Coast, on the decline of the California

steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the Fish migration#Classification, anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout (''O. m. gairdneri'', also called redband steelhead). Steelhead are native to cold-wa ...

population.Bio page
from website for film, ''Rivers of a Lost Coast'', dir. Justin Coupe and Palmer Taylor (2009). According to his son, Leven died on December 17, 2007. He was 93. Mel Leven was divorced and had two children, Bill Leven and a daughter Laurie Fondiler/Leven. His first wife was Vera and second wife' mother of Bill and Laurie was, Jeanie Francis.

References

Works written by: LEVEN MELVILLE A
at the

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers 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 ...

*
Mel Leven Biography
from Music Theatre International 1914 births 2007 deaths Songwriters from Illinois Musicians from Chicago Walt Disney Animation Studios people 20th-century American musicians {{US-songwriter-stub