Sammy Cahn
Award winning songwriter ("All the Way"
[Academy Award, 1957], "Three Coins in
the Fountain" [Academy Award, 1954],
"Love and Marriage", "High Hopes"
[Academy Award, 1959], "Call Me
Irresponsible" [Academy Award, 1963])
composer, author and publisher, educated
at Seward Park High School in New York.
Arriving in Hollywood in 1940, he wrote
many title and theme songs along with film
scores and incidental music. His Broadway
stage scores include "High Button Shoes",
"Two's Company" and "Skyscraper".
He joined ASCAP in 1936, and his chief
musical collaboraors included Saul Chaplin
Jule Styne, and James Van Heusen. He
became a musical publisher in 1955. His
other song compositions include "Shoe Shine Boy", "Please Be Kind",
"I've Heard That Song Before", "I'll Walk Alone", "Saturday Night
is The Loneliest Night of the Week", "I Fall in Love Too Easily",
"What Makes the Sunset", "It's Been a Long, Long Time",
"Day By Day", "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow", "I Should Care",
"The Things We Did Last Summer", "Five Minutes More",
"Time After Time", "You're My Girl", "It's Magic", "Be My Love",
"Because You're Mine", "Teach Me Tonight", "The Second Time
Around", "September of My Years", "My Kind of Town", "I Like
to Lead When I Dance", "Everybody Has a Right to Be Wrong",
and the film title songs for "The Tender Trap", "It's A Woman's World",
"The Long Hot Summer", "Indiscreet", "Pocketful of Miracles",
"Come Blow Your Horn", "The Best of Everything", and
"Where Love Has Gone"
Jimmy Van Heusen
Composer Jimmy Van Heusen was born Edward Chester Babcock, in Syracuse, New York on January 26, 1913. Growing up in
Syracuse, he began writing songs while still in high school. At the age of 16, he had a regular program on a small
Syracuse radio station and as an announcer and adopted the last name of Van Heusen (inspired by the men’s Collar
manufacture of the same name). After graduating from high school, Van Heusen attended Cazenovia College and Syracuse
University.
Moving to New York in 1933, Van Heusen took a job as a staff pianist with Remick Music Publishing.
By 1939, Van Heusen had started working with another lyricist, Johnny Burke.
The Van Heusen-Burke team was one of the most successful in Tin Pan Alley. Under contract with Paramount Studios, Van
Heusen and Burke moved to Hollywood in 1940. Together they wrote the hit songs “Polka Dots and Moonbeams”, “Imagination”,
“It’s Always You”, “Moonlight Become You”, “Ain’t Got a Dime to My Name”, “Constantly”, “Sunday, Monday or Always”,
“Sleighride in July”, “If You Please”, “Day After Forever”, “Swinging on a Star” (1945 Academy Award for Best Song),
“Personality”, “Put It There, Pal”, “Would You?”, “Aren’t You Glad You’re You?”, “Country Style”, “But Beautiful”,
“You Don’t Have to Know the Language”, “Once and For Always”, “When is Sometime”, “Busy Doing Nothing”, “Top O’ the
Morning”, “Sunshine Cake”, “Sure Thing”, “Got the Moon in My Pocket”, “Suddenly It’s Spring”, “It Could Happen to You”,
“Like Someone in Love”, “So Would I”, “My Heart Goes Crazy”, “You May Not Love Me” and “Just My Luck”.
Call Me Irresponsible
Words & music by:-
Sammy Cahn & Jimmy Van Heusen
Call me irresponsible - call me unreliable
Throw in undependable too
Do my foolish alibis bore you
Well I'm not too clever - I just adore you
Call me unpredictable - tell me I'm impractical
Rainbows I'm inclined to pursue
Call me irresponsible - yes I'm unreliable
But it's undeniably true - I'm irresponsibly mad for you