Hugh Martin

Hugh Martin, born on August 11, 1914, in Birmingham, Alabama, is an American theatre and film composer, arranger, performer, vocal coach, and playwright. He is best known for his score for the classic 1944 MGM musical "Meet Me In St. Louis", in which Judy Garland sang three Martin songs, "The Boy Next Door," The Trolley Song, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. The last of these has become a Christmas season standard in the United States and around the English-speaking world and is widely considered one of the ten or so classic Christmas songs of all-time. Martin became a close friend of Garland and was her accompanist at many of her concert performances in the 1950s including her legendary stint at the Palace.

Martin wrote the music, and in some cases the lyrics, for five Broadway musicals: "Best Foot Forward" (1941); "Look Ma, I'm Dancin'!" (1948); "Make a Wish" (1951); "High Spirits" (1964) (music and lyrics, with Timothy Gray); and "Meet Me In St. Louis" (1989), a stage version of the film with an expanded score by Martin and Ralph Blane.

Martin's first Broadway credit was as an arranger for the 1937-1938 musical Hooray for What!. He was a vocal or choral arranger for such later Broadway musicals as The Boys From Syracuse (1938-39), Too Many Girls (1939-40), DuBarry Was a Lady (1939-40), Cabin in the Sky (1940-41), and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949-51), Top Banana (1951-52), and Loreli (1974). He was also one of the vocal arrangers for Sugar Babies (1979-82).

As a performer, Martin appeared on Broadway in "Hooray for What!", "Where Do We Go from Here" (1938), and "Louisiana Purchase" (1940-41).

Ralph Blane was Martin's songwriting partner for most of his work, and the two recorded an album of their best songs entitled "Martin and Blane Sing Martin and Blane" with the Ralph Burns Orchestra in 1956. (Available now on CD). Martin and Blane were twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song, for "The Trolley Song" in 1944, and for "Pass the Peace Pipe" (also co-written by Roger Edens) from Good News in 1947. Hugh Martin has also received four Tony award nominations, three for "High Spirits" (Best Musical, Best Book Author of a Musical, Best Composer and Lyricist) and one for the 1990 "Meet Me in St. Louis" (Best Original Score).

Martin's other film work includes songs for the films "Athena" starring Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds and Vic Damone, and The Girl Most Likely starring Jane Powell as well as the film version of his Broadway hit "Best Foot Forward" which starred Lucille Ball.

Martin collaborated with vocalist Michael Feinstein for a 1995 CD "Michael Feinstein Sings The Hugh Martin Songbook", an album on which the then 80-year-old songwriter accompanied Feinstein on piano and sang a duet.

Martin, a Seventh-day Adventist, spent much of the 1980s as an accompanist for gospel female vocalist Del Delker on her revival tours and in 2001 rewrote his most famous song (with the assistance of Garland biographer John Fricke) as a more specifically religious number, "Have Yourself A Blessed Little Christmas" which was recorded that year by Delker with the 86-year-old songwriter playing piano on the recording.

Hugh Martin is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

References

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0552399/ Hugh Martin's IMDB page]
* [http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=13678 Hugh Martin's IBDB page]
* [http://news.adventist.org/data/2005/11/1134595984/index.html.en Hugh Martin interview December 2005]

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