music.wikisort.org - Composer

William Merrigan Daly Jr. (1 September 1887 – 3 December 1936)[1][2][lower-alpha 1] was an American pianist, composer, songwriter, orchestrator, musical director and conductor.

Life and career

William Daly was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of a successful song-and-dance man.[3] He attended Harvard University receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1908. By 1911 he was a writer, editor, and eventually general manager for Everybody's Magazine in New York.[4] Daly left the company in 1914 to pursue a show business career. He married in 1915 settling in New York City.[3]

Daly played piano with various Broadway orchestras, and in time established himself as a songwriter, arranger, orchestrator, and music director, conducting more than twenty shows between 1915 and 1934.[4] He met George and Ira Gershwin in the late 1910s. Daly and George Gershwin collaborated on several Broadway scores. Both contributed songs to Piccadilly to Broadway (1920), a show which closed in Atlantic City, and For Goodness' Sake (1922). The two jointly composed the score for Our Nell in 1923. This was the beginning of a long friendship; Daly was a frequent arranger, orchestrator and conductor of Gershwin's music, and Gershwin periodically turned to him for musical advice.[4] Gershwin dedicated his 1926 Preludes for Piano to Daly.

Around 1930, Daly also became conductor and music director of the National Broadcasting Company radio orchestra.[5]

Daly died suddenly of a heart attack in December 1936.

Works

Operetta

• Western Stuff, Operetta in 1 reel (1917); libretto by James Montgomery Flagg

Broadway musical contributions (songs and numbers)

• Betty (1916)

Spilling the Beans, Fox-trot

• Everything (1918)

"You're the Very Girl I've Looked For"

"Sunshine Alley"

"Come to the Land of Romance"

"Roll Along"

• Kissing Time (1920); earlier version staged in London

"The Nicest Sort of Feeling"

• For Goodness' Sake (1922); co-composed with Paul Lannin; additional songs by George Gershwin

"All to Myself"

"When You're in Rome"

"Every Day"

"Twilight"

"Greatest Team of All"

"Oh Gee! Oh Gosh! I Love You"

"In the Days of Wild Romance"

"When Somebody Cares"

"The French Pastry Walk"

"The Whichness of the Whatness"

• Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1923 (1923)

"A Girl Is Like Sunshine"

"Laugh While You're Dancing Around"

• Our Nell (1923); co-composed with George Gershwin

"Gol-Durn!"

"Innocent Ingenue Baby"

"Old New England Home"

"The Cooney County Fair"

"Names I Love to Hear"

"By-and-By"

"Madrigal"

"We Go to Church on Sunday"

"Walking Home with Angeline"

"Oh, You Lady!"

"Little Villages"

• Jack and Jill (1923)

"Hello! Good-Bye"

"Pretty City Girl (I Want a Pretty Girl)"

Filmography

• Air Mail as 'Tex' Lane (1932); directed by John Ford
• "Could I Be in Love?", Song from the 1937 film Champagne Waltz directed by A. Edward Sutherland

Literary

• George Gershwin as Orchestrator (1933); published in the 15 January 1933 issue of The New York Times

Notes

References

External links

• William Daly at the Internet Broadway Database
• William Daly at IMDb
• Schenectedy Gazette, 7 May 1930: Dynamic Daly – Radio's New Orchestra Leader Works Hard to Attain Good Effects Caricature of William Daly as conductor.

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