Composer Buddy Kaye dies at 84

November 21, 2002

Buddy Kaye (Songwriter) . Obituary from 'The Independent', London 26 November 2002

Obituary for the composer of "The Next Time", a ballad featured in the Cliff Richard film 'Summer Holiday' (1963). Remember Cliff singing this wearing his string vest, as he strolled with the Acropolis in Athens in the background

Jules Leonard Kaye (Buddy Kaye), lyricist: born New York 3 January 1918; married (two sons, one daughter); died Rancho Mirage, California 21 November 2002.

With hit songs such as "A – You're Adorable" and "In the Middle of Nowhere", the songwriter Buddy Kaye had success in several decades and was not phased by the introduction of rock'n'roll.

Born in New York City in 1918, he learnt the saxophone but was to make his mark as a lyricist in both Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood. His break came by writing songs for the wartime cartoon series Little Lulu. His first hit was "Walkin' with My Honey" for Sammy Kaye (no relation) in 1945. In the same year a film biography, A Song to Remember, created an interest in Chopin's music, so Kaye added words to Polonaise in A Flat, which led to a million-selling single for Perry Como, "Till the End of Time".

Relishing the rewards in ransacking the classics, Kaye supplied the words for a section of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto and the result, "Full Moon and Empty Arms" (1946), was a hit for Frank Sinatra. In 1948 he wrote songs for a Broadway musical, Hilarities, and for the Humphrey Bogart film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

In 1949 Kaye wrote a song based on a mnemonic, "A – You're Adorable", but his lyric lacked the sharpness of Sammy Cahn, as he ducked out of finding compliments for the most awkward letters. To make matters worse, Perry Como sang wrong words so that "V means you're very sweet" became "V means you're awfully sweet". Under the name of the Buddy Kaye Quintet, Kaye recorded "A – You're Adorable" with Artie Malvin as the vocalist.

The Quintet had a US hit with "Thoughtless", but his records are of particular interest because a young Al Cernick, later Guy Mitchell, was the featured vocalist on "Don't Tell My Heart" and "The Love Nest". Kaye wrote special material for club acts and several of his songs were recorded by well-known singers: "I'll Close My Eyes", a US hit for Andy Russell, was recorded by Vic Damone, Ella Fitzgerald, Joan Regan and Dinah Shore. Dinah Washington's interpretation was included on the soundtrack of The Bridges of Madison County (1995).

When rock'n'roll became popular in 1956, the older songwriters were as stretched as the singers to find work. Kaye did write some rock'n'roll and twist songs and his biggest success was with the novelty "Speedy Gonzales" for Pat Boone in 1962. He wrote "Time", a UK Top Ten hit for Craig Douglas, and "The Next Time", a beautiful ballad for Cliff Richard, which would have been a hit in any era. Although Kaye wrote six songs for Elvis Presley's films, the songs he wrote for Presley ("Never Ending", "A Change of Habit") are feeble compared to the hits he wrote for Dusty Springfield ("In the Middle of Nowhere" and "Little by Little"). He also wrote Eden Kane's 1964 hit "Boys Cry" and a much-underrated song for the Merseybeats, "Last Night (I Made a Little Girl Cry)".

His best work of the 1960s was writing the lyric with Gene Lees for Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Quiet Night of Quiet Stars". He wrote English lyrics for Charles Aznavour, notably "After Loving You", and "Hurry Sundown" with Hugo Montenegro for Harry Belafonte.

He supplied the theme for the television series I Dream of Jeannie, which, surprisingly, became the basis for a rap hit, "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble" by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, actually Will Smith, in 1986.

Kaye took tutorials, telling his students that songwriting depended on the three R's – writing, rewriting and royalties. His book Method Songwriting was published in 1988. As a record producer, Kaye won a Grammy in 1975 for The Little Prince with Richard Burton.

One of his later lyrics, a tribute to Tin Pan Alley, "The Old Songs", was recorded by Barry Manilow. Kaye collected the originals of Oscar-nominated screenplays and, in 2002, he passed them to the Rancho Mirage Public Library in California for public use.

-Spencer Leigh