Jimmy Kennedy

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For other persons named Jimmy Kennedy, see Jimmy Kennedy (disambiguation).

Jimmy Kennedy (born 20 July 1902 — died 6 April 1984), O.B.E., was a songwriter, predominantly a lyricist putting words to existing music like "Teddy Bears' Picnic" and "My Prayer", or co-writing with composers such as Michael Carr, Wilhelm Grosz (aka Hugh Williams) and Nat Simon among others.

Jimmy Kennedy was born on the Brookmount Road in Omagh, the County Town of County Tyrone in the Province of Ulster in Ireland. His father was Joseph Hamilton Kennedy, a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary (R.I.C.), the police force of Ireland at that time. However, Jimmy grew up in Portstewart, a famous Ulster sea-side resort located to the north in County Londonderry. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin.

He taught for a while in England before applying to join His Majesty's Colonial Service as a civil servant in 1927. However, Jimmy would never serve in the Colonial Service as his music career "took off" while he was awaiting a posting to Nigeria, which was then a British colony. He embarked on a career in song writing by joining the staff of Bert Feldman, a music publisher based in London's Tin Pan Alley. In a career spanning more than fifty years he wrote some 2000 songs, of which over 200 became world-wide hits and about 50 are all-time popular music classics.

Until John Lennon and Paul McCartney, he had more hits in the United States than any other Irish or British songwriter.^{[citation needed]} His first success came in 1931 with the "Barmaids Song" sung by Gracie Fields. "Red Sails in the Sunset" was inspired by a beautiful summer evening in Portstewart in 1935, and "South of the Border" by a holiday picture postcard he received from Tijuana, Mexico. While serving in the British Army's Royal Artillery, where he rose to the rank of Captain, he wrote the wartime hit, "We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line" for the British Expeditionary Force. His hits also include "The Isle of Capri", "My Prayer", "Teddy Bears' Picnic" (music by John Walter Bratton), "Love is Like a Violin", "Hokey Cokey" and "Roll Along Covered Wagon".

Many of Kennedy's songs were recorded by such famous artists as Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, The Platters, Vera Lynn, Petula Clark, Paul Robeson, Perry Como, Fats Domino, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Glen Miller and Elvis Presley.

Kennedy won two Ivor Novello Awards for his contribution to music and received an honorary degree from the New University of Ulster. He was also awarded the OBE in 1983. In 1997 he was posthumously inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.

Jimmy Kennedy died in Cheltenham, England, and is buried in Taunton, Somerset.