Byron Gay

Byron Gay (1886 – 23 December 1945) was an American songwriter. One of his best-known songs "Four or Five Times" (co-written with Marco H. Hellman) has been recorded by numerous artists including King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Lionel Hampton, Bob Wills, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Peggy Lee and more.^[1] Byron also worked with the legendary composer Richard A. Whiting together they wrote such songs as "Horses" and "Fire" both popular dance and comedy songs.

Stage productions

He wrote the music for The Uplifters' Minstrels, L. Frank Baum's 1916 stage farce for The Uplifters; he also had songs in The Greenwich Village Follies of 1919 and 1921.^[2]

Selected list of songs

• "The Little Ford Rambled Right Along" (Byron Gay, C. R. Foster) (1914)
• "Oh!" (Byron Gay, Arnold Johnson) (1919),^[3] (a 1953 recording by Pee Wee Hunt sold a million copies)
• "Avalon"
• "Fate" (1921)^[4][5]
• "Fast Asleep in Poppy Land"
• "Fire!" (Byron Gay, Richard A. Whiting) (1926) ^[6]
• "Four or Five Times" (Byron Gay, Marco H. Hellman) (recorded in 1928 by King Oliver)
• "Horses" (Bryon Gay, Richard A. Whiting) (1924)^[7]
• "Sand Dunes" (1918)
• "Song of the West"
• "The Vamp" (1919)^[8]
• "Wide Open Spaces"

References