Johnny Mercer Award

Two of the truly distinctive, defining creators in mid-century pop music culture, without question, are Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, a pair of close friends and past inductees into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame, who this evening are honored with the coveted Johnny Mercer Award, named for our esteemed founding…

Abe Olman Publisher Award

Unlike most of the respected names in American music publishing, Julian Aberbach was born in a foreign country, Austria, emigrating to America and arriving in time to serve in World War II. He underwent basic training in the U. S. Army in Spartanburg, South Carolina, later receiving his commission as…

Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award

Neil Diamond is one of those fortunate songwriters to have enjoyed sustained success with a music catalog of major proportions, despite a time in music that saw amazing and often complex changes in the popular taste. Early in those mid-'60s years, he was seen as an increasingly important figure in…

Hitmaker Award

In early 1956, a 21-year-old english and physical education major at San Francisco State University was confronted by one of life's major choices: let his high-jumping and track skills carry him to trials for the Olympic Summer Games in Australia later that year, or turn to New York and Columbia…

Towering Song

In 1931, while most of America was reeling from the already desperate years of the great depression, Songwriters Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons had reason to celebrate. Their one important songwriting collaboration, "All Of Me," first saw the light of day. beginning an open-ended dominance of the song category of…

Towering Song

"Governor" Jimmie Davis, held down the Louisiana executive's chair for two terms, from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1960 to 1964, recently reached his 100th birthday; and even for that length of time on this earth, he's packed in an extraordinary range of accomplishments. Not the least of these…