Songwriters Hall of FameInducted 1998 | ASCAP Writer

Larry Stock was born in 1896, the son of a cellist with the New York Symphony Orchestra. Before his eighth birthday, Stock was playing the piano, and at 12, was accepted by the Institute of Musical Art in New York, which later was renamed The Juilliard School. Graduating at 16, he continued his studies at The City College of New York. Stock also studied piano with a then prominent teacher, Clarence Adler.

"I was trained to be a concert artist," Stock was once quoted as saying, "but after graduating from college, there weren’t many jobs around for a young man. It was the Great Depression, you know, so I was happy to get occasional work in nightspots."

Performing in clubs left time during the day for other pursuits and Stock used them for songwriting at which he became accomplished but generally unrecognized, until 1938, when after a decade of effort, he enjoyed his first major success with "Umbrella Man." Perry Como also looked favorably on Larry Stock's material and subsequently recorded a number of his tunes, including "Did You Ever Get That Feeling in the Moonlight," "You Won't Be Satisfied Until You've Broken My Heart," "With All My Heart and Soul" and "If Wishes Were Kisses."

Over the course of nearly a half century of writing and composing, Larry Stock turned out literally scores of songs that became hits, noting at another juncture, that "I have more than a thousand unpublished songs." Most popular of all his songs was "Blueberry Hill," which, coincidentally, was a major hit recording for Fats Domino. Another song, the earlier "Umbrella Man," ultimately surpassed "Blueberry…

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