Hoagy Carmichael (Hoagland Howard Carmichael, November 1899 – December 1981) was an American songwriter, musician, actor, singer, and attorney. He is famous because he wrote several of the most highly regarded popular standards in American music. Nonetheless with all of his fame and success, Carmichael cannot be credited with composing the 1945 song "Autumn Leaves". This popular song and jazz standard was composed by Joseph Kosma with original lyrics by Jacques Prévert in French ("Les Feuilles mortes"). Later Johnny Mercer provided the English words.

As a jazz standard, "Autumn Leaves" after its released accumulated more than a thousand commercial recordings. The song was recorded steadily throughout the 1950s by leading pop vocalists including Steve Conway (1950), Bing Crosby (1950), Nat King Cole (1955), Doris Day (1956), and Frank Sinatra (1957).

With Hoagy Carmichael, many of his most famous songs over a seventy year period include “Stardust” (1927), “Rockin’ Chair” (1929), “Georgia” (1930, also known as “Georgia on My Mind”), “Lazy River” (1932), “Lazy Bones” (1933), “Two Sleepy People” (1938), “Small Fry” (1938), “Heart and Soul” (1938), “The Nearness of You” (1938), “Ole Buttermilk Sky” (1946), “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” (1951), and others.

After a long career and suffering a heart attack, Carmichael died at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, in December 1981.

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