Mitchell Parish
| Mitchell Parish | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Michael Hyman Pashelinsky |
| Born | July 10, 1900 |
| Origin | Lithuania |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Manhattan, U.S.A. |
| Occupation(s) | Lyricist |
Mitchell Parish (July 10, 1900 – March 31, 1993) was an American lyricist.
Early life
Parish was born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky to a Jewish family in Lithuania.[1] His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901 on the SS Dresden when he was less than a year old. They settled first in Louisiana where his paternal grandmother had relatives, but later moved to New York City.
Career
By the late 1920s Parish was a well-regarded Tin Pan Alley lyricist in New York City.
His best-known works include the lyrics to songs such as "Star Dust," "Sweet Lorraine," "Deep Purple," "Stars Fell on Alabama," "Sophisticated Lady," the translation to English lyrics of "Volare," "Moonlight Serenade," "Mr. Ghost Goes to Town," "Sleigh Ride," "One Morning in May," and "Louisiana Fairy Tale," which was the first theme song used in the PBS Production of This Old House.
Besides providing the lyrics to Hoagy Carmichael's "Star Dust," the two collaborated on standards such as "Riverboat Shuffle" and "One Morning in May."[2]
In 1949, Parish added lyrics to bandleader Al Goodman's tune, "The Allen Stroll," which was played as radio comedian Fred Allen took a stroll down "Allen's Alley", a featured segment of Allen's weekly show. The new song, "Carousel of Love," premiered on The Fred Allen Show on April 4, 1949. It was sung by the DeMarco Sisters and played by Al Goodman and his Orchestra.
In 1987, a revue titled Stardust was staged on Broadway featuring Parish's lyrics. It ran for 101 performances and was revived in 1999. In an interview at the time Parish claimed to have also written the lyrics to the Duke Ellington standard "Mood Indigo" though they were credited to Irving Mills. He remained "somewhat rueful, though no longer bitter" about it.[3]
Parish's grandnephew was the Grateful Dead roadie Steve Parish, who described Parish's meeting with Jerry Garcia in his autobiography, Home Before Day Light.
In 1972, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[4]
Death
Parish died in 1993 in Manhattan at the age of 92. He was buried in Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York.
Work on Broadway
- Continental Varieties (1935) - revue - featured lyricist
- Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1939 (1939) - revue - performer
- Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1940 (1940) - revue - featured lyricist
- Bubbling Brown Sugar (1976) - revue - featured lyricist
- Sophisticated Ladies (1981) - featured lyricist for "Sophisticated Lady"
- Stardust (1987) - revue - lyricist
References
- Hill, Tony L. "Mitchell Parish, 1900-1993," in Dictionary of Literary Biography 265. Detroit: Gale Research, 2002.
Footnotes
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ He wrote the lyrics to the Glenn Miller ballad "Sometime" from 1939, co-written with Glenn Miller and John Chummy MacGregor. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Songwriters Hall of Fame
External links
- Articles with hCards
- 1900 births
- 1993 deaths
- American lyricists
- American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
- Imperial Russian emigrants to the United States
- Jewish American songwriters
- Lithuanian Jews
- Musicians from Shreveport, Louisiana
- Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees
- 20th-century American musicians
- Writers from Shreveport, Louisiana
