Topic: MILESTONES
Hy Zaret (born August 21, 1907 - died July 2, 2007) was an American lyricist and composer best known as the co-author of the 1955 hit "Unchained Melody", one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century. Zaret was born Hyman Harry Zaritsky in New York City and attended West Virginia University and Brooklyn Law School, where he received an LLB. He scored his first major success in 1935, when he teamed up with Saul Chaplin and Sammy Cahn to co-write the pop standard "Dedicated to You."
The early '40s brought some collaborations with Alex C. Kramer and Joan Whitney, including 1941's "It All Comes Back to Me Now". Zaret also wrote lyrics for an English translation of the French Resistance song "The Partisan" (aka "The Song of the French Partisan"), which was later covered by Leonard Cohen, "My Sister and I," was a hit in 1941 for Jimmy Dorsey; and "So Long, for a While," the theme song for the radio and TV show "Your Hit Parade". He also wrote the Andrew Sister's novelty song "One Meatball." Zaret's biggest success, though, was "Unchained Melody," a song he co-wrote with film composer Alex North for the 1955 prison film Unchained (hence the title but the word 'unchained' never appears in the lyrics), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
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Updated: Tuesday, 3 July 2007 11:07 PM CDT
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