Jerry Livingston (born Jerry Levinson; March 25, 1909 – July 1, 1987) was an American songwriter and dance orchestra pianist.

Life and career

Born in Denver, Colorado, Livingston studied music at the University of Arizona. While there he composed his first score for a college musical. He moved to New York City in the 1930s, initially working as a pianist for dance orchestras.

Among the popular songs Livingston helped write are “It’s the Talk of the Town”, “Under a Blanket of Blue”, “Blue and Sentimental”, “Close to You”, “Mairzy Doats”, “Wake the Town and Tell the People”, “The Twelfth of Never”, and “Young Emotions”.

From the 1940s to the 1960s he wrote songs for numerous films and television series, including Cinderella (1950), Bronco (1958), 77 Sunset Strip (television series, 1958), Hawaiian Eye (television series, 1959), Bourbon Street Beat (television series, 1959), Surfside 6 (television series, 1960), and the song “This is It” (for the 1960s The Bugs Bunny Show). He worked on Tin Pan Alley and co-wrote with Mack David the theme song to Casper the Friendly Ghost, and co-wrote The Unbirthday Song for Alice in Wonderland and Trick or Treat For Halloween for Trick or Treat with David and Al Hoffman.

Livingston’s Broadway compositions included the musical Molly and the musical revue Bright Lights of 1944, both with Mack David.

With Mack David, he was nominated three times for the Academy Awards, the first time in 1951 for the song “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” from Cinderella (1950) with Al Hoffman, again in 1960 for the song “The Hanging Tree” from the film of the same name (1959), and the last time for “The Ballad of Cat Ballou” (from the 1965 film Cat Ballou) in 1966.

In 1965, he and his wife, Ruth, were shot by their son, Gary, for “bugging him about getting out of bed at 1 PM,”[2]after his attempted suicide the previous night.

He died of a heart condition at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 78.