Musical artist
Paul Francis Webster (December 20, 1907 – March 18, 1984)
[1] was an American
lyricist who won three
Academy Awards for Best Original Song , and was nominated sixteen times for the award.
Life and career
Webster was born in
New York City , United States,
[1] the son of Myron Lawrence Webster and Blanche Pauline Stonehill Webster. His family was Jewish. His father was born in
Augustów , Poland.
[2] He attended the
Horace Mann School (
Riverdale, Bronx, New York ), graduating in 1926, and then went to
Cornell University from 1927 to 1928 and
New York University from 1928 to 1930, leaving without receiving a degree.
[1] He worked on ships throughout Asia and then became a
dance instructor at an
Arthur Murray studio in New York City.
[3]
[4]
By 1931, however, he turned his career direction to writing song
lyrics .
[1] His first professional lyric was "Masquerade" (music by
John Jacob Loeb ) which became a hit in 1932, performed by
Paul Whiteman .
[1]
In 1935,
Twentieth Century Fox signed him to a contract to write lyrics for
Shirley Temple 's films, but shortly afterward he went back to freelance writing. His first hit was a collaboration in 1941 with
Duke Ellington on the song "
I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) ".
[1]
After 1950, Webster worked mostly for
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . He won two
Academy Awards in collaboration with
Sammy Fain , in 1953 and 1955, and another with
Johnny Mandel in 1965.
[1] Altogether, sixteen of his songs received
Academy Award nominations; among lyricists, he is third after
Sammy Cahn with twenty-six and
Johnny Mercer , who was nominated eighteen times, in number of nominations. In addition, a large number of his songs became major hits on the
popular music charts.
Webster is the most successful songwriter of the 1950s on the
UK Singles Chart . In 1967, he was asked to write the lyrics for the
Spider-Man theme song[
citation needed ] for the
television cartoon series of the same name . He was inducted into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.
[5] His papers are collected at
Syracuse University Libraries .
[6]
Webster's first born son,
Guy Webster, was a prolific photographer of musicians and bands in the 1960s and 1970s.
[7] His younger son, Mona Roger Webster, is a conceptual artist, a real estate investor and a longtime resident of Venice, CA.[
citation needed ]
Webster continued writing through 1983.
[4] He died in 1984 in
Beverly Hills, California , and is buried at Hillside Memorial Park in
Culver City, California .
List of songs
Here is a partial list of songs for which he wrote the lyrics:
[1]
[4]
[8]
[9]
Songs by Paul Francis Webster that won the Academy Award for Best Original Song
Nominated for the award
"Remember Me to Carolina" (
Minstrel Man , 1944)
"
Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love) " (
Friendly Persuasion , 1956)
"
April Love " (
April Love , 1957)
"
A Certain Smile " (
A Certain Smile , 1958)
"
A Very Precious Love " (
Marjorie Morningstar , 1958)
"
The Green Leaves of Summer " (
The Alamo , 1960)
"Love Theme from El Cid (The Falcon and the Dove)" (
El Cid , 1961)
"Tender Is the Night" (
Tender Is the Night , 1962)
"Love Song From Mutiny on the Bounty (Follow Me)" (
Mutiny on the Bounty , 1962)
"So Little Time" (
55 Days at Peking , 1963)
"A Time for Love" (
An American Dream , 1966)
"Strange Are the Ways of Love" from the film
The Stepmother (1972)
"A World that Never Was" from the film
Half a House (1976)
Songs winning Grammy Awards for best song of the year
Other songs with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster
Song compilation
The Songs of Paul Francis Webster (
ISBN
0-7935-0665-4 )
Award-Winning Songs By Paul Francis Webster , Robbins Music Corporation, 1964
References
External links
Other sources
Awards for Paul Francis Webster
1934–1940 1941–1950 1951–1960 1961–1970 1971–1980 1981–1990 1991–2000 2001–2010 2011–2020 2021–present
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
"
Beautiful Day " –
Adam Clayton ,
David Evans ,
Laurence Mullen &
Paul Hewson (songwriters) (2000)
"
Fallin' " –
Alicia Keys (songwriter) (2001)
"
Don't Know Why " –
Jesse Harris (songwriter) (2002)
"
Dance with My Father " –
Richard Marx &
Luther Vandross (songwriters) (2003)
"
Daughters " –
John Mayer (songwriter) (2004)
"
Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own " –
Adam Clayton ,
David Evans ,
Laurence Mullen &
Paul Hewson (songwriters) (2005)
"
Not Ready to Make Nice " –
Emily Burns Erwin ,
Martha Maguire ,
Natalie Maines Pasdar &
Dan Wilson (songwriters) (2006)
"
Rehab " –
Amy Winehouse (songwriter) (2007)
"
Viva la Vida " –
Guy Berryman ,
Jonathan Buckland ,
William Champion &
Christopher Martin (songwriters) (2008)
"
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) " –
Thaddis "Kuk" Harrell ,
Beyoncé Knowles ,
Terius Nash &
Christopher Stewart (songwriters) (2009)
2010s
"
Need You Now " –
Dave Haywood ,
Josh Kear ,
Charles Kelley &
Hillary Scott (songwriters) (2010)
"
Rolling in the Deep " –
Adele Adkins &
Paul Epworth (songwriters) (2011)
"
We Are Young " –
Jack Antonoff ,
Jeff Bhasker ,
Andrew Dost &
Nate Ruess (songwriters) (2012)
"
Royals " –
Joel Little &
Ella Yelich O'Connor (songwriters) (2013)
"
Stay with Me " (
Darkchild version) –
James Napier ,
William Phillips &
Sam Smith (songwriters) (2014)
"
Thinking Out Loud " –
Ed Sheeran &
Amy Wadge (songwriters) (2015)
"
Hello " –
Adele Adkins &
Greg Kurstin (songwriters) (2016)
"
That's What I Like " –
Christopher Brody Brown ,
James Fauntleroy ,
Philip Lawrence ,
Bruno Mars ,
Ray Charles McCullough II, Jeremy Reeves, Ray Romulus & Jonathan Yip (songwriters) (2017)
"
This Is America " –
Donald Glover ,
Ludwig Göransson &
Jeffery Lamar Williams (songwriters) (2018)
"
Bad Guy " –
Billie Eilish O'Connell &
Finneas O'Connell (songwriters) (2019)
2020s
International National Artists People Other