Terry Gilkyson, songwriter

[Evan Hulka]

>From Allstar music news:

Folk Singer/Songwriter Terry Gilkyson Dies At 83
Oct 20, 1999, 1:55 pm PT

Terry Gilkyson, whose long songwriting career included the Academy
Award-nominated hit "The Bare Necessities" from Walt Disney film
The Jungle Book, died Friday (Oct. 15) at age 83 in Austin, Texas.

In a musical career that spanned over four decades, Gilkyson penned
Dean Martin's 1955 No. 1 record "Memories Are Made Of This," plus
top 10 hits for Frankie Laine and the Brothers Four. A wide-ranging
group of artists recorded Gilkyson's songs, including Tony Bennett,
Louis Armstrong, Harry Connick, Jr., the Kingston Trio, Johnny Cash,
Spike Jones, and many more.

Born Hamilton H. Gilkyson III in Phoenixville, Pa., but nicknamed Terry,
his earliest musical ventures included singing folk songs on Armed
Forces Radio during World War II, after enlisting in the Army Air Corps.
In the late 1940s, Gilkyson moved to Los Angeles, where he recorded
his song, "Cry Of The Wild Goose." It became a hit when covered by
Laine in 1950. Gilkyson also sang on the Weavers' 1951 folk hit "On
Top Of Old Smoky."

With his folk group the Easy Riders (which included fellow singers
Frank Miller and Richard Dehr), he composed many of his best-known
songs, including "Everybody Loves Saturday Night," "Marianne"
(adapted from a Bahamian folk melody), "The Sea Is Green," and the
song "Greenfield," which put the Brothers Four at the top of the charts
in 1960.

In the 1960s, Gilkyson wrote songs for various Walt Disney projects, at
one point turning out a song a week for the TV program The
Wonderful World Of Disney. Gilkyson wrote all the songs to Disney's
1967 animated feature The Jungle Book, but his songs were
scrapped in favor of a new score by Disney stalwarts Richard and
Robert Sherman. Only one Gilkyson song remained in the completed
film, "The Bare Necessities." It proved the movie's best-loved song,
and garnered an Academy Award nomination that year.

Terry Gilkyson's children Nancy, Eliza and Tony have all been
involved
in music, with Eliza a folksinger and Tony having performed with such
Los Angeles bands as X and Lone Justice.

+------------------------------------------------------+
Evan Hulka hu...@pacbell.net
+------------------------------------------------------+
"Lack of skill dictates economy of style." (Joey Ramone)
+------------------------------------------------------+

[mack]

I'm just glad to know that Gilkyson was evidently NOT responsible for
driving millions of people to the booby hatch with "It's a Small World After
All" ....that dubious honor apparently goes to the Sherman brothers.