When it came to writing songs for the movies that caught on with the general public, few were on the level of Jimmy McHugh (1894-1969), even if his tunes ended up being much better known than he was. Although he was never as famous as the trio of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Cole Porter, McHugh ranked at the top with those three. In his career he wrote over 500 songs, dozens of which caught on as standards.

Jimmy McHugh was well trained as a pianist. Early on he was a rehearsal pianist at the Boston Opera House but he soon left the job to become a song plugger and demonstrator at Irving Berlin’s publishing company. In 1921 when he was 27, he officially became a songwriter, writing “Emaline” and having his first hit with “When My Sugar Walks Down The Street.”

McHugh worked as a general manager at Mills Music in the 1920s. He had success with “Everything Is Hotsy Totsy Now,” a song written with Irving Mills that perfectly fit the time period. McHugh hit the big time when he started teaming up on a regular basis with lyricist Dorothy Fields. In 1928 they wrote music for the Cotton Club revues and composed songs for Blackbirds Of 1928.

McHugh and Fields had their first joint hit with “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and also wrote “Doin’ The New Low Down” (performed by Bill “Bojangles” Robinson). “I Must Have That Man” and “Diga Diga Doo” were recorded by Duke Ellington. The team’s writing for 1930s International Revue included “On The Sunny Side Of The Street” and “Exactly Like You.”

Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields moved to Hollywood by 1931, writing 30 songs for films during the next five years. They contributed “Don’t Blame Me” (written two years earlier) and “I Feel A Song Coming On” to the 1934 Frances Langford film Don’t Blame Me. Langford introduced their “I’m In The Mood For Love” in the 1935 film Every Night At Eight. “I’m In The Mood For Love” was performed and recorded by nearly every singer of the 1930s. The pair also had success with “Blue Again” which was performed by Louis Armstrong.

After the McHugh-Fields partnership came to an end, Jimmy McHugh worked most frequently with lyricist Harold Adamson, writing songs for 19 movies. Among their successes were “I Couldn’t Sleep A Wink Last Night,” “This Is A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening” and “Coming In On A Wing And A Prayer.” The McHugh- damson team also wrote songs made famous by Nat King Cole (“Too Young To Go Steady”), Dinah Washington (“I Just Found Out About Love”) and Frank Sinatra (“I Couldn’t Sleep A Wink Last Night”).