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John Blackburn

Although he penned several hits throughout his very long career, lyricist John Blackburn remains most widely known for the immortal “Moonlight in Vermont,” the intimate ballad he wrote with Karl Suessdorf in 1943. Given birth to Oct 19, 1913, in Massilon, OH, Blackburn grew up within the suburbs of Cleveland. His mom was herself a composer, and two sisters later on pursued writing professions aswell. He 1st pursued a profession around the stage, becoming a member of a touring puppet theatre that led him to Vermont. Blackburn spent 2 yrs within the Green Hill State in every, devoting a lot of his stay to teaching within the episode division at Bennington University. In the first ’40s, Blackburn relocated to Southern California, operating at Lockheed while moonlighting using the Pasadena Playhouse as an acting professional and director. With time he started composing lyrics and collaborating with composer Suessdorf, sketching upon his period at Bennington to create “Moonlight in Vermont.” A metrically nuanced track where each verse is really a haiku, the track was first documented in 1944 by Margaret Whiting, even though her strike single is normally regarded as the definitive documenting, it was later on included in everyone from Frank Sinatra to Willie Nelson. While “Moonlight in Vermont” continued to be the biggest strike of Blackburn’s music profession, he also co-wrote with Teepee Mitchell and Lou Porter the 1949 smash “Require You,” documented by Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae. That same 12 months he founded the Los Angeles-based impartial Selective Records, that was the very first label to record the famed R&B group the Hollywood Flames. Singles by Madonna Martin and Eddie Williams & His Dark brown Buddies adopted, but with out a strike to its credit, the business closed shop within a 12 months. Blackburn continued composing, and in 1957 Oscar Peterson documented his “Susquehanna.” Music usually continued to be a sideline, nevertheless, and by day time he worked well at Rockwell International, adding to the Gemini and Apollo space exploration applications. Upon retiring in 1976, Blackburn founded the Downey, CA, Marionette Theater and acted in and directed many local stage productions. Through the middle-’90s he resolved in Newport, OR, and following a effective triple-bypass medical procedures in 1999 continued to write a huge selection of extra tracks and verses. Blackburn passed away November 15, 2006, at age 93.

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