Arnold Shaw was a songwriter and music business executive, primarily in the field of music publishing, who is best known for his comprehensive series of books on 20th century American popular music. Shaw entered the field of popular music during the 1940s, as a pianist and composer. He did not make a major mark in this field: his best-known compositions include Mobiles and The Mod Moppet: Seven Nursery Rip-offs, and ?Sing a Song of Americans,? for which Rosemary Benet and Steven Vincent Benet wrote the lyrics. In 1945, he entered the business end of the popular music scene, as director of publicity and advertising for Leeds Music Corporation. He went on from there to the Edward B. Marks Music Corporation, also a music publishing company, where he spent most of his business career. During the 1950s and 1960s, he also handled public relations and advertising for a number of individual performers, including Elvis Presley, Burt Bacharach and Paul Simon. His first book on music, Gene Krupa First Authentic Life Story of America's Ace Drummer Man, came out in 1945, and he published a biography of Harry Belafonte in 1960. [More at Wikipedia]

January 1st, 1909 in   /  Died:   1989