Mack David (July 5, 1912 – December 30, 1993) was an American lyricist and songwriter, best known for his work in film and television, with a career spanning the period between the early 1940s and the early 1970s. David was credited with writing lyrics or music or both for over one thousand songs.[1] He was particularly well known for his work on the Disney films Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland, and for the mostly-English lyrics[2][3][4] through which Édith Piaf's signature song "La Vie en rose" gained much of its familiarity among native speakers of English.
David was the elder brother of American lyricist and songwriter Hal David.[1]
David was born on July 5, 1912, in New York City to a Jewish family. David originally planned to become an attorney and attended Cornell University and St. John's University Law School. Despite these original goals, in the mid-1940s, David began writing songs for New York's Tin Pan Alley. These initial successes prompted David to move to Hollywood, California, to work in the film and television industries.
"(Beware of) The Blob" (a charted hit by The 5 Blobs; film theme song to 1958 camp-horror classic The Blob, starring Steve McQueen, with Burt Bacharach
Perhaps David's most popular lyrics were written for "La Vie en rose", a French song with lyrics by Édith Piaf and music by Louiguy (Louis Guglielmi), which was Piaf's signature song. Although David did not write an English translation of Piaf's lyrics, his words captured the spirit of the song; his version was performed by artists such as Louis Armstrong. The song was recorded by over eighty international singers and musicians[clarification needed] and been featured in several dozen motion pictures.[citation needed]
David's song "Candy" (co-written with Whitney and Kramer) was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald for her 1968 album 30 by Ella.
David had a varied interest in musical composition. In 1975, according to the New York Times in David's obituary: "Mr. David was granted a patent for inventing an electronic system for composing songs from fractional recordings. The system, which included playback units, stored records of lyrics and melodies. The operator selected words and music that fit together and recorded the combination."[1]
^"La Vie en rose", at pp. 65–67 in Dan Coates, Decade by Decade 1940s: Ten Years of Popular Hits Arranged for Easy Piano, Alfred Music Publishing, 2008
^[1], "Note 62", at p. 98 in Stacy Linn Holman Jones, Torch singing: performing resistance and desire from Billie Holiday to Edith Piaf, Rowman Altamira, 2007
^"La Vie en Rose", at p. 144 in John Griswold, Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations And Chronologies for Ian Fleming's Bond Stories, AuthorHouse, 2006
^ abVosburgh, Dick. "Obituary for David Mack", The Independent, Wednesday, January 19, 1994.
^Jerry Herman (with Marilyn Stasio). Showtune: A Memoir. New York: Donald I. Fine Books, 1996, pp. 102–108.
