John Frederick Coots (May 2, 1897 – April 8, 1985) was an American songwriter. He composed over 700 popular songs and over a dozen Broadway shows. In 1934, Coots wrote the melody with his then chief collaborator, lyricist Haven Gillespie, for the biggest hit of either man's career, "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town." The song became one of the biggest sellers in American history. In 1934, when Gillespie brought him the lyrics to "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", Coots came up with the outline of the melody in just ten minutes. Coots took the song to his publisher, Leo Feist, who liked it but thought it was "a kids' song" and didn't expect too much from it. Coots offered the song to Eddie Cantor who used it on his radio show that November and it became an instant hit. The morning after the radio show there were orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music and by Christmas sales had passed 400,000.

Biography

Coots was born in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York When he was 17, he began to work with Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. in New York In 1916, his first hit song published, "Mr. Ford You've Got the Right Idea," words by Ray Sherwood, music by Coots; A. J. Stasny Music Co., publisher In 1919, actor-producer Eddie Dowling gave Coots his first chance at writing a musical score for Friars' Frolics. In 1922, Dowling commissioned Coots to write the songs for Sally, Irene and Mary, a show which ran for two years on Broadway. In 1928, wrote "Doin' the Raccoon". He moved to Los Angeles the following year. In 1931, he wrote. "Love Letters in the Sand" In 1934, he wrote the songs "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" (over 4 million copies of sheet music sold) and "For All We Know" In 1940, he wrote "The Rangers' Victory Song"; He died in 1985 in a New York City hospital, after a lengthy illness

Selected songs

Selected musicals

Notes and references

Notes Original copyrights Copyright renewals Inline citations