Musicians - J. Fred Coots

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	Musicians - J. Fred Coots

John Frederick Coots (May 2, 1897 - April 8, 1985) was an American songwriter. He wrote over 700 songs.

Most famous for the song Santa Claus Is Coming to Town a song that became one of the biggest best sellers in American music history.

Among his songs are:

Santa Claus is Coming to Town
You Go To My Head

He wrote both of these songs with the lyricist Haven Gillespie.

In 1934 when the lyric writer Haven Gillespie brought the song to him, Coots came up with the skeleton of the music in just 10 minutes. Later when Coots brought the song to his Publisher, Leo Feist Inc., they liked it but thought it was a kid's song and did not 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.

Timeline - J. Fred Coots

1897 May 2 - Born in Brooklyn, New York

1914 (17) While working in a bank decided to change careers

1917 (20) Had his first song published

1922 (25) Wrote the music for a Broadway show called "Sally, Irene, and Mary"

1928 (31) Wrote "Doin' the Raccoon"

1929 (32) Moved to Hollywood, California

1931 (34) Wrote "Love Letters in the Sand"

1934 (37) Wrote the song "Santa Claus is Coming To Town" (over 4 million copies of sheet music sold)

1985 (87) April 8 - Died in New York City

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for J. Fred Coots ]

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