Above, Jean Miro.
You know the song “All in the Game”? (“Many a tear has to fall/But it’s all in the game….”) It’s one of the swooniest tunes ever written. In 1958 Tommy Edwards became the first African-American to top the Billboard Hot 100 when he took it to #1. Since then it’s been covered not just by bleaters like Bobby Vinton but by the best in the business too, everyone from Merle Haggard to Esther Phillips to Roland Kirk….
Turns out it was written by this guy:
Charles G. Dawes, vice-president under Calvin Coolidge and recipient of the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize.
He wrote that melody in 1911. Forty years later somebody named Carl Sigman came along and added lyrics.
Apparently you can’t judge a man by his celluloid collar.
Here’s Van Morrison going to town on the song (Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast, 1984):
