Tom Glazer

Renowned chiefly for penning the children's staple "On Top of Spaghetti," folksinger and composer Tom Glazer entered the world in Philadelphia on September 2, 1914. Following the 1918 death of his carpenter father, his mother and various relatives raised him and his siblings, with periods spent in an orphanage. While in school he explored multiple musical traditions and instruments, including guitar, bass, and tuba, before moving at age 17 to New York City, where he took a job at Macy's department store and completed high school through night classes. After three years at New York City College he relocated to Washington, D.C., securing employment at the Library of Congress and forming a friendship with musicologist Alan Lomax.

Once Lomax introduced him to several folk songs, Glazer launched a performing career that included a modest White House event arranged by Eleanor Roosevelt, followed by his first formal public appearance in early 1943 at Manhattan's Town Hall. In 1945 he began hosting the ABC radio series "Tom Glazer's Ballad Box," which continued until 1947; additional radio work encompassed programs such as "We the People," "Listening Post," "True Story," and "Theatre Guild on the Air." Through these broadcasts he not only reached wider audiences but also voiced his political convictions via numbers like "Because All Men Are Brothers," "When the Country Is Broke," "Talking Inflation Blues" (later performed by a young Bob Dylan), and "Citizen C.I.O.," all of which reflected the populist outlook central to much of his output.

Although lasting celebrity eluded him compared with certain peers, Glazer earned recognition, together with Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Burl Ives, and Josh White, as one of the principal forces behind the postwar folk revival. Initially aiming at adult listeners, he soon turned to writing and adapting material for children, earning the 1947 Annual Record Music Award for his youth-oriented recordings. For NBC he hosted the children's program "Tom, Timmie and Mae," featuring actress Mae Questrel (voice of cartoon icon Betty Boop) and the fictional character Timmie. In 1957 he supplied songs and incidental music for Elia Kazan's film A Face in the Crowd, yet his biggest commercial breakthrough arrived in 1963 with the novelty hit "On Top of Spaghetti," a radio success built on the melody of the traditional folk song "On Top of Old Smoky."

While most of his recordings went out of print, several popular songbooks kept his work alive, among them Tom Glazer's Treasury of Songs for Children, The Mother Goose Songbook, and Eye Winker, Tom Tinker, Chin Chopper: A Collection of Musical Finger Plays. He also wrote songs recorded by Frank Sinatra ("Melody of Love") and Perry Como ("More"). Glazer died at his Philadelphia home on February 21, 2003, at the age of 88.