Biography
Born in Bloomsbury on 16 November 1904 and passing away in Farnborough on 28 November 1993, Thomas P. Connor specialised in crafting lyrics for sentimental ballads and light novelty songs that enjoyed widespread appeal from the early 1930s into the 1950s. He was known for an intuitive grasp of popular sentiment, especially among everyday listeners during the Second World War. Beginning at fourteen as a call boy in West End houses including the Kingsway and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he witnessed the height of operetta success by Ivor Novello, Rudolph Friml and Oscar Hammerstein II. After two years serving as a steward aboard the Empress of France in the late 1920s, he returned to London intent on entering songwriting. His first published number, “My Home Town,” appeared in 1932 when Little Mary Hagen recorded it; the following year brought the hit “Jump On The Wagon” and the popular “When The Guardsman Started Crooning On Parade.”
From 1935 onward Connor collaborated regularly with pianist Eddie Lisbona of Ambrose’s orchestra, their partnership yielding the major success “It’s My Mother’s Birthday Today,” which became a bestseller for Arthur Tracy, billed as “The Street Singer.” Throughout the later 1930s and 1940s he supplied material for films and stage productions while also creating special numbers for Maurice Chevalier and Vera Lynn. In 1937, working with Jimmy Leach and Michael Carr, he produced the first of his three well-known Christmas songs, “The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot,” a hit for Phyllis Robins. Robins also recorded the wistful “I’m Sending A Letter To Santa” in 1939, written with Lanny Rogers and Spencer Williams—composer of “Basin Street Blues” and “Everybody Loves My Baby,” among others—yet Gracie Fields, Britain’s leading female variety star, gave the song its greatest prominence. A year earlier, alongside Jimmy Harper and Will Haines, Connor had supplied Fields with one of her signature numbers, “The Biggest Aspidistra In The World.”
His third seasonal composition, for which he wrote both words and music, arrived in 1952 as the gently comic “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” enjoying American success through Jimmy Boyd and British sales via the Beverley Sisters. In 1944 Connor supplied English lyrics for the German song “Lili Marlene,” originally popularised by Lale Anderson as an effective propaganda piece; the number gained further stature through versions by Marlene Dietrich and Anne Shelton, with Perry Como scoring a U.S. hit. His sequel, “The Wedding Of Lili Marlene” (1949), charted in Britain for Shelton and in America for the Andrews Sisters.
That same year Connor turned to novelty with “Hang On The Bell, Nellie,” a favourite of the Billy Cotton Band. During the 1950s he achieved further British Top Ten entries with “The Homing Waltz,” recorded by Vera Lynn, and “Never Do A Tango With An Eskimo,” sung by Alma Cogan, before retiring in 1956. Among his other notable compositions were “The Spreading Chestnut Tree,” “Till The Lights Shine Again,” “Be Like The Kettle And Sing,” “Down In The Glen,” “The Rose I Bring To You,” “Boys And Girls Love Saturday Night,” “I May Be Poor But I’m Honest” and “Who’s Taking You Home Tonight?,” the latter serving as the customary closing number at British palais dances throughout the war years and long afterward. Additional writing partners included Horatio Nicholls, Hamilton Kennedy, Robert Stolz and Jimmy Kennedy.
From 1935 onward Connor collaborated regularly with pianist Eddie Lisbona of Ambrose’s orchestra, their partnership yielding the major success “It’s My Mother’s Birthday Today,” which became a bestseller for Arthur Tracy, billed as “The Street Singer.” Throughout the later 1930s and 1940s he supplied material for films and stage productions while also creating special numbers for Maurice Chevalier and Vera Lynn. In 1937, working with Jimmy Leach and Michael Carr, he produced the first of his three well-known Christmas songs, “The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot,” a hit for Phyllis Robins. Robins also recorded the wistful “I’m Sending A Letter To Santa” in 1939, written with Lanny Rogers and Spencer Williams—composer of “Basin Street Blues” and “Everybody Loves My Baby,” among others—yet Gracie Fields, Britain’s leading female variety star, gave the song its greatest prominence. A year earlier, alongside Jimmy Harper and Will Haines, Connor had supplied Fields with one of her signature numbers, “The Biggest Aspidistra In The World.”
His third seasonal composition, for which he wrote both words and music, arrived in 1952 as the gently comic “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” enjoying American success through Jimmy Boyd and British sales via the Beverley Sisters. In 1944 Connor supplied English lyrics for the German song “Lili Marlene,” originally popularised by Lale Anderson as an effective propaganda piece; the number gained further stature through versions by Marlene Dietrich and Anne Shelton, with Perry Como scoring a U.S. hit. His sequel, “The Wedding Of Lili Marlene” (1949), charted in Britain for Shelton and in America for the Andrews Sisters.
That same year Connor turned to novelty with “Hang On The Bell, Nellie,” a favourite of the Billy Cotton Band. During the 1950s he achieved further British Top Ten entries with “The Homing Waltz,” recorded by Vera Lynn, and “Never Do A Tango With An Eskimo,” sung by Alma Cogan, before retiring in 1956. Among his other notable compositions were “The Spreading Chestnut Tree,” “Till The Lights Shine Again,” “Be Like The Kettle And Sing,” “Down In The Glen,” “The Rose I Bring To You,” “Boys And Girls Love Saturday Night,” “I May Be Poor But I’m Honest” and “Who’s Taking You Home Tonight?,” the latter serving as the customary closing number at British palais dances throughout the war years and long afterward. Additional writing partners included Horatio Nicholls, Hamilton Kennedy, Robert Stolz and Jimmy Kennedy.