Biography
In the exuberant decade of the Roaring Twenties, composer Walter Donaldson paid tribute to the homespun, rural side of U.S. existence, not merely through numbers such as "My Mammy," "My Blue Heaven," "Isn't She the Sweetest Thing," "My Baby Just Cares for Me," and "Love Me or Leave Me," but likewise through an array of state-inspired (chiefly Southern) pieces: "Back Home in Tennessee," "Blue Kentucky Moon," "Carolina in the Morning," "Georgia," "Lazy Lou'siana Moon," "Let It Rain, Let It Pour (I'll Be in Virginia in the Morning)," "My Ohio Home," "Nevada," and "Sweet Indiana Home." Although born well outside the South in Brooklyn, Donaldson was raised in a household steeped in music without ever receiving formal instruction himself. Near 1910 he took a post as a song demonstrator for a publisher, yet lost the position after devoting company hours to his own compositions. In the period just before U.S. entry into World War I, he scored his earliest substantial successes with "Back Home in Tennessee" (words by William Jerome), "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady" (words by Monty C. Brice), and "You're a Million Miles From Nowhere" (words by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young). While performing for troops at an army camp he was introduced to Irving Berlin. Once the war ended he joined Berlin's publishing firm and went on to produce the greatest hits of his career. Throughout the 1920s Donaldson stood out as perhaps the most active songwriter in America, turning out hundreds of pieces and landing successes with "My Mammy," "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," "Isn't She the Sweetest Thing," "My Sweetie Turned Me Down," "For My Sweetheart," "At Sundown," "My Blue Heaven," "Makin' Whoopee," "My Baby Just Cares for Me," "Love Me or Leave Me," "In the Middle of the Night," and "You Didn't Have to Tell Me." He launched his own publishing company in 1928. Although chart triumphs grew scarce in the opening years of the 1930s, he supplied material to numerous films across the decade. He kept composing until 1943 and directed his firm until his death in 1947.