| Bud Green | |
| Birth Name: | Moses David Green |
| Birth Place: | Austro-Hungarian Empire |
| Birth Date: | 19 November 1898 |
| Death Place: | Yonkers, New York, United States |
| Death Date: | 2 January 1981 (aged 82) |
| Occupation: | Lyricist |
| Relatives: | Bob Russell (brother-in-Law) |
Bud Green (19 November 1897 – 2 January 1981) was an American lyricist especially of Broadway musicals and show tunes
Green was born Moses David Green[1] in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and immigrated to the United States as an infant. Bud Green (Buddy) grew up in Harlem at 108th & Madison Avenue at the turn of the 20th century, the eldest of seven. He dropped out of elementary school to sell newspapers and help the family.
While selling papers, he decided to become a songwriter and started keeping a notebook of poems and rhymes that he thought would be useful someday. His sister, Hannah, was married to the lyricist Bob Russell (1914–1970), who wrote "Brazil", "Frenesi", "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and many other songs.
In his early career, he wrote material for vaudevilles. He was a staff writer for music publishers and wrote Broadway stage scores as well as songs for other musicals.
By 1928, he had written "Alabamy Bound" and "That's My Weakness Now", which became a huge hit for Ukulele Ike and Helen Kane. Kane's version including the suggestive scat phrase "boop boop ba doo." This line and Kane's stage persona made the song synonymous with the flapper era. Kane and the song became the inspiration for the Betty Boop cartoons that debuted in 1930.[2] The song was self-published by Green and Sam H. Stept. They were in the Brass Rail Building at 745, 7th Avenue. They then went to Hollywood to work for the movie industry. He and Stept eventually sold their company to Warner Bros. and returned to New York.
He collaborated with many artists and fellow songwriters, including Les Brown, Buddy DeSylva, Al Dubin, Ella Fitzgerald, Slim Gaillard, Ray Henderson, Ben Homer, Raymond Scott, Sam H. Stept, and Harry Warren.[3]
At 21, Bud Green married a girl from the Ziegfeld Follies, Nan Hinken, they were together until her death in the early 1960s. After selling his company, Green moved his family to Yonkers, New York, where he lived the rest of his life commuting to NYC every day. They had two sons, both now deceased.
Green died in Yonkers, New York, in January 1981.[3]
Bud Green wrote or co-wrote a number of songs, including:
He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975.[3]
