November 22

November 22 is the birthdate of composer and singer/actor Hoagy Carmichael. The Indiana native became a lawyer but began composing songs after he befriend influential jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke. In 1927, he wrote one of his most famous songs, “Stardust” (a song about a song), on an old upright piano at a hotel on Keuka Lake in Upstate New York. This sophisticated composition became one of the most popular, most recorded American standards. His œuvre includes the music for other exceptional songs: "Georgia on My Mind," "(Up a) Lazy River," "In the Still of the Night," "The Nearness of You," "Heart and Soul," "I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)," "Skylark" and "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening." He could not notate music and said that he composed melodies by coaxing them “out of hiding.”