Songwriters Hall of Fame

From 1937 until 1945, Horace Heidt and his orchestra enjoyed more than 50 hit records, and were virtually permanent fixtures on the radio.

Heidt was born on May 21, 1901 in Alameda, California. Heidt formed his first band, Horace Heidt and His Californians in 1922. By 1929 the band had achieved national recognight and in the mid 1930’s had its first radio broadcast.

With tenor saxist Frank DeVol, pianist Frankie Carle, electric guitarist Alvino Rey and featured vocalists Bob McCoy, Larry Cotton, the King Sisters, Lysabeth Hughes, Kings Men & Glee Club, Emily Stevenson, Ruth Davis, Henry Russell, Ronnie Kemper, Gordon McRae, Gene Walsh and Donna Wood, the Orchestra recorded some of the most popular songs of its era.

‘Gone With the Wind’ was a #1 hit in 1937 and was the beginning of a string of top ten hits for the next five years including ‘It’s the Natural Thing to Do’ (#5, 1937), ‘Little Heaven of the Seven Seas’ (#3, 1937), ‘Once in a While’ (#2, 1937), ‘Vieni, Vieni’ (#4, 1937), ‘There’s a Gold Mine in the Sky’ (#5, 1937), ‘Sweet Someone’ (#9, 1937), ‘Rosalie’ (#6, 1937), ‘Sweet as a Song’ (#3, 1938), ‘Ti-Pi-Tin’ (#1, 1938), ‘Lovelight in the Starlight’ (#3, 1938), ‘My Margarita’ (#8, 1938), ‘This Can’t Be Love’ (#6, 1938), ‘The Man with the Mandolin’ (#2, 1939), ‘Goodbye Dear, I’ll Be Back in a Year’ (#3, 1941) and ‘I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire’ (#1, 1941).

Horace Heidt passed away in 1986.