IN: Hoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael (November 22, 1899 - December 27, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. American composer and author Alec Wilder described Carmichael as the "most talented, inventive, sophisticated and jazz-oriented of all the great craftsmen" of pop songs in the first half of the twentieth century. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first singer-songwriters in the age of mass media to utilize new communication technologies, such as television and the use of electronic microphones and sound recordings. Carmichael composed several hundred songs, including fifty that achieved hit record status.

Carmichael died of heart failure at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, on December 27, 1981, at the age of 82. His remains are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Bloomington, Indiana.  In 1986 Carmichael's family donated his archives, piano, and memorabilia to his alma mater, Indiana University, which established a Hoagy Carmichael Collection in its Archives of Traditional Music and the Hoagy Carmichael Room to permanently display selections from the collection.  Carmichael is considered to be among the most successful of the Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first singer-songwriters in the age of mass media to exploit new communication technologies, such as television and the use of electronic microphones and sound recordings. American composer and author Alec Wilder described Carmichael as the "most talented, inventive, sophisticated and jazz-oriented of all the great craftsmen" of pop songs in the first half of the 20th century. Carmichael was an industry trailblazer, who recorded varied interpretations of his own songs and provided material for many other musicians to interpret. His creative work includes several hundred compositions, some of them enduring classics, as well as numerous sound recordings and appearances on radio and television and in motion pictures.  Music historian Ivan Raykoff described Carmichael as "one of America's most prolific songwriters" and an "iconic pianist" whose work appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films, including his performances in classic films such as To Have and To Have Not and The Best Years of Our Lives. Among the hundreds of Carmichael's published songs, "Stardust" is one of the most frequently recorded. Carmichael's greatest strength was as a melodist, but he also became known as an "experimental" and "innovative" songwriter, whose "catchy, often jazz-infused, melodies" and "nostalgic, down-home lyrics" were memorable and had wide public appeal, especially with mass media promotion and through the efforts of numerous entertainers who performed his songs.

What made his style so unique?

OUT: "catchy, often jazz-infused, melodies" and "nostalgic, down-home lyrics" were memorable


IN: Hughes was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1938. His father and paternal grandfather were lawyers. Hughes's father, Geoffrey Forrest Hughes, was a pilot in the First World War, with later careers as a solicitor and company director. He died from lung cancer when Robert was aged 12.

Hughes met his first wife, Danne Emerson, in London in 1967. Together they became involved in the counterculture of the 1960s, exploring drug use and sexual freedom. They divorced in 1981; she died of a brain tumor in 2003. Their son, Danton, Hughes's only child, was named after the French revolutionary Georges Danton. Danton Hughes, a sculptor, committed suicide in April 2001. He had been in a long term relationship with fashion designer Jenny Kee, who found his body on 15 April. Robert Hughes later wrote: "I miss Danton and always will, although we had been miserably estranged for years and the pain of his loss has been somewhat blunted by the passage of time".  Hughes was married to his second wife, Victoria Whistler, a housewife from California, from 1981 until a divorce in 1996.  In 1999, Hughes was involved in a near-fatal car accident south of Broome, Western Australia. He was returning from a fishing trip and driving on the wrong side of the road when he collided head on with another car carrying three occupants. He was trapped in the car for three hours before being airlifted to Perth in critical condition. Hughes was in a coma for five weeks after the crash. In a 2000 court hearing, Hughes's defence barrister alleged that the occupants of the other car had been transporting illicit drugs at the time of the accident and were at fault. In 2003 Hughes pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing bodily harm and was fined A$2,500. He also allegedly described the crown prosecutor, Lloyd Rayney, as a "curry muncher", which resulted in a defamation action and out-of-court settlement. Hughes recounts the story of the accident and his recovery in the first chapter of his 2006 memoir Things I Didn't Know.  In 2001, Hughes wed his third wife, the American artist and art director Doris Downes. "Apart from being a talented painter, she saved my life, my emotional stability, such as it is", he said.

What else happen in his personal life?

OUT:
In 1999, Hughes was involved in a near-fatal car accident south of Broome, Western Australia.