Alfred Bryan (lyricist)

Alfred Bryan
BornSeptember 15, 1871
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
DiedApril 1, 1958(1958-04-01) (aged 86)
Gladstone, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupationlyricist

Alfred Bryan (September 15, 1871 – April 1, 1958) was a Canadian lyricist.

Bryan was born in Brantford, Ontario. He worked as an arranger in New York and wrote lyrics for many Broadway shows in the late 1910s and early 1920s; often collaborating with composer Jean Schwartz. In the 1920s he moved to Hollywood to write lyrics for screen musicals.[1]

Bryan worked with several composers during his career. Among his collaborators were Henriette Blanke-Belcher,[2] Fred Fischer, Al Sherman, Larry Stock and Joe McCarthy.[1] Perhaps his most successful song was "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier" (1915), with music by Al Piantadosi.[3] The song sold 650,000 copies during the first three months and became one of 1915's top-selling songs in the United States.[4] Although Bryan himself was not a committed pacifist, he described the American public's anti-war sentiments in his lyrics.[3]

He died in Gladstone, New Jersey, aged 86.

  1. ^ a b "Alfred Bryan". Songwriters Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Van Wienen 2002, p. 289
  4. ^ Van Wienen 2002, p. 80