Harry Tobias began writing songs as a teenager, and after serving in WWI, where he entertained troops, he joined his older brother Charles’ music publishing business. The brothers, including younger brother Henry, wrote songs together, including “Miss You” (1927), a modest hit which was recorded by Bing Crosby twelve years later.

In 1929 Tobias went to Hollywood to write for films. He worked on an early Marion Davies/Robert Montgomery film in 1932, Blondie of the Follies, wrote “Love Is All” for a Deanna Durbin film in 1940, and collaborated on a Three Stooges film in 1945. He also wrote songs for several westerns throughout the ‘30s, including those of William Boyd’s character Hop-Along Cassidy.

Tobias’ song “No Regrets,” written with Roy Ingraham, was recorded by Billie Holiday in 1936. “It’s a Lonesome Old Town,” which was written with Charles Kisco and first popularized by the Modernaires in the early ‘40s, was revived by Frank Sinatra in his 1958 album Only the Lonely and surfaced again in 1995, performed by Sting on the soundtrack of the film Leaving Las Vegas. But Tobias’ most famous song, and one that is solidly in the jazz standards repertoire, is “Sweet and Lovely,” written with Gus Arnheim and Charles N. Daniels in 1931.

Young brother Henry recalls his youth and his brothers in his autobiography entitled Music in My Heart and Borscht in My Blood: An Autobiography by Henry Tobias.

- Sandra Burlingame