Ray Evans
(1915 - 2007)

Ray Evans, Oscar-winning lyricist and songwriting partner of Jay Livingston, dies at 92

Pop lyricist Ray Evans, who with songwriting partner Jay Livingston wrote three Academy Award-winning songs - "Mona Lisa," "Que Sera, Sera" and "Buttons and Bows" - died on February 15th in Los Angeles.

Ray Evans was born on February 4, 1915 in Salamanca, New York. He and Jay Livingston were both students at the University of Pennsylvania and met in a dance band organized by Livingston on campus. They began their professional collaboration in 1937.

Throughout the 1940's and 50's, Livingston & Evans were prolific writers of songs used in the movies, many of which became popular hits. "Buttons and Bows," their song sung by Bob Hope in the 1948 comedy The Paleface, won them their first Oscar. A Dinah Shore recording of the same song went on to become a hit.

"Mona Lisa," written for Captain Carey, U.S.A., starring Alan Ladd, found its way to one of the great vocalists of the 20th Century, Nat King Cole, who recorded it. The song not only won an Oscar but went on to become an American standard.

Doris Day sang "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" in Hitchcock's 1956 remake of a film he originally had directed himself in 1934, The Man Who Knew Too Much. Day's recording of the song also became a hit and won Livingston and Evans their third Oscar.

Other Livingston & Evans songs that received Oscar nominations included "The Cat and the Canary," from Why Girls Leave Home (1945); "Tammy" from Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), which also became a hit recording by Debbie Reynolds; "Almost in Your Arms" from Houseboat (1957) and "Dear Heart" from the film of the same name, which became a hit for Andy Williams, featuring music by Henry Mancini.

For 1951's The Lemon Drop Kid, starring Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell, Livingston and Evans wrote "Silver Bells." To this day, the song remains one of the most popular Christmas songs and has sold more than 140 million recordings.

Livingston & Evans contributed songs to more than 80 movies and worked with many of the great arrangers and composers of movie music, including Percy Faith, Max Steiner, Neal Hefti, David Rose, Jimmy McHugh and Franz Waxman. After their successful film period, the pair also wrote theme music for TV series, including Bonanza and Mr. Ed, in which Livingston's voice can be heard singing the beloved refrain "A horse is a horse, of course, of course..."

In 1997 ASCAP honored Livingston & Evans on their 60th anniversary as a songwriting team. Their song "Silver Bells" was named as one of ASCAP's Top 25 Holiday Songs in 1998. In 2000, "Mona Lisa" was named as one of ASCAP's Top Love Songs of the 20th Century. Jay Livingston passed away in 2001.


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