Jule Styne

Julius Stein was born in on December 31, 1905, in London, England. He studied piano with a teacher from the London Conservatory of Music starting in 1911. His family emigrated to America in 1913 to Chicago, Illinois. He studied piano and composition at the Chicago College of Music, and began playing with the Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis Symphonies at 12, but his small hands and a childhood injury precluded a career in playing. He began playing in bands, and as the pit piano player for stage shows and burlesque house at 13 (without his parents' knowledge). To impress a girl, at age 21 he wrote his first song, SUNDAY, which became a smash hit with 500,000 copies of sheet music sold. IN 1932 he changed his name (to avoid confusion with Dr. Julius Stein, who headed the Music Corporation of America) to Jule Styne and formed his own dance band, "Jule Stein and His Society Orchestra. In the mid 30s he moved to New York City to play in bands and work as a vocal coach. He began writing music and collaborating with lyricists such as Sammy Cahn, Frank Loesser, the writing team of Adolph Green and Betty Comden, and Stephen Sondheim for shows such as Bells Are Ringing, The Pajama Game, and Gypsy. He died September 20, 1994, in New York City. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.