Harry Tobias, 99; Popular Songwriter

Harry Tobias, senior member of the songwriting Tobias brothers and a composer whose early tunes included the evergreen “Sweet and Lovely,” has died.

A spokesman for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, which Tobias joined in 1922, said Tobias was 99 when he died Thursday in St. Louis.

With brothers Charles and Henry among his collaborators, Harry Tobias published his first song when he was 16 and working in a department store in Worcester, Mass. It was called “National Sports,” and he wrote it on the back of a packing box. “It was an homage to Ty Cobb and other sports legends,” he told The Times in a 1989 interview, shortly before he moved from Sherman Oaks to Missouri to be with his daughter.

His dozens of other lyrics and songs over the next 70 years included “Miss You,” “Go to Sleepy Little Baby,” “I’ll Keep the Lovelight Burning,” “Daughter of Peggy O’Neill,” “Sail Along Silv’ry Moon,” “It’s a Lonesome Old Town” and more.

They have been recorded by singers ranging from Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby to Ella Fitzgerald and Phoebe Snow. Collectively they form an album of American song and a lexicon of pop music.

Rudy Vallee gave Tobias his biggest recorded hit in 1929 in collaboration with Henry and Charles. It was “Miss You” with this plaintive chorus: “Miss you, since you went away Dear. Miss you, more than I can say Dear. . . .”

But it fell to Crosby to bring Tobias his greatest overall success. The crooner was already singing “Sweet and Lovely” with Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys, and it was an easy step up to Tobias’ newest tune “At Your Command.” The song proved a hit for Crosby shortly after he first went on the nation’s airwaves.

The sweet simplicity of Tobias’ music suited Crosby’s warbling style, and the two maintained a professional relationship well into the 1940s.

In 1983, Harry Tobias became the second in the Royal Family of Tin Pan Alley, as the brothers called themselves, to be welcomed into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

“My brother Charlie made it in 1972 or ‘73,” Tobias said on the eve of the honor. “I think we’re only the second family ever to have two in the Hall of Fame. The first were the Gershwins (George and Ira.)”

Tobias--who had written about 1,000 songs--said he had achieved professional longevity by writing “words that are easy to remember and melodies that are hard to forget.”

And his favorite songs? “The ones that made the most money,” he replied.

He will be buried Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park.