text:
1940 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1940.

Specific locations

 * 1940 in British music
 * 1940 in Norwegian music

Specific genres

 * 1940 in country music
 * 1940 in jazz

Events

 * January 30 – Soprano Sophie Wyss gives the first complete performance of Benjamin Britten's Les Illuminations, with Boyd Neel conducting his Orchestra at the Wigmore Hall, London.
 * February 24 – Frances Langford records When You Wish Upon a Star
 * March 28 – Antonio Brosa gives the first performance of Britten's Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic conducted by John Barbirolli in Carnegie Hall, New York.
 * April 26 – Woody Guthrie records most of his Dust Bowl Ballads at RCA Victor studios in Camden, New Jersey.
 * May 27 – Quartetto Egie perform in public for the first time.
 * July 20 – Billboard magazine publishes its first "Music Popularity Chart".
 * August – Edmundo Ros forms his own rumba band.
 * November 9 – Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez is premièred in Barcelona.
 * November 13 – Première of the Walt Disney animated film Fantasia in the United States set to classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski.
 * November 23 – Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Quintet is premièred at the Moscow Conservatory with the composer at the piano.
 * December 6 – Arnold Schoenberg's Violin Concerto is premièred.
 * December 19 – Bandleader Hal Kemp's car is involved in a head-on collision. Kemp suffers a broken leg and multiple broken ribs, one of which eventually punctures a lung, causing his death a few days later.
 * Quartetto Egie becomes Quartetto Ritmo after a line-up change.
 * Heino Eller becomes professor of composition at the Tallinn Conservatory.
 * Alfredo Antonini and John Serry Sr. appear at the CBS network in Viva America for Voice of America.
 * 16-year-old Doris Day joins Les Brown's band.
 * Gesang Martohartono, the legendary Kroncong musician from Indonesia, releases his most popular composition, "Bengawan Solo".

Albums released

 * Dust Bowl Ballads – Woody Guthrie
 * Selections from George Gershwin's Folk Opera Porgy and Bess – Various Artists
 * Bing Crosby
 * Star Dust
 * Favorite Hawaiian Songs
 * Ballad for Americans
 * Christmas Music – Bing Crosby, Kenny Baker, Men About Town

Top popular recordings
The following songs appeared in The Billboard's 'Best Selling Retail Records' chart during 1940. Each week fifteen points were awarded to the number one record, then nine points for number two, eight points for number three, and so on. The total points a record earned determined its year-end rank. Regional charts determined the 11-25 rankings each week, and records that failed to score on the main chart were ranked by highest position. Additional information was obtained from the "Discography of American Historical Recordings" website, Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954 and other sources as specified.

Published popular music

 * "Ain't It A Shame About Mame" words: Johnny Burke, music: James V. Monaco
 * "All Over The Place" w. Frank Eyton m. Noel Gay. Introduced by Tommy Trinder in the film Sailors Three
 * "All This And Heaven Too" w. Eddie De Lange m. Jimmy Van Heusen, First recorded by Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra
 * "Along The Santa Fe Trail" w. Al Dubin & Edwina Coolidge m. Will Grosz
 * "April Played The Fiddle" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "Arm In Arm" Church, Bradbury
 * "The Bad Humour Man" w. Johnny Mercer m. Jimmy McHugh
 * "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" w.m. Don Raye, Hughie Prince & Eleanore Sheehy
 * "Because Of You" w. Arthur Hammerstein m. Dudley Wilkinson
 * "Beneath The Lights Of Home" Grossman, Jurmann
 * "Bengawan Solo" – Gesang Martohartono
 * "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers
 * "Bless 'Em All" w.m. Jimmie Hughes, Frank Lake & Fred Godfrey
 * "Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind" Arthur Young, William Shakespeare, Evans
 * "Blueberry Hill" w.m. Al Lewis, Larry Stock & Vincent Rose
 * "Boog It" w.m. Jack Palmer, Cab Calloway & R. "Buck" Ram
 * "The Breeze And I" w. Al Stillman m. Ernesto Lecuona
 * "Buds Won't Bud" w. E. Y. Harburg m. Harold Arlen
 * "Cabin In The Sky" w. John Latouche m. Vernon Duke
 * "The Call Of The Canyon" w.m. Billy Hill
 * "Can't Get Indiana Off My Mind" w. Robert De Leon m. Hoagy Carmichael
 * "Celery Stalks At Midnight" m. Will Bradley & George Harris
 * "Concerto For Cootie" m. Duke Ellington
 * "Contrasts" m. Jimmy Dorsey
 * "Cotton Tail" m. Duke Ellington
 * "Den Of Iniquity" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers
 * "Devil May Care" w. Johnny Burke m. Harry Warren
 * "Do I Worry?" w.m. Stanley Cowan & Bobby Worth
 * "Do It the Hard Way" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers. Introduced by June Havoc, Claire Anderson and Jack Durant in the musical Pal Joey
 * "Dolores" w. Frank Loesser m. Louis Alter
 * "Down the Road a Piece" w.m. Don Raye
 * "Falling Leaves" w. Mack David m. Frankie Carle
 * "Ferry Boat Serenade" w. (Eng) Harold Adamson (Ital) Mario Panzeri m. Eldo Di Lazzaro
 * "The Five O'Clock Whistle" w.m. Josef Myrow, Kim Gannon & Gene Irwin
 * "Flamingo" w. Edmund Anderson m. Ted Grouya
 * "Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread)" w. Johnny Mercer m. Rube Bloom
 * "Friendship" w.m. Cole Porter
 * "Give a Little Whistle" w.m. Ned Washington & Leigh Harline, from the film Pinocchio
 * "Good For Nothin' Joe" Ted Koehler, Rube Bloom
 * "Harlem Nocturne" w. Dick Rogers m. Earle Hagen
 * "Hear My Song, Violetta" w. (Ger) Ermenegildo Carosio & Othmar Klose (Eng) Buddy Bernier & Bob Emmerich m. Rudolf Luckesch & Othmar Klose
 * "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee" w.m. Ned Washington & Leigh Harline, from the film Pinocchio
 * "High On A Windy Hill" w.m. Joan Whitney & Alex Kramer
 * "Honey in the Honeycomb" w. John Latouche m. Vernon Duke. Introduced by Katherine Dunham in the musical Cabin in the Sky. Performed in the 1943 film version by Ethel Waters and Lena Horne.
 * "How High the Moon" w. Nancy Hamilton m. Morgan Lewis. Introduced by Alfred Drake and Frances Comstock in the revue Two for the Show.
 * "I Concentrate on You" w.m. Cole Porter. Introduced by Douglas McPhail (and danced to by Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire) in the film Broadway Melody of 1940
 * "I Could Make You Care" w. Sammy Cahn m. Saul Chaplin. Introduced by Rosemary Lane in the film Ladies Must Live.
 * "I Haven't Time To Be A Millionaire" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "I Hear A Rhapsody" w.m. George Fragos, Jack Baker & Dick Gasparre
 * "I Hear Music" w. Frank Loesser m. Burton Lane
 * "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town" w.m. William Weldon & Andy Razaf
 * "I'm Looking For A Guy Who Plays Alto And Baritone And Doubles On A Clarinet And Wears A Size 37 Suit" w.m. Ozzie Nelson
 * "I'm Stepping Out With A Memory Tonight" w. Herb Magidson m. Allie Wrubel
 * "Imagination" w. Johnny Burke m. Jimmy Van Heusen
 * "Intermezzo" w. Robert Henning m. Heinz Provost
 * "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" w.m. Billy Austin & Louis Jordan
 * "It Never Entered My Mind" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers
 * "It Shows You What Love Can Do" w. Sammy Cahn m. Saul Chaplin. Introduced by Rosemary Lane in the film Ladies Must Live.
 * "It Was A Lover And His Lass" w. William Shakespeare m. Arthur Young
 * "It's a Great Day for the Irish" w.m. Roger Edens
 * "It's A Lovely Day Tomorrow" w.m. Irving Berlin
 * "It's Always You" w. Johnny Burke m. Jimmy Van Heusen
 * "It's The Same Old Shillelagh" w.m. Pat White
 * "I've Got No Strings" w.m. Ned Washington & Leigh Harline, from the film Pinocchio
 * "Java Jive" w. Milton Drake m. Ben Oakland
 * "Just A Little Bit South Of North Carolina" w.m. Sunny Skylar, Bette Cannon & Arthur Shaftel
 * "The Last Time I Saw Paris" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Jerome Kern
 * "Let The People Sing" w.m. Noel Gay, Ian Grant & Frank Eyton
 * "Let There Be Love" w. Ian Grant m. Lionel Rand
 * "Let's Be Buddies" w.m. Cole Porter
 * "Louisiana Purchase" w.m. Irving Berlin
 * "Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please" w.m. Cole Porter. Introduced by Ethel Merman in the musical Panama Hattie
 * "Make-Believe Island" w. Charles Kenny & Nick Kenny m. Will Grosz & Sam Coslow
 * "Mamma" w. B. Cherubini m. C. A. Bixio
 * "Mister Meadowlark" w. Johnny Mercer m. Walter Donaldson
 * "Never No Lament" m. Duke Ellington
 * "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" w. Eric Maschwitz m. Manning Sherwin. Introduced in the revue New Faces by Judy Campbell.
 * "On Behalf Of The Visiting Firemen" w. Johnny Mercer m. Walter Donaldson
 * "Only Forever" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "Our Love Affair" w. Arthur Freed m. Roger Edens
 * "Outside Of That, I Love You" Irving Berlin
 * "The Pessimistic Character" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "Playmates" w.m. Saxie Dowell
 * "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" w. Johnny Burke m. Jimmy Van Heusen
 * "Pompton Turnpike" w.m. Will Osborne & Dick Rogers
 * "Practice Makes Perfect" w.m. Don Roberts & Ernest Gold
 * "Remind Me" w. Dorothy Fields m. Jerome Kern. Introduced by Allan Jones in the film One Night in the Tropics
 * "Rhumboogie" w.m. Don Raye & Hughie Prince
 * "Room 504" w.m. Erich Maschwitz & George Posford
 * "San Antonio Rose" w.m. Bob Wills
 * "Say It (Over And Over Again)" w. Frank Loesser m. Jimmy McHugh
 * "Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat" w.m. Don Raye
 * "The Singing Hills" w.m. Mack David, Sammy Mysels & Dick Sanford
 * "Six Lessons From Madame La Zonga" w. Charles Newman m. James V. Monaco
 * "Sometime" m. Glenn Miller & Chummy MacGregor w. Mitchell Parish
 * "The Stars Remain" w. Henry Myers m. Jay Gorney. From the musical Meet the People.
 * "Summit Ridge Drive" m. Artie Shaw
 * "Taking A Chance On Love" w. John Latouche & Ted Fetter m. Vernon Duke
 * "There I Go" w. Hy Zaret m. Irving Weiser
 * "There'll Always Be an England" w.m. Ross Parker & Hughie Charles
 * "There's A Boy Coming Home On Leave" w.m. Jimmy Kennedy
 * "Tonight Be Tender To Me" w. Gloria Parker
 * "Trade Winds" w. Charles Tobias m. Cliff Friend
 * "Two Dreams Met" w. Mack Gordon m. Harry Warren
 * "Wabash Cannon Ball" w.m. A. P. Carter
 * "Walkin' Through Mockin' Bird Lane" Lowell Peters, Clarence Jones, John Turner
 * "Waltzing In The Clouds" w. Gus Kahn m. Robert Stolz
 * "We Could Make Such Beautiful Music" w. Robert Sour m. Henry Manners
 * "We Three" w.m. Nelson Cogane, Sammy Mysels & Dick Robertson
 * "Well, Did You Evah?" w.m. Cole Porter
 * "When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano" w.m. Leon René
 * "When You Wish Upon a Star" w.m. Ned Washington & Leigh Harline. Introduced by Cliff Edwards in the animated film Pinocchio
 * "Whispering Grass" w. Fred Fisher m. Doris Fisher
 * "The Woodpecker Song" w. (Eng) Harold Adamson (Ital) C. Bruno m. Eldo di Lazzaro
 * "Worried Mind" w.m. Jimmie Davis & Ted Daffan
 * "Yes, Indeed!" w.m. Sy Oliver
 * "Yes, My Darling Daughter" w.m. Jack Lawrence
 * "You and Your Kiss" w. Dorothy Fields m. Jerome Kern. Introduced by Allan Jones in the film One Night in the Tropics.
 * "You Are My Sunshine" w.m. Jimmie Davis & Charles Mitchell
 * "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" w. Gus Kahn m. Nacio Herb Brown
 * "Zip" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers. In the role of reporter Melba Snyder in the Broadway production of Pal Joey, Jean Casto explained that the musings of a striptease artiste may be on a somewhat higher intellectual plane than those of her devotees.

Compositions

 * Granville Bantock – Celtic Symphony
 * Samuel Barber – Violin Concerto
 * Lennox Berkeley – Symphony No. 1
 * Benjamin Britten – Sinfonia da Requiem
 * Carlos Chávez –
 * Concerto for piano and orchestra
 * Xochipilli-Macuilxóchitl
 * Aaron Copland – Episode, Music for Our Town
 * Paul Creston – Symphony No. 1
 * David Diamond – Concerto for Small Orchestra, String Quartet No. 1
 * Hanns Eisler – Chamber Symphony
 * George Enescu – Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 29
 * Evaristo Fernández Blanco – Dramatic Overture
 * John Fernström – Symphony No. 6, Op. 51
 * Vivian Fine – Suite in E Flat
 * Jakov Gotovac – Guslar, Op. 22
 * Roy Harris – Folksong Symphony
 * Paul Hindemith – Cello Concerto, Symphony in E-flat
 * Aram Khachaturian – Violin Concerto
 * Gideon Klein – String Quartet, Op. 2
 * László Lajtha – Cello Concerto
 * Igor Markevitch – Lorenzo il Magnifico
 * Frank Martin – Ballade for Trombone and Piano
 * Olivier Messiaen – Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time)
 * Darius Milhaud – String Quartet No. 10
 * Gösta Nystroem – Viola Concerto
 * Willem Pijper – Six Adagios, for orchestra
 * Walter Piston – Suite from The Incredible Flutist
 * Sergei Rachmaninoff – Symphonic Dances
 * Roger Sessions – From My Diary, for piano
 * Igor Stravinsky – Symphony in C
 * Eduard Tubin – Prelude Solennel
 * William Walton – The Wise Virgins (ballet)
 * Heitor Villa-Lobos – Five Preludes for guitar

Opera

 * Luigi Dallapiccola – Volo di notte, Florence, Teatro della Pergola, May 18.
 * Sergei Prokofiev – Semyon Kotko (libretto by Prokofiev and Valentin Kataev), Moscow, Stanislavsky Opera Theatre, 23 June 1940.
 * Geirr Tveitt – Dragaredokko (score lost: only a piano transcription exists)

Film

 * Aaron Copland – Our Town (1940 film)
 * Leigh Harline – Pinocchio (1940 film)
 * Erich Korngold – The Sea Hawk (1940 film)
 * Miklós Rózsa – The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film)
 * Dmitri Shostakovich – The Adventures of Korzinkina
 * Franz Waxman - Rebecca

Musical theatre

 * Apple Sauce (Music and Lyrics: Michael Carr & Jack Strachey). London production opened at the Holborn Empire on August 27 and moved to the London Palladium on March 5, 1941, when the Holburn Empire was destroyed in the blitz. Total run 462 performances.
 * The Beggar's Opera (Music and Lyrics: John Gay adapted by Frederic Austin). London revival opened at the Haymarket Theatre on March 5.
 * Cabin in the Sky (Music: Vernon Duke Lyrics: John Latouche Book: Lynn Root). Broadway production opened on October 25 at the Martin Beck Theatre and ran for 156 performances
 * Higher and Higher (Music: Richard Rodgers Lyrics: Lorenz Hart Book: Gladys Hurlbut and Joshua Logan) opened at the Shubert Theatre on April 4 and ran for 84 performances. It returned to the same theatre on August 5 for a further 24 performances.
 * Hold On To Your Hats (Music: Burton Lane Lyrics: E. Y. Harburg Book: Eddie Davis, Guy Bolton and Matt Brooks). Broadway production opened at the Shubert Theatre on September 11 and ran for 158 performances
 * Keep Off The Grass (Music: Jimmy McHugh Lyrics: Al Dubin and Howard Dietz). Broadway revue opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on May 23 and ran for 44 performances
 * Louisiana Purchase (Music and Lyrics: Irving Berlin Book: Morrie Ryskind). Broadway production opened on May 28 at the Imperial Theatre and ran for 444 performances
 * Meet the People Broadway production opened at the Mansfield Theatre on December 25 and ran for 160 performances.
 * New Faces London revue opened at the Comedy Theatre on April 11 and moved to the Apollo Theatre on March 14, 1941.
 * Pal Joey (Music: Richard Rodgers Lyrics: Lorenz Hart Book: John O'Hara) – Broadway production opened on December 25 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and ran for 374 performances
 * Panama Hattie (Music and Lyrics: Cole Porter Book: Herbert Fields and B. G. DeSylva). Broadway production opened on October 30 at the 46th Street Theatre and ran for 501 performances
 * Two for the Show Broadway revue opened at the Booth Theatre on February 11 and ran for 124 performances
 * Walk With Music (Music: Hoagy Carmichael Lyrics: Johnny Mercer Book: Guy Bolton, Parke Levy and Alan Lipscott). Broadway production opened on June 4 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and ran for 55 performances
 * The White Horse Inn (Music: Ralph Benatzky Lyrics and Book: Harry Graham). London revival opened on March 20 at the London Coliseum and ran for 268 performances until ended by bombing raids.

Musical films

 * The Boys from Syracuse, based on the 1938 Broadway play, starring Allan Jones, Irene Hervey, Martha Raye and Rosemary Lane
 * Broadway Melody of 1940, starring Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell
 * Canto de amor, Argentine musical directed by Julio Irigoyen
 * El Cantor de Buenos Aires, Argentine musical
 * Gül Baba, Hungarian musical starring Sándor Kömíves and Zita Szeleczky
 * If I Had My Way, starring Bing Crosby and Gloria Jean
 * Irene, starring Anna Neagle, Ray Milland and Billie Burke
 * It All Came True starring Ann Sheridan and Humphrey Bogart
 * La canción del milagro, Mexican musical drama starring José Mojica
 * Lillian Russell (film), starring Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Henry Fonda and Eddie Foy Jr.
 * Little Nellie Kelly, starring Judy Garland, George Murphy and Charles Winninger. Directed by Norman Taurog.
 * New Moon, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard.
 * A Night at Earl Carroll's, released December 6
 * No, No, Nanette, starring Anna Neagle, Richard Carlson, Victor Mature, Roland Young, Helen Broderick, Zasu Pitts and Eve Arden
 * One Night in the Tropics, starring Allan Jones, Nancy Kelly, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Directed by A. Edward Sutherland.
 * Pinocchio Walt Disney animated film
 * Sailors Three, British musical comedy starring Tommy Trinder.
 * Spring Parade, starring Deanna Durbin remake of 1934 film
 * Too Many Girls, based on 1939 Broadway musical, starring Lucille Ball, Richard Carlson, Frances Langford, Ann Miller, Eddie Bracken and Desi Arnaz.
 * Two Girls on Broadway, remake of 1929 film The Broadway Melody, starring Lana Turner, Joan Blondell and George Murphy.
 * Young People, starring Shirley Temple. Directed by Allan Dwan.

Births

 * January 8 – Anthony Gourdine, American R&B vocalist (Little Anthony & the Imperials)
 * January 9 – Al Downing, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2005)
 * January 11 – Sydney Devine, Scottish singer (died 2021)
 * January 18 – Lindsay L. Cooper, Scottish jazz string player (died 2001)
 * January 19 – Rudolf Jansen, Dutch pianist (died 2024)
 * January 22 – Addie "Micki" Harris, American R&B vocalist (The Shirelles) (died 1982)
 * January 23
 * Jimmy Castor, African-American funk, R&B and soul saxophonist (died 2012)
 * Joe Dowell, American singer (died 2016)
 * Johnny Russell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2001)
 * January 28 – Trebor Jay Tichenor, American pianist and composer (died 2014)
 * January 30 – David C. Johnson, American composer, flautist and live-electronic performer
 * January 31 – Sandy Yaguda, American vocalist (Jay and the Americans)
 * February 2 – Alan Caddy (The Tornados) (died 2000)
 * February 3 – Angelo D'Aleo (Dion and the Belmonts)
 * February 10
 * Jimmy Merchant (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers)
 * Kenny Rankin, jazz and pop singer-songwriter (died 2009)
 * February 11 – Bobby 'Boris' Pickett, singer (died 2007)
 * February 19 – Smokey Robinson, soul singer (The Miracles)
 * February 20 – Barbara Ellis, pop singer (The Fleetwoods)
 * February 25 – Jesús López Cobos, conductor (died 2018)
 * February 28
 * Marty Sanders (Jay and the Americans)
 * Joe South, singer songwriter (died 2012)
 * February 29 – Gretchen Christopher, pop singer (The Fleetwoods)
 * March 2 – Juraj Beneš, composer (died 2004)
 * March 10 – Dean Torrence (Jan and Dean)
 * March 12 – Al Jarreau, singer (died 2017)
 * March 13 – Daniel Bennie (The Reflections)
 * March 15 – Phil Lesh, rock bass guitarist (Grateful Dead)
 * March 16 – Rock-Olga (Birgit Jacobsson), rock singer (died 2010)
 * March 17 – Vito Picone, doo-wop singer (The Elegants)
 * March 25
 * Anita Bryant, singer
 * Mina, singer
 * March 27 – Derrick Morgan, ska musician
 * March 29
 * Ray Davis, funk bass singer (Parliament, Funkadelic) (died 2005)
 * Astrud Gilberto, bossa nova singer (died 2023)
 * April 1 – Annie Nightingale, radio music presenter
 * April 12 – Herbie Hancock, jazz pianist and composer
 * April 13 – Lester Chambers, soul rock singer (The Chambers Brothers)
 * April 17 – Billy Fury, singer (died 1983)
 * April 24
 * Bayan Northcott, music critic and composer (died 2022)
 * George Tomsco, rock guitarist (The Fireballs)
 * April 26 – Giorgio Moroder, record producer
 * May 3
 * Conny Plank, sound engineer (died 1987)
 * Leif Rygg, Hardanger fiddle player (died 2018)
 * May 8
 * Ricky Nelson, singer and actor (The Nelsons) (died 1985)
 * Toni Tennille (Captain & Tennille)
 * May 15 – Lainie Kazan, American actress and singer
 * May 19 – Mickey Newbury, songwriter (died 2002)
 * May 21 – Tony Sheridan, rock singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2013)
 * May 26 – Levon Helm, American rock vocalist/drummer (The Band) (died 2012)
 * June 7 – Tom Jones, singer
 * June 8
 * Sherman Garnes (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers) (died 1977)
 * Nancy Sinatra, singer
 * June 11 – Joey Dee, leader of Joey Dee and the Starliters
 * June 13 – Bobby Freeman, soul singer (died 2017)
 * June 23
 * Adam Faith, born Terry Nelhams, pop singer, screen actor and financial journalist (died 2003)
 * Stuart Sutcliffe, rock bass guitarist (The Beatles) and artist (died 1962)
 * Diana Trask, Australian-born country and pop singer
 * July 4
 * Helen Quach, Vietnamese-born orchestral conductor (died 2013)
 * Dave Rowberry, rock pianist and songwriter (The Animals) (died 2003)
 * July 6 – Jeannie Seely, American singer-songwriter and actress
 * July 7 – Ringo Starr, rock drummer (The Beatles)
 * July 16 – Tony Jackson, singer and bass guitarist (The Searchers) (died 2003)
 * July 22 – Thomas Wayne, American singer (died 1971)
 * August 10 – Bobby Hatfield, singer (The Righteous Brothers) (died 2003)
 * August 12 – Tony Allen, Afrobeat drummer (died 2020)
 * August 14 – Dash Crofts, Seals and Crofts
 * August 19
 * Roger Cook, songwriter
 * Johnny Nash, reggae singer (died 2020)
 * August 20 – John Lantree (The Honeycombs)
 * August 31 – Wilton Felder, jazz saxophonist (The Crusaders) (died 2015)
 * September 2 – Jimmy Clanton, singer
 * September 6 – Jackie Trent, born Yvonne Burgess, songwriter (died 2015)
 * September 9 – Joe Negroni (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers) (died 1978)
 * September 10 – Dickie Rock, singer
 * September 11 – Bernie Dwyer (Freddie & The Dreamers)
 * September 17 – Lamonte McLemore, vocalist (The 5th Dimension)
 * September 19 – Bill Medley, singer (The Righteous Brothers)
 * September 30 – Dewey Martin, rock drummer (Buffalo Springfield) (died 2009)
 * October 1 – Atarah Ben-Tovim, flautist and children's concert promoter (died 2022)
 * October 8 – Fred Cash, soul singer (The Impressions)
 * October 9 – John Lennon, rock singer-songwriter (murdered 1980)
 * October 14 – Cliff Richard, singer
 * October 17 – Stephen Kovacevich, pianist
 * October 18 – Cynthia Weil, songwriter (died 2023)
 * October 19 – Larry Chance, doo-wop singer (The Earls)
 * October 21 – Jimmy Beaumont, doo-wop singer (The Skyliners) (died 2017)
 * October 23
 * Ellie Greenwich, songwriter (died 2009)
 * Freddie Marsden, beat drummer (Gerry and the Pacemakers)
 * October 31 – Eric Griffiths, skiffle guitarist (The Quarrymen) (died 2005)
 * November 2 – Hugo Raspoet, folk singer (died 2018).
 * November 4 – Delbert McClinton, singer-songwriter
 * November 16 – John Ryanes, doo-wop bass singer (The Monotones)
 * November 17 – Luke Kelly, folk musician (The Dubliners) (died 1984)
 * November 25 – Percy Sledge, singer (died 2015)
 * November 28 – Bruce Channel, singer
 * November 29
 * Seán Cannon, Irish folk musician
 * Mark James, born Francis Zambon, songwriter (died 2024)
 * Chuck Mangione, flugelhorn player and composer
 * December 9 – Clancy Eccles, Jamaican ska/reggae singer (died 2005)
 * December 11 – David Gates, American singer-songwriter (Bread)
 * December 12 – Dionne Warwick, American singer
 * December 19 – Phil Ochs, American protest singer (died 1976)
 * December 21
 * Ray Hildebrand, American singer (Paul & Paula)
 * Frank Zappa, American guitarist and composer (died 1993)
 * December 23
 * Tim Hardin, American folk singer (died 1980)
 * Jorma Kaukonen, American guitarist (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)
 * Eugene Record, American singer (The Chi-Lites) (died 2005)
 * December 28
 * Lonnie Liston Smith, American jazz and funk musician
 * Kurt Widmer, Swiss opera singer and voice coach (died 2023)

Deaths

 * January 7 – Effie Crockett, composer of "Rock-a-Bye Baby", 83
 * January 17 – Carl Boberg, hymn-writer, 80
 * February 2 – Nikolay Kedrov Sr., composer, 68
 * February 17 – Gus Elen, music hall singer, 77
 * February 28 – Arnold Dolmetsch, musical instrument maker, 82
 * March 18 – Lola Beeth, operatic soprano, 78
 * March 25 – Nonna Otescu, composer, 51
 * April 9 – Rosa Newmarch, music writer, 82
 * April 18 – Florrie Forde, Australian-born English music hall singer, 64
 * April 28 – Luisa Tetrazzini, soprano, 68
 * May 23 – Andrey Rimsky-Korsakov, musicologist, 61
 * May 29 – Mathilda Grabow, operatic soprano, 88
 * June 8 – Frederick Converse, composer, 69
 * June 19 – Albert Reiss, operatic tenor, 70
 * June 20
 * Jehan Alain, organist and composer, 29 (killed in action)
 * Emma Nevada, operatic soprano, 81
 * July 10 – Sir Donald Francis Tovey, musicologist and composer, 64
 * August 8
 * Alessandro Bonci, operatic tenor, 70
 * Johnny Dodds, jazz musician, 48 (heart attack)
 * August 10 – Alessandro Bonci, lyric tenor, 70
 * August 16 – Eduard Sõrmus, Estonian violinist, 62
 * August 21 – Paul Juon, composer and teacher, 68
 * August 29 – Arthur De Greef, pianist and composer, 77
 * September 2 – Giulio Gatti-Casazza, director of the Metropolitan Opera, 71
 * September 30 – Walter Kollo, operetta composer, 62
 * October 5 – Silvestre Revueltas, composer, 40 (pneumonia)
 * November 6 – Ivar F. Andresen, operatic bass, 44
 * November 12 – Alejandro García Caturla, composer, 34
 * November 22 – Jorge Bravo de Rueda, pianist and composer, 45
 * November 23 – Billy Jones, US singer, 51
 * December 3 – Walborg Lagerwall, Swedish violinist, 89
 * December 5 – Jan Kubelik, violinist, 60
 * December 11 – J. Harold Murray, baritone, 49 (nephritis)
 * December 15 – Blanche Marchesi, mezzo-soprano and voice teacher, 77
 * December 16 – William Wallace, composer, 80
 * December 21 – Hal Kemp, jazz musician and bandleader, 36 (complications following car accident)
 * December 24 – Billy Hill, songwriter, 41
 * date unknown – Marguerite Ugalde, operatic mezzo-soprano (born 1862)

title: 1940 in music


text:
1939 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1939.

Specific locations

 * 1939 in British music
 * 1939 in Norwegian music

Specific genres

 * 1939 in country music
 * 1939 in jazz

Events

 * January 4 – New band to be headed by Harry James, first trumpet with Benny Goodman formed; goes into rehearsal January 6. It has already been dated for a short stay at the Statler Hotel, Boston, opening February 1. James has taken Buddy Rich from Bunny Berigan's orchestra to handle the drums and secures Frank Sinatra as vocalist.
 * February – Recording of 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket' turned out by Ella Fitzgerald and Chick Webb for Decca has established a new eight-year high in sales for the industry. The sales on this 35c have already gone over 250,000. The company's previous record had been the 160,000 copies achieved by Bing Crosby's version of 'Sweet Leilani.'
 * February 24 – Symphony No. 3 by Roy Harris, receives its world premiere in Boston, as Serge Koussevitzky conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra
 * April 9 – African-American contralto Marian Anderson performs before 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after having been denied the use both of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and of a public high school by the federally controlled District of Columbia. First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt resigns from the DAR because of their decision.
 * May 17 – Sergei Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky (Op. 78) cantata debuts in Moscow. It is an adaptation from the 1938 film score to Alexander Nevsky.
 * May 22 – Columbia Recording Corporation incorporated in Delaware.
 * June 10 – Première of Arthur Bliss's Piano Concerto in B-flat with soloist Solomon; Arnold Bax's 7th Symphony; and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus, with the New York Philharmonic under Sir Adrian Boult at Carnegie Hall.
 * August 22 – "You Are My Sunshine" first recorded.
 * June 21 – Francis Poulenc's Organ Concerto is premièred in Paris.
 * November 1 – Bruno Walter leaves Germany for the United States.
 * December – Ali Akbar Khan accompanies Ravi Shankar on the sarod during the latter's debut performance at the annual music conference in Allahabad.
 * December 31 – A special concert of music by Johann Strauss II is performed by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Clemens Krauss in the great hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, predecessor of a continuing series of Vienna New Year's Concerts.
 * The Nordstrom Sisters are the resident act at The Ritz Hotel, London.
 * Jo Stafford and The Pied Pipers join the Tommy Dorsey orchestra.
 * The Squadronaires form.
 * Dorothy Kirsten makes her professional concert debut at the New York World's Fair.
 * Manuel de Falla leaves Granada for exile in Argentina.

Publications

 * Ernst Krenek – Music Here and Now

Albums released

 * Featuring Charlie Christian – Benny Goodman
 * Cowboy Songs – Bing Crosby
 * Negro Sinful Songs – Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter)

Top popular recordings
The twenty-five popular records listed below were extracted from Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890–1954, record sales reported on the "Discography of American Historical Recordings" website, and other sources as specified. Numerical rankings are approximate, they are only used as a frame of reference.

Additional recordings of historical interest, and songs that crossed over from Hillbilly (Country) and Race (R&B):

Published popular music

 * "Address Unknown" words and music: Carmen Lombardo, Johnny Marks & Dedette Lee Hill
 * "All in Fun" words: Oscar Hammerstein II, music: Jerome Kern Introduced by Frances Mercer and Jack Whiting in the musical Very Warm for May
 * "All or Nothing at All" w. Jack Lawrence m. Arthur Altman
 * "All the Things You Are" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Jerome Kern from the musical Very Warm for May
 * "Anatole (Of Paris)" w.m. Sylvia Fine Introduced by Danny Kaye in the revue The Straw Hat Revue
 * "An Apple For the Teacher" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "Are You Havin' Any Fun?" w. Jack Yellen m. Sammy Fain
 * "The Army Air Corps" w.m. Robert M. Crawford
 * "At the Woodchopper's Ball" m. Woody Herman & Joe Bishop
 * "Back In The Saddle Again" w.m. Gene Autry & Ray Whitley
 * "Between Eighteenth And Nineteenth On Chestnut Street" w.m. Will Osborne & Dick Rodgers
 * "Bless You" w.m. Don Baker & Eddie Lane
 * "Blue Orchids" w.m. Hoagy Carmichael
 * "Bluebirds in the Moonlight" w. Leo Robin m. Ralph Rainger
 * "The Boys in the Back Room" w. Frank Loesser m. Frederick Hollander. Introduced by Marlene Dietrich in the film Destry Rides Again.
 * "Brazil" w. (Eng) Bob Russell m. Ary Baroso
 * "Careless" w.m. Lew Quadling, Eddy Howard & Dick Jurgens
 * "Comes Love" w.m. Sam H. Stept, Charles Tobias & Lew Brown
 * "Cuckoo in the Clock" w. Johnny Mercer m. Walter Donaldson
 * "Darn That Dream" w. Eddie DeLange m. Jimmy Van Heusen
 * "Day In, Day Out" w. Johnny Mercer m. Rube Bloom
 * "Desert Rumba" m. John Serry, Sr.
 * "Ding-Dong! the Witch Is Dead" w. E. Y. Harburg m. Harold Arlen
 * "Do I Love You?" w.m. Cole Porter
 * "Don't Worry 'Bout Me" w. Ted Koehler m. Rube Bloom
 * "Faithful Forever" w. Leo Robin m. Ralph Rainger
 * "Flyin' Home" w. Sid Robin m. Lionel Hampton & Benny Goodman
 * "Frenesi" w. (Eng) Ray Charles & Bob Russell m. Alberto Dominguez
 * "The Gaucho Serenade" w.m. James Cavanaugh, John Redmond & Nat Simon
 * "Give Him the Ooh-La-La" w.m. Cole Porter
 * "Give it Back to the Indians" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers. Introduced by Mary Jane Walsh in the musical Too Many Girls.
 * "Go Fly a Kite" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "God Bless America" w.m. Irving Berlin
 * "Good Morning" w. Arthur Freed m. Nacio Herb Brown
 * "Goodnight, Children Ev'rywhere" w.m. Gabby Rogers & Harry Phillips
 * "Hang Your Heart on a Hickory Limb" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "Heaven Can Wait" w. Eddie DeLange m. Jimmy Van Heusen
 * "Heaven in My Arms" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Jerome Kern. Introduced by Jack Whiting, Frances Mercer and Hollace Shaw in the musical Very Warm for May
 * "Honey Hush" Fats Waller, Ed Kirkeby
 * "Huckleberry Duck" w. Jack Lawrence m. Raymond Scott
 * "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers. Introduced by Richard Kollmar and Marcy Westcott in the musical Too Many Girls. Performed by Trudy Erwin dubbing for Lucille Ball in the 1940 film version and interpolated into the score of the 1957 film Pal Joey where it was sung by Frank Sinatra.
 * "I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)" m. Hoagy Carmichael w. Jane Brown Thompson
 * "I Like to Recognize the Tune" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers. Introduced by Eddie Bracken, Marcy Westcott, Mary Jane Walsh, Richard Kollmar and Hal Le Roy in the musical Too Many Girls.
 * "I Miss You in the Morning" w. Edgar Leslie m. Joe Burke
 * "I Never Knew Heaven Could Speak" w. Mack Gordon m. Harry Revel
 * "I Poured My Heart Into a Song" w.m. Irving Berlin
 * "I Thought About You" w. Johnny Mercer m. Jimmy Van Heusen
 * "I Want My Mama" w. (Port) Jararaca & Vincente Paiva (Eng) Al Stillman m. Jararaca & Vincente Paiva
 * "I Went to a Marvelous Party" w.m. Noël Coward. Introduced by Beatrice Lillie in the revue Set to Music.
 * "If a Grey Haired Lady Says "How's Yer Father?"" w.m. Ted Waite
 * "If I Didn't Care" w.m. Jack Lawrence
 * "If I Only Had a Brain" w. E. Y. Harburg m. Harold Arlen
 * "If I Only Had Wings" w.m. Sid Colin & Ronnie Aldrich
 * "I'll Never Smile Again" w.m. Ruth Lowe
 * "I'll Walk Beside You" w.m. Alan Murray & Edward Lockton
 * "I'm Building a Sailboat of Dreams" Cliff Friend, Dave Franklin
 * "In a Mellow Tone" w. Milt Gabler m. Duke Ellington
 * "In an Eighteenth Century Drawing Room" m. Raymond Scott
 * "In the Middle of a Dream" w. Al Stillman m. Tommy Dorsey & Einar Swan
 * "In The Mood" w. Andy Razaf m. Joe Garland
 * "Is 'E An Aussie, Lizzie, Is 'E?" w.m. B. C. Hilliam & Malcolm McEachern
 * "It's A Big, Wide, Wonderful World" w.m. John Rox
 * "It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Day" w. Sammy Timberg & Winston Sharples m. Al J. Neiburg. Introduced by the voice of Lanny Ross on the soundtrack of the animated feature film Gulliver's Travels.
 * "I've Got My Eyes On You" w.m. Cole Porter
 * "J'attendrai" w. (Fr) Louis Poterat (Eng) Anna Sosenko m. Dino Olivieri
 * "The Jumpin' Jive" w.m. Cab Calloway, Frank Froeba & Jack Palmer
 * "Katie Went to Haiti" w.m. Cole Porter
 * "Kiss Me Goodnight, Sergeant-Major" Art Noel, Don Pelosi
 * "The Lady's In Love With You" w. Frank Loesser m. Burton Lane
 * "The Lamp Is Low" w. Mitchell Parish m. Peter De Rose & Bert Shefter
 * "Leanin' On The Ole Top Rail" w.m. Charles Kenny & Nick Kenny
 * "Lili Marlene" w. (Ger) Hans Leip (Eng) Tommie Connor m. Norbert Schultze
 * "The Little Man Who Wasn't There" w. Harold Adamson m. Bernie Hanighen
 * "Love Never Went to College" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers
 * "A Lover Is Blue" w.m. Charles Carpenter, James R. Mundy & Trummy Young
 * "Lydia, The Tattooed Lady" w. E. Y. Harburg m. Harold Arlen. Introduced by Groucho Marx in the film At the Circus.
 * "A Man and His Dream" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "The Man With the Mandolin" w. James Cavanaugh & John Redmond m. Frank Weldon
 * "The Masquerade Is Over" w. Herb Magidson m. Allie Wrubel
 * "The Moon and the Willow Tree" w. Johnny Burke m. Victor Schertzinger
 * "Moon Love" w.m. Mack David, Mack Davis & Andre Kostelanetz
 * "Moonlight Serenade" w. Mitchell Parish m. Glenn Miller
 * "My Dearest Dear" w.m. Ivor Novello & Christopher Hassall
 * "My Prayer" w. Jimmy Kennedy m. Georges Boulanger & Jimmy Kennedy
 * "Night in Sudan" w. Charles Carpenter m. Tommy Dorsey & Jimmy Mundy
 * "On a Little Street in Singapore" w.m. Peter DeRose & Billy Hill
 * "On The Outside Always Lookin' In" w.m. Michael Carr
 * "Over The Rainbow" w. E. Y. Harburg m. Harold Arlen. Introduced by Judy Garland in the film The Wizard of Oz.
 * "Palms in Paradise" w. Frank Loesser m. Frederick Hollander Introduced by Dorothy Lamour in the 1940 film Typhoon.
 * "Pennsylvania 6-5000" w. Carl Sigman m. Jerry Gray
 * "Perfidia" w. (Eng) Milton Leeds m. Alberto Dominguez
 * "Run, Rabbit, Run" w. Noel Gay & Ralph T. Butler m. Noel Gay
 * "Scatterbrain" w.m. Johnny Burke, Carl Bean, Kahn Keene & Frankie Masters
 * "She Had to Go and Lose It at the Astor" w.m. Don Raye & Hugh Prince
 * "Sing a Song of Sunbeams" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "Sing My Heart" w. Ted Koehler m. Harold Arlen. Introduced by Irene Dunne in the film Love Affair.
 * "Somewhere in France With You" w.m. Michael Carr
 * "South American Way" w. Al Dubin m. Jimmy McHugh
 * "South Of The Border" w.m. Jimmy Kennedy & Michael Carr
 * "Stairway to the Stars" w. Mitchell Parish m. Matty Malneck
 * "Start the Day Right" w.m. Al Lewis, Maurice Spitalny & Charles Tobias
 * "Strange Fruit" w.m. Lewis Allan
 * "Sunrise Serenade" w. Jack Lawrence m. Frankie Carle
 * "Sweet Potato Piper" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "'Tain't What You Do" w.m. Sy Oliver & Trummy Young
 * "Tara's Theme" m. Max Steiner
 * "That Sentimental Sandwich" w. Frank Loesser m. Frederick Hollander
 * "That Sly Old Gentleman" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "They Would Wind Him Up And He Would Whistle" Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby
 * "This Is It" w. Dorothy Fields m. Arthur Schwartz
 * ""This Is No Dream" w.m. Tommy Dorsey, Benny Davis & Ted Shapiro
 * "Three Little Fishes" w.m. Saxie Dowell
 * "Till The Lights Of London Shine Again" w.m. Tommie Connor, Eddie Pola
 * "To You" w.m. Tommy Dorsey, Benny Davis & Ted Shapiro
 * "Too Romantic" w. Johnny Burke m. James V. Monaco
 * "Traffic Jam" m. Teddy McRae & Artie Shaw
 * "Tuxedo Junction" w. Buddy Feyne m. Erskine Hawkins, Williams Johnson & Julian Dash
 * "Two Blind Loves" w. E. Y. Harburg m. Harold Arlen
 * "Two O'Clock Jump" m. Harry James, Count Basie & Benny Goodman
 * "Under a Blanket of Blue" w.m. Jerry Livingston, Al J. Neiburg, & Marty Symes
 * "We'll Meet Again" w. Hughie Charles m. Ross Parker
 * "Well, Did You Evah!" w. m. Cole Porter
 * "We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line" w.m. Jimmy Kennedy & Michael Carr
 * "What's New?" w. Johnny Burke m. Bob Haggart
 * "When You Wish upon a Star" w. Ned Washington m. Leigh Harline
 * "Who's Taking You Home Tonight?" w.m. Manning Sherwin & Tommie Connor from the revue Shephard's Pie
 * "Wish Me Luck" w.m. Harry Parr-Davies & Phil Park
 * "Wishing (Will Make It So)" w.m. B. G. De Sylva
 * "You Meet The Nicest People In Your Dreams" Al Hoffman, Al Goodhart, Manny Kurtz
 * "You Taught Me to Love Again" w. Charles Carpenter m. Tommy Dorsey & Henri Woode
 * "You've Got That Look" w. Frank Loesser m. Frederick Hollander from the film Destry Rides Again

Compositions

 * Samuel Barber – Violin Concerto
 * Agustín Barrios – Variations on a Theme of Tárrega
 * Arnold Bax – Pastoral Fantasia for Viola and String Orchestra
 * Béla Bartók
 * Divertimento for String Orchestra
 * String Quartet No. 6
 * Arthur Bliss – Piano Concerto in B-flat
 * Eugène Bozza
 * Divertissement for English horn (or alto saxophone) and piano, Op. 39
 * Fantaisie italienne for clarinet (or flute, or oboe) and piano
 * Fantaisie pastorale for oboe and piano, Op. 37
 * Ballade for bass clarinet and piano
 * Fantaisie italienne for clarinet (or flute, or oboe) and piano
 * Hanns Eisler – Spruch 1939
 * John Fernström – Symphony No. 5, Op. 40
 * Karl Amadeus Hartmann – Concerto funebre for violin and string orchestra
 * Herbert Howells – Concerto for Strings
 * Zoltán Kodály – Variations on a Hungarian folk song "Fölszállott a páva" ("The Peacock")
 * Frank Martin – Ballade for flute and piano
 * Joaquín Rodrigo – Concierto de Aranjuez
 * Hilding Rosenberg – String Quartet No. 4
 * William Schuman – American Festival Overture
 * Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54
 * Alexandre Tansman – Symphony No. 4
 * Heitor Villa-Lobos – New York Sky-Line Melody
 * William Walton – Violin Concerto
 * Darius Milhaud – Symphony No. 1

Opera

 * Gian Carlo Menotti – The Old Maid and the Thief (radio opera)
 * Tolib Sodiqov – Leili and Mejnun

Film

 * Aaron Copland – Of Mice and Men (1939 film)
 * Aaron Copland – The City (1939 film)
 * Erich Korngold – Juarez (film)
 * Alfred Newman – Gunga Din (film)
 * Dmitri Shostakovich – The Great Citizen
 * Max Steiner – Gone with the Wind

Musical theatre

 * Black Velvet London revue opened at the Hippodrome Theatre on November 14 and ran for 620 performances
 * The Dancing Years London production opened at the Drury Lane Theatre on March 23 and ran for 187 performances
 * Du Barry Was A Lady Broadway production opened at the 46th Street Theatre on December 6 and ran for 408 performances
 * Folies Bergère Broadway revue opened at the Broadway Theatre on December 25 and ran for 121 performances
 * George White's Scandals of 1939 Broadway revue opened at the Alvin Theatre on August 28 and ran for 120 performances
 * Haw-Haw (Music: Harry Parr Davies Words: Phil Park Script: Max Miller & Ben Lyon) opened at the Holborn Empire on December 22. Starring Bebe Daniels, Ben Lyon and Max Miller.
 * The Little Revue London revue opened at The Little Theatre on April 21 and ran for 415 performances
 * Magyar Melody London production opened at His Majesty's Theatre on January 20 and ran for 105 performances
 * New Pins And Needles Broadway revue (a renamed version of Pins and Needles which opened in 1937)
 * Runaway Love opened at the Saville Theatre on November 3 and ran for 195 performances
 * Shephard's Pie London revue opened at the Princes Theatre on December 21
 * Stars in Your Eyes (Book: J. P. McEvoy Lyrics: Dorothy Fields Music: Arthur Schwartz) Broadway production opened at the Majestic Theatre on February 9 and ran for 127 performances.
 * The Straw Hat Revue opened at the Ambassador Theatre on September 29 and ran for 75 performances
 * The Streets of Paris Broadway revue opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on June 19 and ran for 274 performances
 * Swingin' the Dream Broadway production opened at the Center Theatre on November 29 and ran for 13 performances. A musical version of A Midsummer Night's Dream starring Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman & his Sextet and Maxine Sullivan.
 * Too Many Girls Broadway production opened at the Imperial Theatre on October 18 and ran for 249 performances.
 * Very Warm for May Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on November 17 and ran for 59 performances

Musical films

 * Babes In Arms, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland
 * Balalaika, released on December 15, starring Nelson Eddy and Ilona Massey
 * Entre el barro, starring Tito Lusiardo
 * East Side of Heaven, starring Bing Crosby and Joan Blondell
 * Giliw Ko, starring Mila del Sol, Fernando Poe, Sr., Ely Ramos and Fleur de Lis
 * Hawaiian Nights, starring Mary Carlisle, Constance Moore and Johnny Downs. Directed by Albert S. Rogell.
 * Honolulu, starring Eleanor Powell, Robert Young, George Burns and Gracie Allen
 * Lambeth Walk, starring Lupino Lane
 * La vida es un tango, starring Tito Lusiardo
 * Love Affair, starring Charles Boyer, Irene Dunne and Maria Ouspenskaya. Directed by Leo McCarey.
 * Man About Town, released June 29, starring Dorothy Lamour and Jack Benny, featuring Betty Grable, Phil Harris and Matty Malneck and his Orchestra.
 * The Mikado, starring Kenny Baker and Jean Colin
 * Naughty but Nice, starring Ann Sheridan and Dick Powell
 * Paris Honeymoon, starring Bing Crosby, Franciska Gaal, Shirley Ross and Edward Everett Horton
 * Second Fiddle, starring Sonja Henie, Tyrone Power, Rudy Vallee and Mary Healy. Directed by Sidney Lanfield.
 * The Star Maker, released on August 25, starring Bing Crosby
 * Three Smart Girls Grow Up, starring Deanna Durbin
 * Walang Sugat, starring Rosa del Rosario
 * The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Billie Burke, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley.

Births

 * January 3
 * Gene Summers, singer-songwriter (died 2021)
 * Arik Einstein, Israeli singer (died 2013)
 * January 9 – Jimmy Boyd, singer and actor (died 2009)
 * January 10 – Scott McKenzie, singer (died 2012)
 * January 12 – William Lee Golden, country singer (The Oakridge Boys)
 * January 19 – Phil Everly (The Everly Brothers) (died 2014)
 * January 21 – Wolfman Jack, DJ (died 1995)
 * February 1
 * Del McCoury, American singer and guitarist (Del McCoury Band)
 * Joe Sample, American pianist and composer (The Crusaders) (died 2014)
 * February 9 – Barry Mann, songwriter
 * February 11 – Gerry Goffin, songwriter (died 2014)
 * February 12 – Ray Manzarek, keyboard player (The Doors) (died 2013)
 * February 16 – Czesław Niemen, Polish singer-songwriter, rock balladeer (died 2004)
 * February 28
 * John Fahey, guitarist and composer (died 2001)
 * Tommy Tune, actor, singer and dancer
 * March 1
 * Leo Brouwer, Cuban composer and guitarist
 * Warren Davis, doo-wop singer (The Monotones) (died 2017)
 * March 8 – Robert Tear, tenor
 * March 11 – Flaco Jiménez, accordionist and singer
 * March 13 – Neil Sedaka, pianist and singer-songwriter
 * March 18 – Peter Kraus, German singer
 * March 27 – Beba Selimović, sevdalinka folk singer (died 2020)
 * April 1 – Rudolph Isley, R&B singer (The Isley Brothers) (died 2023)
 * April 2 – Marvin Gaye, soul singer (died 1984)
 * April 4 – Hugh Masekela, jazz trumpeter (died 2018)
 * April 5 – Ronnie White, R&B musician and songwriter (The Miracles) (died 1995)
 * April 6 – Beverly Watkins, blues guitarist (died 2019)
 * April 16 – Dusty Springfield, singer (died 1999)
 * April 18 – Glen Hardin, rock pianist and arranger (The Crickets)
 * April 20 – Johnny Tillotson, singer-songwriter
 * April 21
 * Ernie Maresca, singer-songwriter and record industry executive (died 2015)
 * John McCabe, composer and pianist (died 2015)
 * April 23 – Wizz Jones, guitarist and singer-songwriter
 * May 1 – Judy Collins, singer
 * May 3 – Jonathan Harvey, English composer (died 2012)
 * May 7
 * José Antonio Abreu, orchestral conductor and music educator (died 2018)
 * Johnny Maestro, vocalist (died 2010)
 * Jimmy Ruffin, singer (died 2014)
 * May 9 – Nokie Edwards, rock musician (The Ventures) (died 2018)
 * May 10 – Wayne Cochran, American singer (died 2017)
 * May 14 – Troy Shondell, American singer (died 2016)
 * May 19
 * Nancy Kwan, dancer, singer and actress
 * Sonny Fortune, jazz musician (died 2018)
 * John Sheahan, folk musician (The Dubliners)
 * May 23 – Michel Colombier, composer and songwriter (died 2004)
 * June 3 – Ian Hunter, British rock singer-songwriter (Mott The Hoople)
 * June 6
 * Louis Andriessen, composer (died 2021)
 * Gary U.S. Bonds, singer-songwriter
 * June 9 – Ileana Cotrubaş, operatic soprano
 * June 11 – Wilma Burgess, American country music singer (died 2003)
 * June 16 – Billy "Crash" Craddock, country singer
 * June 19 – Al Wilson, American soul singer (died 2008)
 * June 25 – Garech Browne, promoter of Irish traditional music (died 2018)
 * June 30 – Tony Hatch, composer, songwriter, pianist, music arranger and record producer
 * July 1 – Delaney Bramlett, blues singer-songwriter (Delaney & Bonnie) (died 2008)
 * July 2 – Paul Williams, soul singer (The Temptations) (died 1973)
 * July 3 – Brigitte Fassbaender, operatic mezzo-soprano
 * July 5 – Owen Gray, Jamaican singer
 * July 6 – Jet Harris, British bassist and singer-songwriter (The Shadows) (died 2011)
 * July 14
 * Karel Gott, singer (died 2019)
 * Vince Taylor, rock and roll singer (died 1991)
 * July 16 – William Bell, born William Yarbrough, soul singer-songwriter
 * July 17 – Spencer Davis, beat musician, multi-instrumentalist (The Spencer Davis Group) (died 2020)
 * July 18
 * Brian Auger, jazz fusion keyboard player (Brian Auger Trinity)
 * Dion DiMucci, singer-songwriter
 * July 22 – Warda Al-Jazairia, born Warda Mohammed Ftouki, singer (died 2012)
 * July 25 – Denis King, pop singer and screen composer
 * July 31 – Steuart Bedford, conductor and pianist (died 2021)
 * August 4 – Frankie Ford, singer (died 2015)
 * August 9
 * Billy Henderson R&B soul singer (The Spinners) (died 2007)
 * The Mighty Hannibal, American singer-songwriter and record producer (died 2014)
 * August 13 – Howard Tate, American soul singer-songwriter (died 2011)
 * August 15 – Norma Waterson, English traditional folk singer (died 2022)
 * August 16
 * Billy Joe Shaver, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2020)
 * Eric Weissberg, American folk musician (died 2020)
 * August 17
 * Luther Allison, blues guitarist (died 1997)
 * Ed Sanders, poet and folk singer (The Fugs)
 * August 18
 * Molly Bee, American country music singer (died 2009)
 * Johnny Preston, American singer (died 2011)
 * August 19 – Ginger Baker, rock drummer (Cream) (died 2019)
 * August 24 – Ernest Wright, R&B singer (Little Anthony and the Imperials)
 * August 25 – Robert Jager, American composer and theorist
 * August 28 – Robert Aitken, composer
 * August 30 – John Peel (John Ravenscroft), influential disc jockey (died 2004)
 * August 31
 * Jerry Allison, American rock drummer (The Crickets) (died 2022)
 * Cleveland Eaton, American jazz musician (died 2020)
 * September 2
 * Sam Gooden, soul singer (The Impressions) (died 2022)
 * Bobby Lee Dickey, singer
 * September 5 – John Stewart, folk singer-songwriter (died 2008)
 * September 6 – David Allan Coe, American musician
 * September 7 – Riccardo Del Turco, Italian singer
 * September 8 – Guitar Shorty, American blues guitarist (died 2022)
 * September 13 – Gene Page, arranger, producer and conductor (died 1998)
 * September 17 – Shelby Flint, American singer
 * September 18 – Frankie Avalon, singer and actor
 * September 23 – Roy Buchanan, guitarist (died 1988)
 * September 28 – Elbridge Bryant (The Temptations) (died 1975)
 * September 30 – Len Cariou, Canadian actor and singer
 * October 16 – Joe Dolan, Irish entertainer, recording artist and pop singer (died 2007)
 * October 18 – Paddy Reilly, folk musician
 * October 30
 * Eddie Holland, songwriter (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
 * Grace Slick, vocalist (Jefferson Airplane)
 * October 31 – Gordon Bok, singer-songwriter
 * November 12 – Ruby Nash Curtis, R&B singer (Ruby & the Romantics)
 * November 15 – Dinorah Varsi, Uruguayan classical pianist (died 2013)
 * November 17 – Yuya Uchida, singer and film actor (died 2019)
 * November 18 – Tom Johnson, minimalist composer
 * November 19 – Warren "Pete" Moore, R&B singer-songwriter (The Miracles) (died 2017)
 * November 22 – Stefan Dimitrov, Bulgarian operatic bass (died 2004)
 * November 23
 * Betty Everett, African-American soul singer, pianist (died 2001)
 * Jan Rooney, American singer and wife of Mickey Rooney
 * November 25 – Rais Khan, Pakistani sitarist (died 2017)
 * November 26 – Tina Turner, pop singer (died 2023)
 * November 28 – Gary Troxel, pop singer (The Fleetwoods)
 * December 1 – Dianne Lennon, American singer (The Lennon Sisters)
 * December 4 – Freddy Cannon, American rock musician
 * December 8
 * Jerry Butler, African-American singer-songwriter and politician
 * Sir James Galway, flautist
 * December 13 – Eric Flynn, British actor and singer (died 2002)
 * December 15 – Cindy Birdsong, soul singer (The Supremes)
 * Dave Clark (The Dave Clark Five)
 * December 16 – Barney McKenna, folk musician (The Dubliners) (died 2012)
 * December 17
 * James Booker, pianist and singer (died 1983)
 * Eddie Kendricks, vocalist (The Temptations) (died 1992)
 * December 25 – Bob James, jazz keyboardist
 * December 26 – Phil Spector, record producer and murderer (died 2021)
 * December 28 – Yehoram Gaon, Israeli actor and singer
 * December 30 – Felix Pappalardi, rock producer and bassist (Mountain) (died 1983)

Deaths

 * January 12 – Hariclea Darclée, operatic soprano, 78
 * January 16 – Abe Holzmann, composer, 64
 * February 9 – Herschel Evans, saxophonist, 29 (heart disease)
 * February 11 – Franz Schmidt, cellist, pianist and composer, 64
 * February 12 – Potenciano Gregorio, Filipino musician, 58
 * February 17 – Willy Hess, violinist, 79
 * March 6 – Emma Juch, operatic soprano, 77
 * March 9 – Ernie Hare, US singer, 55 (bronchopneumonia)
 * March 21 – Evald Aav, Estonian composer, 39
 * April 8 – Emilio Serrano y Ruiz, pianist and composer, 89
 * April 15 - Dorothy Morton, soprano and actress, 69
 * April 21
 * Herman Finck, composer, 66
 * Joe Young, US lyricist, 49
 * May 20 – Alexandra Čvanová, operatic soprano, 42 (car accident)
 * June 4 – Tommy Ladnier, jazz trumpeter, 39 (heart attack)
 * June 16 – Chick Webb, jazz drummer, 34
 * August 1 – Álvaro Sousa, composer, 60
 * August 3 – August Enna, composer, 80
 * August 19 – Achille Fortier, composer, 74
 * August 25 – Geneviève Vix, operatic soprano, 60
 * October 9 – Evelyn Parnell, operatic soprano, 51 (appendicitis)
 * October 14 – Polaire, singer and actress, 65
 * October 16 – Ludolf Nielsen, pianist, violinist, conductor and composer, 63
 * October 19 – Marie Renard, operatic mezzo-soprano, 75
 * October 24 – Prince Joachim Albert of Prussia, composer, 63
 * October 27 – Nelly Bromley, singer and actress, 89
 * October 28 – Alice Brady, actress, 46
 * October 29 – Giulio Crimi, operatic tenor, 54
 * November 3 (or 4) – Charles Tournemire, organist and composer, 69
 * November 9 – Charles Goulding, operatic tenor (born 1887)
 * December 6 – Charles Dalmorès, operatic tenor, 68
 * December 8 – Ernest Schelling, pianist, composer and conductor, 63
 * December 18
 * Jeanne Granier, operatic soprano, 87
 * Grikor Suni, composer, 63
 * December 22 – Ma Rainey, blues singer, 53 (heart attack)
 * date unknown
 * Francisco de Paula Aguirre, composer of waltzes (born 1875)
 * José Perches Enríquez, composer (born 1883)
 * Lena Wilson, blues singer (born 1898)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 1939 in music


text:
1935 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1935.

Specific locations

 * 1935 in British music
 * 1935 in Norwegian music

Specific genres

 * 1935 in country music
 * 1935 in jazz

Events

 * February 26 – Georges Bizet's Symphony in C (1855) is performed for the first time, under Felix Weingartner, in Basel, Switzerland.
 * April 8 – Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 5 is premièred in Washington, D.C.
 * April 23 – Your Hit Parade is broadcast for the first time on radio.
 * June 14 – Three X Sisters "2000 requests for the number (The Three Little Pigs Are Porkchops Now), over W1XBS (radio), Waterburians went into a spin. Many from this city." Song also performed June 3, on WJZ (CBS) by the trio, guest appearance on the popular radio program 'One Night Stand.'
 * July 15 – Alban Berg finishes his Violin Concerto.
 * December 1 – Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 is premièred in Madrid
 * date unknown
 * Soprano Bidu Sayão marries baritone Giuseppe Danise.
 * Swing music achieves popularity.
 * Frank Sinatra begins his professional singing career as a member of the Hoboken Four.
 * Natalino Otto makes his debut on US radio.
 * Brussels Philharmonic is founded as Groot Symfonie-Orkest within Dutch-language public broadcaster NRI/INR.
 * John Serry Sr. begins regular appearances at the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Plaza, New York City.

Published popular music

 * "About a Quarter to Nine" words: Al Dubin music: Harry Warren. Introduced by Al Jolson in the film Go into Your Dance
 * "According to the Moonlight" w. Jack Yellen & Herb Magidson m. Joseph Meyer
 * "Alone" w. Arthur Freed m. Nacio Herb Brown. Introduced by Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle in the film A Night at the Opera
 * "An Evening In June" w. Tot Seymour m. Vee Lawnhurst
 * "Animal Crackers in My Soup" w. Ted Koehler & Irving Caesar m. Ray Henderson. Introduced by Shirley Temple in the film Curly Top
 * "A Beautiful Lady in Blue" w. Sam M. Lewis m. J. Fred Coots
 * "Begin the Beguine" w.m. Cole Porter
 * "Bess Oh Where Is My Bess" George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward
 * "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" w. DuBose Heyward & Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin
 * "The Blues Jumped A Rabbit" w.m. Jimmie Noone
 * "Broadway Rhythm" w. Arthur Freed m. Nacio Herb Brown
 * "The Broken Record" w.m. Cliff Friend, Charles Tobias & Boyd Bunch
 * "But Where Are You?" w.m. Irving Berlin
 * "The Buzzard" m. Bud Freeman
 * "Buzzard Song" w. DuBose Heyward m. George Gershwin
 * "Casino De Paree" w. Al Dubin m. Harry Warren. Introduced by Al Jolson in the film Go into Your Dance
 * "Cheek to Cheek" w.m. Irving Berlin. Introduced by Fred Astaire in the film Top Hat
 * "Christopher Robin is Saying His Prayers" w.m. A. A. Milne & Harold Fraser-Simson
 * "Cidade Maravilhosa" by André Filho
 * "Clouds" w. Gus Kahn m. Walter Donaldson
 * "The Cockeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai" w. R. Alex Anderson & Al Stillman m. R. Alex Anderson
 * "Cosi Cosa" w. Ned Washington m. Bronislaw Kaper & Walter Jurmann
 * "Curly Top" w. Ted Koehler m. Ray Henderson. Introduced by John Boles in the film Curly Top
 * "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup" w.m. Anna Sosenko
 * "Dese Dem Dose" m. Glenn Miller
 * "Dinner For One, Please James" w.m. Michael Carr
 * "The Dixieland Band" m. Johnny Mercer m. Bernard Hanighen
 * "Don't Give Up The Ship" w. Al Dubin m. Harry Warren
 * "Don't Mention Love To Me" Oscar Levant & Dorothy Fields
 * "Down By The River" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers
 * "Dust Off That Old Pianna" w.m. Irving Caesar, Sammy Lerner & Gerald Marks
 * "East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)" w.m. Brooks Bowman
 * "Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo" w.m. Johnny Mercer & Matt Malneck
 * "Every Little Moment" w. Dorothy Fields m.Jimmy McHugh
 * "Every Now and Then" w.m. Al Sherman, Abner Silver and Al Lewis.
 * "Everything's Been Done Before" w.m. Harold Adamson, Jack King & Edwin H. Knopf
 * "Everything's In Rhythm With My Heart" w.m. Al Goodhart, Al Hoffman & Maurice Sigler
 * "Fanlight Fanny" George Formby, Harry Gifford and Frederick E. Cliffe
 * "From The Top Of Your Head" w. Mack Gordon m. Harry Revel
 * "Got A Bran' New Suit" w. Howard Dietz m. Arthur Schwartz
 * "Harlem Chapel Chimes" m. Glenn Miller
 * "(Lookie, Lookie, Lookie) Here Comes Cookie" w.m. Mack Gordon
 * "Honky Tonk Train" m. Meade Lux Lewis
 * "Hooray For Love" w. Dorothy Fields m. Jimmy McHugh. Introduced by Gene Raymond in the film Hooray for Love
 * "I Built a Dream One Day" w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Sigmund Romberg. Introduced by Walter Slezak, Walter Woolf King and Robert C. Fischer in the musical May Wine.
 * "I Can't Get Started" w. Ira Gershwin m. Vernon Duke
 * "I Dream Too Much (Alone)" w. Dorothy Fields m. Jerome Kern
 * "I Feel A Song Coming On" w. Dorothy Fields & George Oppenheimer m. Jimmy McHugh
 * "I Feel Like A Feather In The Breeze" w. Mack Gordon m. Harry Revel
 * "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'" w. Ira Gershwin & DuBose Heyward m. George Gershwin
 * "I Loves You, Porgy" w. DuBose Heyward & Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin
 * "I Wish I Were Aladdin" w. Mack Gordon m. Harry Revel
 * "I Wished on the Moon" w. Dorothy Parker m. Ralph Rainger
 * "I Won't Dance" w. Dorothy Fields & Jimmy McHugh m. Jerome Kern
 * "I'd Love To Take Orders From You" w. Al Dubin m. Harry Warren
 * "I'd Rather Lead A Band" w.m. Irving Berlin. Introduced by Fred Astaire in the film Follow the Fleet
 * "I'll Never Say "Never Again" Again" w.m. Harry M. Woods
 * "I'm Building Up To An Awful Letdown" w. Johnny Mercer m. Fred Astaire
 * "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" w. Joe Young m. Fred E. Ahlert
 * "I'm in the Mood for Love" w. Dorothy Fields m. Jimmy McHugh. Introduced by Frances Langford in the film Every Night at Eight.
 * "I'm Living In A Great Big Way" w. Dorothy Fields m. Jimmy McHugh. Introduced by Bill Robinson and Jeni Le Gon in the film Hooray for Love.
 * "I'm Shooting High" w. Ted Koehler m. Jimmy McHugh
 * "I'm Sitting High On A Hilltop" w. Gus Kahn m. Arthur Johnston
 * "I'm Wearin' My Green Fedora" Al Sherman, Al Lewis, Joseph Meyer.
 * "In A Little Gypsy Tea Room" w. Edgar Leslie m. Joe Burke
 * "In a Sentimental Mood" w. Manny Kurtz & Irving Mills m. Duke Ellington
 * "In The Middle Of A Kiss" w.m. Sam Coslow
 * "Isn't This a Lovely Day?" w.m. Irving Berlin. Introduced by Fred Astaire in the film Top Hat
 * "It Ain't Necessarily So" w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin
 * "It's An Old Southern Custom" w. Jack Yellen m. Joseph Meyer
 * "It's Easy to Remember" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers
 * "I've Got My Fingers Crossed" w. Ted Koehler m. Jimmy McHugh
 * "Just One of Those Things" w.m. Cole Porter
 * "The Lady In Red" w. Mort Dixon m. Allie Wrubel. Introduced in the film In Caliente by Wini Shaw, Edward Everett Horton, George Humbert and Judy Canova.
 * "Last Night When We Were Young" w. E. Y. Harburg m. Harold Arlen
 * "Let's Dance" w.m. Fanny Baldridge, Gregory Stone & Joseph Bonime
 * "Life Is A Song (Let's Sing It Together)" w. Joe Young m. Frank E. Ahlert
 * "Lights Out" by Billy Hill
 * "A Little Bit Independent" w. Edgar Leslie m. Joe Burke
 * "Little Girl Blue" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers. Introduced by Gloria Grafton in the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo.
 * "A Little White Gardenia" w.m. Sam Coslow
 * "Love Is a Dancing Thing" w. Howard Dietz m. Arthur Schwartz
 * "Love Me Forever" by Gus Kahn
 * "Lovely to Look at" w. Dorothy Fields & Jimmy McHugh m. Jerome Kern
 * "Lullaby of Broadway" w. Al Dubin m. Harry Warren
 * "Lulu's Back In Town" w. Al Dubin m. Harry Warren. Introduced by Dick Powell and The Mills Brothers in the film Broadway Gondolier.
 * "Maybe" w.m. Allan Flynn & Frank Madden
 * "Men About Town" w.m. Noël Coward
 * "Miss Brown To You" w. Leo Robin m. Ralph Rainger & Richard A. Whiting
 * "Moon Over Miami" w. Edgar Leslie m. Joe Burke
 * "Moonburn" w. Edward Heyman m. Hoagy Carmichael
 * "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers. Introduced by Donald Novis and Gloria Grafton in the musical Jumbo.
 * "Mrs Worthington" w.m. Noël Coward
 * "The Music Goes 'Round and Around" w. "Red" Hodgson m. Edward Farley & Michael Riley
 * "My Heart And I" w. Leo Robin m. Frederick Hollander
 * "My Man's Gone Now" w. DuBose Heyward m. George Gershwin
 * "My Romance" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers
 * "My Very Good Friend The Milkman" w. Johnny Burke m. Harold Spina
 * "Noche de ronda", by Agustin Lara
 * "No Strings (I'm Fancy Free)" w.m. Irving Berlin. Introduced by Fred Astaire in the film Top Hat
 * "Nobody's Darlin' But Mine" w.m. Jimmie Davis
 * "On the Beach at Bali-Bali" w.m. Al Sherman, Abner Silver, Jack Meskill
 * "On Treasure Island" w. Edgar Leslie m. Joe Burke, Myers, Wendling
 * "Paris in the Spring" w. Mack Gordon m. Harry Revel. Introduced by Mary Ellis in the film Paris in Spring
 * "The Piccolino" by Irving Berlin. Introduced by Ginger Rogers in the film Top Hat
 * "A Picture Of Me Without You" w.m. Cole Porter. Introduced by June Knight and Charles Walters in the musical Jubilee
 * "Red Sails in the Sunset" w. Jimmy Kennedy m. Will Grosz
 * "Roll Along, Prairie Moon" w.m. Albert Von Tilzer, Harry McPherson & Ted Fiorito
 * "The Rose In Her Hair" w. Al Dubin m. Harry Warren. Introduced by Dick Powell in the film Broadway Gondolier.
 * "Say "Si Si"" w. (Eng) Al Stillman (Sp) Francia Luban m. Ernesto Lecuona
 * "Shadow Play" w.m. Noël Coward
 * "She's A Latin From Manhattan" w. Al Dubin m. Harry Warren. Introduced by Al Jolson in the film Go into Your Dance
 * "Shoe Shine Boy" w. Sammy Cahn m. Saul Chaplin
 * "So Long, It's Been Good To Know You" w.m. Woody Guthrie
 * "Solo Hop" m. Glenn Miller
 * "Soon (Maybe Not Tomorrow)" w. Lorenz Hart m. Richard Rodgers
 * "Summertime" w. DuBose Heyward m. George Gershwin
 * "Take Me Back To My Boots And Saddle" w.m. Walter G, Samuels, Leonard Whitcup & Teddy Powell
 * "Thanks a Million" w. Gus Kahn m. Arthur Johnston. Introduced by Dick Powell in the film Thanks a Million.
 * "There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York" w. Ira Gershwin m. George Gershwin
 * "There's No One With Endurance Like The Man Who Sells Insurance" Frank Crumit, Curtis
 * "These Foolish Things" w. Holt Marvell m. Jack Strachey & Harry Link
 * "This Time It's Love" by Sam M. Lewis
 * "Tic-tac do Meu Coração" by Alcyr Pires Red and Walfrido Silva
 * "Tomorrow's Another Day" w.m. Glenn Miller
 * "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" w.m. Irving Berlin. Introduced by Fred Astaire in the film Top Hat
 * "Trois Fables de Lafontaine" w.m. Marcelle de Manziarly
 * "When Icky Morgan Plays the Organ" w.m. Glenn Miller
 * "When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful" Harry M. Woods
 * "Who's Been Polishing The Sun" w.m. Noel Gay
 * "Why Shouldn't I?" w.m. Cole Porter. Introduced by Margaret Adams in the musical Jubilee.
 * "Why Stars Come Out At Night" w.m. Ray Noble
 * "With All My Heart" w. Gus Kahn m. Jimmy McHugh. Introduced by Peggy Conklin in the 1936 film Her Master's Voice
 * "A Woman Is A Sometime Thing" w. DuBose Heyward m. George Gershwin
 * "You Are My Lucky Star" w. Arthur Freed m. Nacio Herb Brown
 * "You Hit the Spot" w. Mack Gordon m. Harry Revel. Performed by Frances Langford in the 1936 musical film Collegiate.
 * "You Let Me Down" w. Al Dubin m. Harry Warren. Introduced by Jane Froman in the film Stars Over Broadway
 * "Your Feet's Too Big" w.m. Ada Benson & Fred Fisher
 * "You're an Angel" by Jimmy McHugh
 * "You're an Eyeful of Heaven" w. Mort Dixon m. Allie Wrubel. Introduced by Patricia Ellis in the film Bright Lights.
 * "You're The Only Star (In My Blue Heaven)" w.m. Gene Autry

Top popular recordings 1935
The top popular records of 1935 listed below were compiled from Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890–1954, record sales reported on the "Discography of American Historical Recordings" website, and other sources as specified. Numerical rankings are approximate, there were no Billboard charts in 1935, the numbers are only used for a frame of reference.

Christmas songs

 * "När ljusen tändas därhemma" – translated into Swedish by Nils Hellström
 * "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie
 * "Jingle Bells" by Benny Goodman & His Orchestra
 * "Silent Night" by Bing Crosby

Compositions

 * Alban Berg – Violin Concerto
 * Aaron Copland – Statements for Orchestra
 * Ernst von Dohnányi – Sextet for piano, violin, viola, cello, clarinet and horn, Op. 37
 * Sir George Dyson – Belshazzar's Feast
 * Hanns Eisler – Lenin Requiem
 * George Enescu
 * Cello Sonata No. 2 in C major, Op. 26, No. 2
 * Piano Sonata No. 3 in D major, Op. 24, No. 3
 * Rudolf Escher – Piano Sonata No. 1
 * Pierre-Octave Ferroud – Sonnerie pour le Hérault
 * Vittorio Giannini – Piano Concerto
 * Paul Hindemith – Der Schwanendreher for Viola and Orchestra
 * André Hossein – Towards the Light (ballet)
 * Akira Ifukube – Japanese Rhapsody
 * Uuno Klami – Psalmus (oratorio)
 * Hans Pfitzner – Cello Concerto No. 1 in G Major
 * Francis Poulenc – Suite française
 * Sergei Prokofiev – Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 63
 * Roger Sessions – Violin Concerto
 * Petar Stojanović – Sava (symphonic poem)
 * William Walton – Symphony No. 1

Opera

 * Brian Easdale – The Corn King
 * Reynaldo Hahn – Le marchand de Venise
 * Karl Amadeus Hartmann – Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend (composed between 1934 and 1936; performance of Hartmann's works banned by the Nazis after 1933)
 * Arthur Honegger – Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher (dramatic oratorio)
 * Pietro Mascagni – Nerone
 * Alexander Zemlinsky – Der König Kandaules (first performance 1996)

Film

 * Benjamin Britten – Coal Face
 * Benjamin Britten – Men Behind the Meters
 * Aram Khachaturian – Pepo (film)
 * Erich Korngold – Captain Blood (1935 film)
 * Franz Waxman – Bride of Frankenstein

Musical theatre

 * Anything Goes London production opened at the Palace Theatre on June 14 and ran for 261 performances
 * The Gay Deceivers London production opened at the Coliseum on September 7 and ran for 123 performances
 * Glamorous Night (w. Christopher Hassall m. Ivor Novello) – London production opened at the Theatre Royal on May 2 and ran for 243 performances
 * Jubilee Broadway production opened at the Imperial Theatre on October 12 and ran for 169 performances.
 * Jumbo Broadway production opened at the Hippodrome on November 16 and ran for 233 performances.
 * May Wine Broadway production opened at the St. James Theatre on December 5 and ran for 213 performances.
 * Porgy and Bess (George Gershwin) – Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on October 10 and ran for 124 performances
 * Stop Press London production opened at the Adelphi Theatre on February 21.

Musical films

 * Antonia, starring Marcelle Chantal, Fernand Gravey and Josette Day, with music by Paul Abraham and Alfred Rode
 * Be Careful, Mr Smith starring Bobbie Comber
 * The Bird Seller (Der Vogelhändler), starring Maria Andergast, Wolf Albach-Retty and Lil Dagover, based on the operetta by Carl Zeller.
 * Bright Lights starring Joe E. Brown, Ann Dvorak and Patricia Ellis. Directed by Busby Berkeley.
 * Broadway Gondolier released July 27 starring Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, and featuring The Mills Brothers and Ted Fio Rito & his Band.
 * Broadway Melody of 1936 starring Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell, Una Merkel and Robert Taylor and featuring Frances Langford
 * Casta diva, starring Mártha Eggerth, with music by Vincenzo Bellini
 * Curly Top released August 2 starring Shirley Temple
 * Dizzy Dames starring Marjorie Rambeau, Inez Courtney, Fuzzy Knight and Kitty Kelly
 * El caballo del pueblo, starring Irma Córdoba
 * El día que me quieras, starring Carlos Gardel, Rosita Moreno and Tito Lusiardo, with music by Gardel and lyrics by Alfredo Le Pera
 * Estudantes, starring Carmen Miranda, Mesquitinha and Mário Reis, with music by João de Barro, Alberto Ribeiro and others
 * Every Night at Eight starring Alice Faye, Frances Langford and Patsy Kelly
 * First a Girl starring Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale
 * George White's 1935 Scandals starring Alice Faye, Cliff Edwards and Eleanor Powell
 * Go into Your Dance released April 20 starring Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler
 * Heart's Desire starring Richard Tauber
 * Hooray for Love starring Ann Sothern, Gene Raymond and Pert Kelton, and featuring Bill Robinson and Fats Waller
 * In Caliente starring Dolores del Río, Pat O'Brien, Leo Carrillo and Edward Everett Horton and featuring Wini Shaw
 * Invitation to the Waltz, starring Lilian Harvey
 * King Solomon of Broadway starring Edmund Lowe, Dorothy Page and Pinky Tomlin
 * Königswalzer, starring Paul Hörbiger, Curd Jürgens and Carola Höhn
 * Naughty Marietta starring Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy and Elsa Lanchester
 * The Night Is Young starring Ramon Novarro, Evelyn Laye, Charles Butterworth, Una Merkel and Edward Everett Horton
 * Paddy O'Day starring Jane Withers, Pinky Tomlin and Rita Hayworth
 * Princesse Tam Tam, starring Josephine Baker and Albert Préjean
 * Reckless starring Jean Harlow and William Powell and featuring Allan Jones and Nina Mae McKinney.
 * Redheads on Parade starring John Boles, Dixie Lee and Jack Haley
 * Roberta starring Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott.
 * She Shall Have Music starring Jack Hylton, June Clyde and Brian Lawrance. Directed by Leslie S. Hiscott.
 * Shipmates Forever starring Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler
 * Stars Over Broadway (released November 5), starring Jane Froman and James Melton
 * Sweet Music starring Rudy Vallée, Ann Dvorak and Helen Morgan
 * Thanks a Million starring Dick Powell and Ann Dvorak
 * Top Hat starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
 * Two for Tonight starring Bing Crosby, Joan Bennett and Thelma Todd
 * Two Hearts in Harmony starring Bernice Claire and George Curzon and featuring Chick Endor, Charles Farrell and Jack Harris & his Orchestra. Directed by William Beaudine.

Births

 * January 8 – Elvis Presley, rock & roll singer (died 1977)
 * January 10
 * Sherrill Milnes, American operatic baritone
 * Ronnie Hawkins, American rockabilly singer (died 2022)
 * January 19 – Johnny O'Keefe, Australian singer-songwriter (died 1978)
 * January 20 – Dorothy Provine, American actress, singer and dancer (died 2010)
 * January 24 – Gaqo Çako, Albanian opera singer (died 2018)
 * February 3 – Johnny "Guitar" Watson, African-American singer-songwriter and musician (died 1996)
 * February 5 – Alex Harvey, rock singer (died 1982)
 * February 11
 * Bent Lorentzen, Danish composer (died 2018)
 * Gene Vincent, American rock & roll singer (died 1971)
 * February 12 – Gene McDaniels, American singer-songwriter (died 2011)
 * February 16 – Sonny Bono, American singer, actor and record producer (died 1998)
 * February 18
 * Ciarán Bourke, Irish folk musician (died 1988)
 * Gennady Gladkov, Soviet and Russian composer
 * February 27 – Mirella Freni, operatic soprano (died 2020)
 * March 17 – Adam Wade, singer, drummer and actor (died 2022)
 * March 20 - Aviva Semadar, Israeli folklore and chanson singer
 * March 29 – Ruby Murray, singer (died 1996)
 * March 30 – Gordon Mumma, composer
 * March 31 – Herb Alpert, American trumpeter and bandleader
 * April 5 – Peter Grant, manager and record executive (Led Zeppelin) (died 1995)
 * April 6 – Fred Bongusto, Italian light music singer=songwriter and composer (died 2019)
 * April 7 – Bobby Bare, American singer/songwriter
 * April 9 – Aulis Sallinen, Finnish composer
 * April 10 – Jerzy Milian, Polish jazz vibraphonist (died 2018)
 * April 16 – Bobby Vinton, singer
 * April 19 – Dudley Moore, English composer, jazz pianist and comic actor (died 2002)
 * April 22 – Paul Chambers, jazz bassist (died 1969)
 * April 23 – Ray Peterson, singer (died 2005)
 * May 9 – Nokie Edwards, American guitarist and actor (The Ventures) (died 2018)
 * May 10 – Larry Williams, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1980)
 * May 13 – Teddy Randazzo, American singer-songwriter and accordion player (died 2003)
 * May 15 – Akihiro Miwa, Japanese singer, actor, director, composer, author and drag queen
 * May 27 – Ramsey Lewis, African-American jazz musician and composer (died 2022)
 * June 1 – Hazel Dickens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2011)
 * June 17 – Peggy Seeger, American folk singer
 * June 24 – Terry Riley, American minimalist composer
 * June 25 – Eddie Floyd, African-American soul singer-songwriter
 * June 26 – Dwight York, American singer (Passion)
 * July 1 – James Cotton, African-American harmonica player and singer-songwriter (died 2017)
 * July 5 – Shirley Collins, English folk singer
 * July 8 – Steve Lawrence, American singer (Steve and Eydie)
 * July 9
 * Mercedes Sosa, Argentine singer (died 2009)
 * Mighty Sparrow, Grenadian singer
 * July 12 – Barry Mason, English songwriter (died 2021)
 * July 17
 * Diahann Carroll, American actress and singer (died 2019)
 * Peter Schickele, American composer and classical music parodist
 * July 24 – Les Reed, English songwriter and light orchestra leader (died 2019)
 * July 29
 * Jacques Levy, songwriter (died 2004)
 * Morella Muñoz, mezzo-soprano (died 1995)
 * August 2 – Hank Cochran, country music singer/songwriter (died 2010)
 * August 10 – Giya Kancheli, Soviet and Georgian composer (died 2019)
 * August 15 – Jim Dale, singer-songwriter and actor
 * August 16 – Bobby Mitchell, New Orleans do-wop and R&B singer (died 1986)
 * August 18 – Sir Howard Morrison, concert singer (died 2009)
 * August 21 – Lord Creator, born Kentrick Patrick, calypso singer (died 2023)
 * August 30 – John Phillips, singer, guitarist and songwriter (The Mamas & the Papas) (died 2001)
 * September 1 – Seiji Ozawa, Japanese conductor (died 2024)
 * September 7 – Ronnie Dove, pop and country singer with several chart records throughout the 60s and 70s
 * September 9 – Chaim Topol, singer and performer (Fiddler on the Roof) (died 2023)
 * September 11 – Arvo Pärt, classical composer
 * September 14 – Ángel Medardo Luzuriaga, Ecuadorian musical artist (died 2018)
 * September 19 – Nick Massi, rock bass singer/guitarist (The Four Seasons) (died 2000)
 * September 20 – László Aradszky, Hungarian singer (died 2017)
 * September 21 – Henry Gibson, American actor and singer-songwriter (died 2009)
 * September 22 – Virgilijus Noreika, Lithuanian tenor (died 2018)
 * September 29 – Jerry Lee Lewis, singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2022)
 * September 30
 * Z. Z. Hill, blues singer (died 1984)
 * Johnny Mathis, singer
 * October 1 – Julie Andrews, singer and actress
 * October 5 – Khayyam Mirzazade, Azerbaijani composer and teacher (died 2018)
 * October 12
 * Samuel David Moore, Southern soul and R&B singer (Sam and Dave)
 * Luciano Pavarotti, operatic tenor (died 2007)
 * October 14 – La Monte Young, composer
 * October 15 – Barry McGuire, singer-songwriter
 * October 17 – Michael Eavis, English dairy farmer, founder of the Glastonbury Festival
 * October 20 – Jerry Orbach, musical theatre actor (died 2004)
 * October 21 – Derek Bell, harpist and composer (died 2002)
 * November 4 – Laila Sari, Indonesian comedian and singer (died 2017)
 * November 13 – P. Susheela, Indian playback singer
 * November 17 – Imrat Khan, sitar player (died 2018)
 * November 18 – Alain Barrière, French singer (died 2019)
 * November 27 – Al Jackson, Jr., R&B drummer, producer and songwriter (Booker T. & the M.G.'s) (died 1975)
 * November 30 – Usha Mangeshkar, Indian singer
 * December 23 – Little Esther Phillips, singer (died 1984)
 * December 26 – Abdul "Duke" Fakir, singer (Four Tops)
 * date unknown – Mogens Ellegaard, accordionist (died 1995)

Deaths

 * January 8
 * Jesse Garon Presley, stillborn twin of Elvis Presley
 * Rauf Yekta, Turkish musicologist and author (born 1871)
 * January 9 – Dina Edling, operatic mezzo-soprano (born 1854)
 * January 11 – Marcella Sembrich, coloratura soprano (born 1858)
 * January 13 – Heinrich Schenker, music theorist (born 1868)
 * January 22 – Zequinha de Abreu, musician and composer (born 1880)
 * January 28 – Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, composer (born 1859)
 * February – Alice Esty, operatic soprano (born 1864)
 * February 2 – Clara Smith, blues singer (born c. 1894)
 * February 28 – Chiquinha Gonzaga, composer (born 1847)
 * April 2 – Bennie Moten, jazz pianist and bandleader (born 1894)
 * April 5 – Emil Młynarski, violinist, conductor and composer (born 1870)
 * April 9 – Israel Schorr, cantor (born 1886)
 * April 16 – Victor Ewald, composer (born 1860)
 * April 23 – Georgina Stirling, operatic soprano (born 1866)
 * April 24 – Paul Klengel, pianist, violinist, composer (born 1854)
 * April 29 – Leroy Carr, blues musician (born 1905)
 * May 3 – Charles Manners, operatic bass (born 1857)
 * May 10 – Herbert Witherspoon, operatic bass and opera manager (born 1873)
 * May 16 – Leopold Lichtenberg, violinist (born 1861)
 * May 17 – Paul Dukas, composer (born 1865)
 * May 19 – Charles Martin Loeffler, American composer (born 1861)
 * May 28 – Jelka Rosen, wife of Frederick Delius (born 1868)
 * May 29 – Josef Suk, composer (born 1874)
 * June 6 – Jacques Urlus, operatic tenor (born 1867)
 * June 24 – in an air crash in Colombia:
 * Carlos Gardel, tango singer (born 1890)
 * Alfredo Le Pera, lyricist (born 1900)
 * July 21 – Honoré Dutrey, jazz trombonist (born c. 1894)
 * August 2 – Isidore de Lara, composer (born 1858)
 * August 20 – Otakar Ostrčil, composer and conductor (born 1879)
 * August 21 – Marjorie White, actress, singer and dancer (born 1904) (in a car crash)
 * September 11 – Evelyn Hoey, torch singer (born 1910) (suicide)
 * September 20 – Amy Sherwin, operatic soprano (born 1855)
 * September 23 – DeWolf Hopper, US actor and singer (born 1858)
 * October 4 – Marie Gutheil-Schoder, operatic soprano (born 1874)
 * October 13 – Dranem, French singer and music hall entertainer (born 1869)
 * October 22 – Komitas, exiled Armenian priest and ethnomusicologist (born 1869)
 * November 16 – Kurt Schindler, conductor and composer (born 1882)
 * November 18 – Anton Hekking, cellist (born 1856)
 * November 27 – Charlie Green, jazz trombonist (born c. 1900)
 * November 28 – Erich von Hornbostel, musicologist (born 1877)
 * December 4 – Johan Halvorsen, violinist, conductor and composer (born 1864)
 * December 9 – Nina Grieg, soprano and wife of Edvard Grieg (born 1845)
 * December 12 – Cora S. Briggs, organist and composer (born 1859)
 * December 24 – Alban Berg, composer (born 1885)

Awards

 * Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition – Ginette Neveu

title: 1935 in music


text:
William Lily (grammarian)

William Lily (or William Lilly or Lilye; c. 1468 – 25 February 1522) was an English classical grammarian and scholar. He was an author of the most widely used Latin grammar textbook in England and was the first high master of St Paul's School, London.

Life
Lily was born in c. 1468 at Odiham, Hampshire and he entered the University of Oxford in 1486. After graduating in arts he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On his return journey he put in at Rhodes, which was still occupied by the knights of St John, under whose protection many Greeks had taken refuge after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. He then went on to Italy, where he attended the lectures of Angelus Sabinus, Sulpitius Verulanus and Pomponius Laetus at Rome, and of Egnatius at Venice.

After his return he settled in London—where he became friends with Thomas More—as a private teacher of grammar, and is believed to have been the first who taught Greek in that city. In 1510 John Colet, dean of St Paul's, who was then founding the school which afterwards became famous, appointed Lily the first high master in 1512. Colet's correspondence with Erasmus shows he first offered the position to the Dutchman, who refused it, before considering Lily. Ward and Waller ranked Lily "with Grocyn and Linacre as one of the most erudite students of Greek that England possessed". Lily's pupils included William Paget, John Leland, Antony Denny, Thomas Wriothesley and Edward North, 1st Baron North. The school became a paragon of classical scholarship.

He died of the plague in London on 25 February 1522 and was buried in the north churchyard of Old St Paul's Cathedral. His grave and monument were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. A modern monument in the crypt lists his as one of the important graves lost.

Works
Lily is famous not only as one of the pioneers of Greek learning, but as one of the joint-authors of a book, familiar to many generations of students up to the 19th century, the old Eton Latin grammar or Accidence. This Brevissima Institutio, a sketch by Colet, corrected by Erasmus and worked upon by Lily, contains two portions the author of which is indisputably Lily. These are the lines on the genders of nouns, beginning Propria quae maribus, and those on the conjugation of verbs beginning As in praesenti. The Carmen de Moribus bears Lily's name in the early editions; but Thomas Hearne asserts that it was written by Leland, who was one of his scholars, and that Lily only adapted it. However Erasmus himself stated:

"At Colet's command, this book was written by William Lily, a man of no ordinary skill, a wonderful craftsman in the instruction of boys. When he had completed his work, it was handed over to, nay rather thrust upon, me for emendation. easier for me to do). So that Lily (endowed as he is with too much modesty) did not permit the book to appear with his name, and I (with my sense of candour) did not feel justified that the book should bear my name when it was the work of another. Since both of us refused our names it was published anonymously, Colet merely commending it in a preface."

An edition published in 1534 was entitled Rudimenta Grammatices. Various other parts were added and a stable form finally appeared in 1540. In 1542 Henry VIII authorised it as the sole Latin grammar textbook to be used in education and schools; it has been suggested that Henry commissioned the book but the interval between initial publication and authorisation argue against this. With corrections and revisions, it was used for more than three hundred years. It was so widely used by Elizabethan scholars that Shakespeare was able to refer to it in the second scene of Act IV of Titus Andronicus, quote from it in the first scene of Act II of Henry IV, Part 1 ("Homo is a common name to all men") and allude to it in the first scene of Act IV of The Merry Wives of Windsor and scene 1 of Act IV of Much Ado about Nothing.

Part of the grammar is a poem, "Carmen de Moribus", which lists school regulations in a series of pithy sentences, using a broad vocabulary, and examples of most of the rules of Latin grammar that were part of an English grammar school curriculum. (See Latin mnemonics.) The poem is an early reinforcement of part of the reading list in Erasmus' De Ratione Studii of the Classical authors who should be included in the curriculum of a Latin grammar school. Specifically, the authors derived from Erasmus are Cicero, Terence, and Virgil.

When John Milton wrote his Latin grammar Accedence Commenc't Grammar (1669), over 60 percent of his 530 illustrative quotations were taken from Lily's grammar.

Besides the Brevissima Institutio, Lily wrote a variety of Latin pieces and translations from Greek, both in prose and verse. Some of the latter are printed along with the Latin verses of Sir Thomas More in Progymnasmata Thomae Mori et Gulielmi Lylii Sodalium (1518). Another volume of Latin verse (Antibossicon ad Gulielmum Hormannum, 1521) is directed against a rival schoolmaster and grammarian, Robert Whittington, who had "under the feigned name of Bossus, much provoked Lily with scoffs and biting verses."

A sketch of Lily's life by his son George Lily was written for Paulus Jovius, who was collecting for his history the lives of the learned men of Great Britain.

title: William Lily (grammarian)