Courtesy of Wikipedia
Charles Louis Strouse (June 7, 1928 – May 15, 2025) was an American composer and lyricist best known for writing the music to the Broadway musicals Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, and Annie.
Charles Louis Strouse, a native of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, was born on June 7, 1928, to Jewish parents, Ethel (née Newman) and Ira Strouse, who worked in the tobacco business. His parents suffered from physical and mental health issues, and the family found respite from their troubles when they would sing songs together at the piano, which his mother played. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied under Arthur Berger, David Diamond, Aaron Copland, and Nadia Boulanger. He had initially aspired to a career in classical music, but Boulanger assured him that his talent for “light music” was valuable, saying “to make someone forget illness and suffering is also a calling.”His rare, happy childhood memories later inspired the credit sequence of “All in the Family,” in which Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton sit at the piano, singing together.
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