Bud Green

Bud Green (19 November 1897 – 2 January 1981) was an American songwriter.

Green was born in Austria and immigrated to the United States as an infant. Bud Green (Buddy) grew up in Harlem at 108th & Madison Avenue at the turn of the 20th century, the eldest of seven. He dropped out of elementary school to sell newspapers and help the family.

While selling papers, he decided to become a songwriter and started keeping a notebook of poems and rhymes that he thought would be useful someday. He was the brother of writer Hannah Russell (1913 – 2002) (Song About the Sky, who also wrote scores for children's film in London in the late 1950s; see Who's Who in American Women). He was also the brother-in-law of the great lyricist Bob Russell (1914 – 1970), who wrote "Brazil", "Frenesi", "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and many other songs. Green was also the granduncle to Luther Russell, a singer songerwriter in his own right (www.lutherrussell.com).

In his early career, he wrote material for vaudevilles. He was a staff writer for music publishers and wrote Broadway stage scores as well as songs for other musicals.

By 1928, he had written "Alabamy Bound" and "That's My Weakness Now", which became a huge hit for Ukulele Ike and Helen Kane. Kane's version including the suggestive scat phrase "boop boop ba doo." This line and Kane's stage persona made the song synonymous with the flapper era. Kane and the song became the inspiration for the Betty Boop cartoons that debuted in 1930. The song was self-published by Green and Sam H. Stept. They were in the Brass Rail Building at 745, 7th Avenue. They then went to Hollywood to work for the movie industry. He and Stept eventually sold their company to Warner Bros. and returned to New York.

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