Dory Previn
| Dory Previn | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Dorothy Veronica Langan |
| Also known as | Dory Langdon Dory Previn Shannon Dory Shannon |
| Born |
October 22, 1925 Rahway or Woodbridge, New Jersey |
| Died | February 14, 2012 (aged 86) Southfield, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, lyricist |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Labels |
Verve United Artists Warner Bros. Records |
Dory Previn (born Dorothy Veronica Langan; October 22, 1925 – February 14, 2012) was an American lyricist, singer-songwriter and poet.
During the late 1950s and 1960s she was a lyricist on songs intended for motion pictures and, with her then husband, André Previn, received several Academy Award nominations. In the 1970s, after their divorce, she released six albums of original songs and an acclaimed live album. Previn's lyrics from this period are characterized by their originality, irony and honesty in dealing with her troubled personal life as well as more generally about relationships, sexuality, religion and psychology. Until her death, she continued to work as a writer of song lyrics and prose.
Previn was born in either Rahway or Woodbridge, New Jersey and grew up in Woodbridge, the eldest daughter in a strict Catholic family of Irish origin. She had a troubled relationship with her father, especially during childhood. He had served in the First World War and been gassed, and experienced periods of depression and violent mood swings. He tended to alternately embrace and reject her, but supported her when she began to show talents for singing and dancing. However, his mental health deteriorated after the birth of a second daughter, culminating in a paranoid episode in which he boarded the family up in their home and held them at gunpoint for several months. Previn's childhood experiences, described in her autobiography Midnight Baby, had a profound effect on her later life and work.
After high school, she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts for a year before financial difficulties forced her to leave. She toured as a chorus-line dancer and singer and started to write songs. She later wrote, "I have been an actress, model, and chorus girl. I've worked at odd jobs--secretary, salesgirl, accounting in a filling station, waitress--anything to keep me going while I pursued my writing." At this time, she entered a brief first marriage which soon ended in divorce.
Through a chance contact with film producer Arthur Freed, she gained a job as a lyricist at MGM. There she met, and began collaborating with, composer André Previn. In 1958, as Dory Langdon, she recorded an album of her songs, The Leprechauns Are Upon Me, with André Previn and jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell accompanying her, for Verve Records. She married Previn in 1959. The couple collaborated on a number of songs used in motion pictures, including "The Faraway Part Of Town" sung in the film Pepe by Judy Garland, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song in 1960. In 1961 they wrote "One, Two, Three Waltz" for the movie One, Two, Three, and, in 1962, wrote "A Second Chance" for the movie Two for the Seesaw, which won them a second Oscar nomination. They also wrote songs recorded by Rosemary Clooney, Chris Connor, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr., Doris Day, Eileen Farrell, Jack Jones, Marilyn Maye, Carmen McRae, Matt Monro, Leontyne Price, Nancy Wilson, Monica Zetterlund and others. In 1964, she and André Previn collaborated with Harold Arlen on "So Long, Big Time!", which was recorded by Tony Bennett. Later in 1966, the song was covered by Carola, accompanied by the Heikki Sarmanto Trio.
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