Moe Jaffe

Moe Jaffe (October 23, 1901 – December 2, 1972) was a songwriter and bandleader who composed more than 250 songs. He is best known for six: "Collegiate" (which was played by Chico Marx in the movie "Horse Feathers"), "The Gypsy in My Soul", "If I Had My Life to Live Over", "If You Are But a Dream", "Bell Bottom Trousers", and "I'm My Own Grandpa".

Jaffe was born into a Jewish family in Vilnius, Lithuania, which at the time was part of the Russian Empire. Shortly after his birth, the family emigrated to America and settled in Keyport, New Jersey. After graduating from Keyport High School, Jaffe worked his way through the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (class of '23) and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (class of '26) by playing piano and leading a campus dance band, Jaffe's Collegians.

It was the band's theme song, "Collegiate", that turned him toward Tin Pan Alley. Written by Jaffe and fellow student Nat Bonx, "Collegiate" was well known on the campus when Fred Waring (a Pennsylvania State grad) brought his "Pennsylvanians" to play at the university's annual Ivy Ball. Waring received so many requests for the song that he assumed it was published. When he learned that the writers were students, he arranged to meet them. On April 4, 1925, Waring recorded "Collegiate" at the Victor Talking Machine Company studios in Camden, New Jersey. It was one of the first electrical recordings of a song, using an electrical microphone instead of an acoustic horn.

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