Don Raye

Most songwriters of the 1930s never figured -- or even planned on figuring -- in the history of rock & roll. A few bluesmen got lucky (and Big Joe Williams and Willie Dixon got really lucky, as performers and composers); and every so often Irving Berlin's or Cole Porter's publishers would luck out when some rock or country artist decided to try their hand at something more sophisticated, but generally there wasn't a huge amount of cross-fertilization between the decades. Then there's the case of Don Raye. Never a figure ranked anywhere near Berlin or Porter, or the Gershwins...