Shelton Brooks

Shelton Brooks
Born	(1886-05-04)May 4, 1886 Amherstburg, Dominion of Canada
Died	Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
Occupation	Popular music and jazz composer

Shelton Brooks (May 4, 1886 – September 6, 1975) was an African American, Canadian born composer of popular music and jazz, who wrote some of the biggest hits of the first third of the 20th century.

Early life and education

Brooks was born in Amherstburg, Canada. His family moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1901.

Career

Brooks sang, played piano, and performed on the vaudeville circuit (notably, as a Bert Williams imitator), as well as having a successful songwriting career. His first hit song was "Some of These Days", which he was able to get to headliner Sophie Tucker in 1909. Tucker adopted it as her theme song, and performed it regularly for the next 55 years.

Brooks starred in several 1920s musical comedies. After the sudden death of his partner Florence Mills in 1927, he stopped appearing in stage shows and pursued a nightclub act. He also had a radio show on the CBS network in the 1930s. In the 1940s he became a regular in Ken Murray's "Blackouts", a long-running salute to burlesque that played in both New York and Los Angeles, California.

Discography

Brooks' works include Some of These Days, At the Darktown Strutters' Ball, I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone, Every Day, All Night Long, Somewhere in France, Swing That Thing, That Man of Mine, There'll Come A Time, and Walkin' the Dog.

See also

• Music of Canada

External links

• Works by Shelton Brooks at Project Gutenberg
• Shelton Brooks at the Internet Movie Database
• Free scores by Shelton Brooks in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)