Nacio Herb Brown was a composer whose songs became cornerstones of early Hollywood musicals and the Great American Songbook. Born Ignacio Herbert Brown in Deming, New Mexico in 1896, he transitioned from business pursuits to full-time composing in the early 1920s. His most prolific period began with Hollywood's transition to sound film in 1928, when his long partnership with lyricist Arthur Freed produced classics including "Singin' in the Rain," "Good Morning," and "The Wedding of the Painted Doll." His song "You Stepped out of a Dream," written with Gus Kahn in 1940, became a widely performed jazz standard. Brown's work helped establish the vocabulary of movie musicals during the golden age of Hollywood. He died in San Francisco in 1964.
