Jack Strachey was an English composer and songwriter active from the 1920s through the 1950s, best known for co-writing one of the most recorded songs in popular music. Born John Francis Strachey in London in 1894, he began his career writing songs for theatre revues, including contributions to the 1925 Charlot Revue and Frith Shephard's Lady Luck in 1927. His most celebrated composition, These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You), was written in 1936 with lyricist Eric Maschwitz (writing under the pen name Holt Marvell) and co-writer Harry Link. The song debuted in the BBC revue Spread It Abroad after initial publisher disinterest, then found wide popularity through recordings by Benny Goodman and Leslie Hutchinson. It has since been covered by Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Thelonious Monk, and many others, becoming a lasting standard in both jazz and popular music. Strachey also wrote No Orchids for My Lady in 1948, recorded by Frank Sinatra. In the 1940s he shifted his focus toward light orchestral music. Strachey died in 1972 in Brighton, England.
