Arthur Johnston was an American composer, arranger, and pianist born on January 10, 1898, in New York City. He began his career as an arranger for Irving Berlin's Music Box Revues and contributed to the Broadway stage before moving to Hollywood, where he became a prolific film composer through the 1930s and 1940s. Johnston's catalog includes numerous songs written for motion pictures, and several have endured as standards in the Great American Songbook. His most famous composition, Pennies From Heaven, written with lyricist Johnny Burke, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song in 1936 and became closely associated with Bing Crosby. My Old Flame, composed with lyricist Sam Coslow, is another widely performed standard. Both tunes are featured on AllSolos. Johnston's other notable works include Cocktails for Two, Moon Song, Just One More Chance, and One, Two, Button Your Shoe, all written with either Coslow or Burke. He also contributed orchestrations to Charlie Chaplin's City Lights. Johnston's gift for warm, singable melodies made his songs natural choices for jazz interpretation, and they have been recorded by artists across multiple generations. He died on May 1, 1954, in Corona del Mar, California.
