Oscar Levant was an American composer, pianist, and entertainer born on December 27, 1906, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He studied composition with Arnold Schoenberg and Joseph Schillinger and maintained a close friendship with George Gershwin that profoundly shaped his musical sensibility. Levant composed across a wide range of forms, including popular songs, Broadway scores, film music, and classical works such as a piano concerto, a sinfonietta, a string quartet, and a sonatina. He scored more than twenty films between 1929 and 1948. His best-known composition is the 1934 jazz standard Blame It on My Youth, written with lyricist Edward Heyman, which has been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Rosemary Clooney, and many others. The tune is featured on AllSolos. Though Levant became equally famous as a wit, actor, and television personality, his compositional work bridged the worlds of commercial songwriting and concert music with distinctive sophistication. He died on August 14, 1972.
